Brigham Exploration Company announced the completion of a well on its Bakken Shale acreage. Brigham Exploration Company has a 31% working interest in the well.

The Lee 16-21 #1H had an initial production rate during its first 24 hours of production of approximately 1,544 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), composed of 1,341 barrels of oil and 1.22 million cubic feet of natural gas.

“We’re very pleased with the early production performance of our Lee well. It’s our fifth consecutive long lateral, multi-stage completion in our approximate 100,000 net acres in Rough Rider, with early peak production rates averaging approximately 1,752 barrels of oil equivalent per day,” said Bud Brigham, the CEO of Brigham Exploration Company.

Brigham Exploration Company said the well was completed using a multi stage hydraulic fracturing operation. Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water and other fluids into the well to stimulate and increase production.

The well is located on the company’s

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This morning Trans Union, the big credit bureau, released its quarterly report on mortgage delinquencies, and it was not pretty. Nationwide, 6.25% of all residential mortgages were at least 60 days past due in the third quarter, up from 5.81% in the second quarter and 3.96% a year ago. This was the 11th straight quarter that delinquencies increased. Mortgage delinquencies are the first step in a house eventually going into foreclosure, so look for those to start heading up again. Foreclosures have been held down by trial modifications under the HEMP program, but very few of those have gotten to the stage of being final modifications. And even when mortgages are modified, there is a strong tendency for those people to again find themselves in financial trouble. Clearly people not paying on their mortgages is not good news for the big banks like Bank of America (BAC) ...

In September, the trade deficit expanded to $36.5 billion -- an increase of $5.7 billion or 18.5% over August. This was a much bigger increase than was expected, as consensus expectations were for a deficit of $31.8 billion. Since the trade deficit is a direct input into the GDP calculations, look for the next iteration of the third quarter GDP numbers to be revised down from the original read of 3.5% growth. The reason for the growth in the trade deficit is also a bit of a silver lining. It happened because imports rose by $9.3 billion to $168.4 billion, while exports rose by $3.7 billion. The increase in both imports and exports indicates that world trade -- which is very important to global growth -- is on the mend. A 5.8% monthly increase is unusual, but is probably a reflection of higher overall demand in the ...

Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. (EEP) reported its third quarter earnings of 86 cents per unit, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 60 cents. The company’s profit stood at 71 cents in the year-ago period.

Total revenues for the quarter decreased nearly 51% year over year to $1.36 billion. The partnership declared an unchanged cash distribution of 99 cents per unit or $3.96 per unit annualized.

Volume in the partnership’s liquid systems increased 8.3% year over year to 2,055 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d). All three of the partnership’s liquid systems (Lakehead, Mid-Continent and North Dakota) contributed to this year over year positive volume comparison. These systems accounted for 83%, 12% and 5%, respectively, of the total liquids transported during the quarter.

Operating income in the Liquids segment increased more than 37% year over year to $132.7 million, primarily driven by transportation rate increases in connection with the completion of stage 2 of

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 10, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: JP Morgan Chase (JPM), U.S. Bancorp (USB), Zions Bancorp (ZION), SunTrust Banks (STI) and PNC Financial (PNC).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Bank Failure Tally Reaches 120

The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Ameris Bank, Moultrie, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of United Security Bank; Liberty Bank and Trust Company, New Orleans, Louisiana, to assume all of the deposits of Home Federal Savings Bank;

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Regulators shut down 5 more banks in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and California; tally hits 120 so far this year  U.S. regulators on Friday shuttered five more institutions in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and California , as the recession continues to take its toll on banks. This takes the total number to 120, compared to 25 in 2008 and 3 in 2007.  As the industry has to tolerate bad loans that were made during the credit explosion, the trouble in the banking system goes even deeper, increasing the possibility of more failures. However, the regulators are trying to avoid panic by seizing banks slowly. Also, the slow pace of seizing could be a strategy as it is hard to get buyers for so many failed banks.  The failed banks were -- Georgia-based United Security Bank of Sparta with total assets of $157 million and total deposits ...

EOG Resources Inc. (EOG) reported third-quarter earnings of 81 cents per share, compared with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 65 cents and a year-ago profit of $2.34. Before adjusting one-time items, earnings were 2 cents per share. Despite an increase in production volumes, earnings were down from the year-earlier level due primarily to significantly lower commodity price realizations.

Total volumes during the quarter increased approximately 4% year-over-year to 195.9 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe), or 2,129 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), 76% of which was natural gas and 24% liquids. Natural gas volumes decreased 3% year-over-year, led by an approximately 6% decrease in the U.S. volumes to 1,128 MMcf/d, and more than 2% decrease in Canadian volumes to 219 MMcf/d.

Crude oil and condensate production during the quarter was 59.5 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d), up nearly 23% from the year-ago level. This was primarily driven by a

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Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. closed on its direct registered offering of 6.5 million shares of its common stock. The company sold the shares at a price of $9.12, and received $56.2 million in net proceeds.

Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. said it would use the funds for working capital, to repay borrowings on its credit line, and possibly pursue acquisitions if any attractive assets could be found.

Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. is an exploration and production company headquartered in Wayzata, Minnesota. The company has three main areas of operations:

Bakken Shale – Northern Oil and Gas has 70,000 net acres under lease in Mountrail County, North Dakota. The company has a 100% success rate here, and has at least 220 future drilling locations.

Trenton/Black River – Northern Oil and Gas has 10,000 net acres in a leasehold in Yates County, N.Y, with exposure to natural gas.

Red River and Mission Canyon

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Today, Carbonics Capital Corp. announced that Great Plains Oil & Exploration, LLC will lease the company’s oilseed crush plant in Culbertson, Montana. Great Plains will use the facility in further development of their oilseed production program. The announcement follows the execution of an agreement between the companies.

Culbertson consists of oilseed handling, storage and processing infrastructure, including mechanical crush and vegetable oil refining equipment. It has over two million gallons of crude vegetable oil storage, over one million bushels of oilseed storage, and over four thousand tons of meal storage. Additional infrastructure includes a rail siding, truck and rail scales, and major U.S. highway frontage.

The lease presents a lucrative opportunity for Carbonics to expand its business enterprise. In 2008, Culbertson was unable to renew its working capital line of credit, and was therefore unable to complete its purchase of delivered oilseed inventory. After several months of difficult work, and the

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The Conference Boards Index of Consumer Confidence dropped to 47.7 from 53.4 in September. While this is much higher than the readings in the low 20’s earlier this year, it is a very disappointing reading. Both the current situations index, and the expectations for conditions over the next six months dropped. The present situation index fell to 20.7 from 23.0 and now stands at its lowest point since February of 1983, when it hit 17.5. The expectations component had seen a much larger recovery earlier this year, but it dropped from 73.7 last month to 65.7 in October. The number of people who see business as bad increased to 47.1% from 46.3% in September, while the percentage who saw business as good fell to 7.7% from 8.6% in September (where are those 7.7% of people located I wonder -- North Dakota?). The main factor weighing on consumer ...