For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 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: Toyota Motors (TM), Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PBR), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Toyota’s 1st Sales Gain in 15 Months

Toyota Motors (TM) has posted its first year-over-year monthly sales gain across the globe in 15 months during October. The company’s sales rose 4% to more than 630,000 vehicles. In the U.S., the company’s sales fell 3.5%.

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Brazilian energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PBR), or Petrobras S.A. announced encouraging third quarter results, helped by strong performance from the Supply segment. Earnings per ADR came in at R$1.66 (96 cents), comfortably beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 80 cents. However, on a year-over-year basis, Petrobras’ earnings per ADR was down approximately 28.7%, hurt by lower prices of oil and natural gas. Still, they were better than the high double-digit earnings decline suffered by other majors such as ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX), and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A).   Upstream   Total oil and gas production during the third quarter of 2009 reached 2,534 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, from 2,524 million in the previous quarter and 2,437 million in the same period of 2008. Compared to the third quarter of 2008, Brazilian oil and natural gas liquids production increased 4.8%, while ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 4, 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: Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO), Exxon (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP), Chevron (CVX) and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s AnalystBlog:

Marathon Beats, Production Up

Marathon Oil Corporation’s (MRO) third-quarter 2009 results came in better-than-expected, helped by the contribution from increased oil and natural gas production. Earnings per share, excluding mark-to-market and divestment losses, came in at 61 cents, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 56 cents.

However, as

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Marathon Oil Corporation’s (MRO) third-quarter 2009 results came in better-than-expected, helped by the contribution from increased oil and natural gas production. Earnings per share, excluding mark-to-market and divestment losses, came in at 61 cents, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 56 cents. However, as has been the case with the other oil majors that have already reported -- Exxon (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Chevron (CVX) -- earnings and revenue comparisons with the year-earlier period were quite ugly, severely hampered by lower realized commodity prices and weak refining margins. Marathon’s adjusted earnings per share plunged 77.9%, while sales declined 37.9% to $14.5 billion. Lower Prices More Than Offset Increased Upstream Volumes Income from the upstream segment totaled $491 million during the quarter, down 43.5% from the year-ago level. The company reported production (available for sale) of 393,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day (BOE/d), ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 30, 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: Moody’s (MCO), Microsoft (MSFT), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s AnalystBlog:

GDP Notes – In Depth

With massive amounts of space sitting idle in offices and empty strip malls littering the landscape, look for new investment in commercial real estate to continue to decline in coming quarters. Moody’s (MCO) has estimated that the value of commercial real estate has plunged by

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ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) reported third quarter 2009 earnings of 98 cents per share, below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.04 and year-earlier earnings of $2.58. Though the earnings came in below expectations, the company maintained its quarterly dividend of 42 cents per share and repurchased $4 billion worth of XOM common stock. With a sound cash position, solid credit profile and diversity of its asset base, both in terms of business mix as well as geographical footprint, Exxon remains better positioned than any of its peers. The steep fall in oil prices and weak product margins caused a 65% drop in earnings from the year-earlier quarter to $4.7 billion. The production of oil and natural gas averaged 3.69 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, up approximately 3% year over year. When adjusted for the impact of entitlement volumes and OPEC quota restrictions, production was up about 5%. ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 12, 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: Ford (F), Honda (HMC), Caterpillar (CAT), Boeing (BA) and Chevron Corp. (CVX).

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Trade Deficit Improves

While the year-over-year improvement in the trade deficit is very good news, the reason for it is not so good. It was a reflection of the overall collapse in world trade, something that makes everyone poorer. As far as the GDP calculations are concerned, it does not make any difference

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Yesterday, Houston-based integrated oil major Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO) provided an interim update for the third quarter of 2009 (covering the first two months of the quarter). Recovery in crude oil prices is expected to benefit the company's upstream segment, while the downstream business will see higher refinery output and throughputs. The company plans to release its quarterly results on November 3, 2009. Upstream Marathon expects third-quarter oil and natural gas production available for sale from continuing operations to average 395,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day (BOE/d), which is within the company's guidance for the quarter. This is below the previous quarter’s output of 411,000 BOE/d but above the year-ago production of 389 BOE/d and closer to the high end of its 380,000–400,000 BOE/d guidance. Marathon's realized oil price domestically averaged $60.59 per barrel, up 14% sequentially, but down 43% year-over-year. The company's domestic realized price was ...

Yesterday, after the market close, Chevron Corp. (CVX) released its third-quarter interim update, covering the first two months of the quarter. On the whole, the update is positive, with earnings expected to be higher than in the previous quarter. The company expects the upstream segment to benefit from an increase in crude oil prices as well as from gains of about $400 million associated with asset sales and tax items. Downstream results are likely to be relatively flat, as it continues to be hurt by weak refining margins. Chevron further said that unfavorable foreign currency movements will affect the segment profitability. Upstream The best part of the update pertained to upstream volumes, highlighting Chevron’s attractive growth profile among the super-majors. The company reported that oil and natural gas production average 2.687 million oil-equivalent barrels per day – better than estimates and nearly 10% above ...

Earlier today, Texas-based energy producer Cano Petroleum Inc. (CFW) announced its merger with independent oil and gas development and production company Resaca Exploitation Inc. in a tax-free stock-for-stock deal. The merged entity will operate under the Resaca name. The transaction is currently awaiting regulatory and shareholder approval and is expected to close within three to five months. The current stockholders of Cano will own approximately 50% of the combined company, with Resaca shareholders owning the rest.  Under the terms of the agreement, Cano investors will exchange each of their shares for 2.1 shares of Resaca common stock. Based on Resaca’s pre-announcement closing price, the deal implies total consideration to Cano shareholders of $76 million or $1.67 per Cano share and $3.34 per proved barrel of oil equivalent. The merged entity will have its corporate offices in Houston, where Resaca is currently located (Cano is headquartered in Fort

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