The Trade Deficit decreased to $36.5 billion in September from $30.8 billion in August.  September exports increased by $3.7 billion to $132.0 billion, offset by the increase in imports by $9.3 billion to $168.4 billion.  The Commerce Department provided the September figures of the trade balance of the U.S. relative to selected trading partners, in billions of dollars, with surpluses in Hong Kong ($1.9), Australia ($0.9), Singapore ($0.3), and Egypt ($0.3).  Deficits were recorded, in billions of dollars, with China ($22.1), OPEC ($7.9),the European Union ($5.5), Mexico ($4.6), Japan ($4.1), Venezuela ($2.0), Nigeria ($1.9), Canada ($1.5), Korea ($0.8), and Taiwan ($0.7).

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TOTAL SA (TOT) reported third-quarter earnings of €0.84 per share ($1.20 per share), above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.12 and second-quarter profit of €0.77. However, earnings declined from €1.81 reported a year ago. Earnings improved sequentially based on higher production, better realizations and lower costs.   Total revenues declined 31% from the year-ago quarter but improved 7% sequentially to €33.6 billion. The decline was caused mainly by lower realized oil and gas prices in the Upstream segment, reduced throughput volumes in the Downstream segment and a revenue decline at the chemicals segment.   Total hydrocarbon production averaged 2,243 thousand barrels of oil equivalent (MBOE) per day, up 0.5% from last year and 2.8% from the previous quarter. The increase was mainly due to production improvements and start-ups of new fields; offset by OPEC reductions and lower gas demand, disruptions in Nigeria, and changes in portfolio essentially in ...

OUTLOOK The improving economic scene, both here in the U.S. as well as worldwide, is the main driver of the current oil rally that has seen the commodity settling around the $80 per barrel level. But high levels of product inventories (particularly gasoline), along with still higher supplies, will limit any sustained crude gains, in our view. But way too many factors weigh on oil prices, from OPEC decisions and geostrategic tensions to the value of the U.S. dollar and seasonal variables, to definitively size up each one of them for their respective impact on prices.  In its latest release, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a less-than-anticipated increase in crude stockpiles, which rose by 800,000 barrels for the week ending October 23. However, current crude oil stocks, at 339.9 million barrels, still remain 9% above the year-earlier level as well as above the upper limit ...

This analysis is from Evan Smith and Brian Hicks, co-managers of the Global Resources Fund (PSPFX). Oil prices have bounced more than 150 percent off of December 2008 lows but inventory levels remain at historically high levels despite a healing global economy. However, Goldman Sachs says robust 2010 oil demand growth will deplete these inventories over the next 12-to-18 months and diminishing production rates in key areas around the world will create a supply/demand imbalance. The above chart shows the decline in production from the worldrsquo;s top 230 projects. After peaking in 2009, production from these projects is set to fall for the next several years. Excluding OPEC countries (right chart), the decline rates quadruple from 2007 to 2012 (est). Over that time period, non-OPEC production is expected to fall by 2.5 million barrels per day. Only Brazil, Canada and the former countries of the Soviet Union are expected to see production growth. One of ...

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).

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 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

...

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%. ...

Rosneft has been fined $180 million by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service for deliberately driving up wholesale prices for gasoline and other oil products in the first half of 2009, and Lukoil was warned that it could face a similar penalty...in which case, it's going to need the $1.5 billion it is trying to raise by selling dollar-denominated debt to international investors.  The state-owned Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant was raided by riot police yesterday as part of a probe into an August flood that killed 75 employees.  Iran agrees with the 'general framework' of the UN-brokered proposal that it send most of its enriched uranium to Russia for processing into reactor fuel, but plans to make some changes.  'One common reaction is: 'If the foreigners are prepared to agree to this, there must be something wrong with this from Iran's point ...

People have been scratching their heads wondering why the price of oil has held up relatively well this year in the face of a global slowdown and decreased energy demand in the United States.

Fundamentalists will point to continued strong demand for oil from emerging markets like China and decreasing oil output from non-OPEC producing nations such as Russia and Mexico. But then we have the conspiracy theorists who say the only reason that oil prices are so high is due solely to huge quantities of oil being held offshore in tankers by those greedy oil companies in order to boost their profits.

First of all, why would anyone want to store oil in tankers and not sell it? After all, it costs money to charter those oil supertankers. Storing oil in tankers does make sense if the price difference between crude oil sold for immediate delivery and the price on oil

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BP plc (BP) reported its third quarter 2009 results of $1.71 per ADS (American Depositary Share), beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.14 on the back of stronger cost controls and increased upstream volumes. However, in comparison with the year-earlier results, earnings fell approximately 34% on lower oil prices. BP’s strong performance sets the stage for earnings releases by ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), which are scheduled to report their results on Thursday and Friday this week, respectively. BP expects its capex budget to be $20 billion for the year. The company’s attractive dividend (currently yielding around 6%) remains unchanged from the year-ago level. We believe that BP’s dividend is safe with the recent uptrend in oil prices. Net cash provided by operating activities for the quarter was $8.1 billion compared with $14.9 billion a year ago. Net debt at the end of ...

Meryn King, the British counterpart to U.S. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, had this to say in a speech yesterday: “The United Kingdom faces two fundamental long-run challenges. First, to rebalance the economy, with more resources allocated to business investment and net exports and fewer to consumption. "That is consistent with the need – now widely accepted – to eliminate the large structural fiscal deficit and to raise the national saving rate. It is part of a need for a wider rebalancing of domestic demand in the world economy away from those countries that borrowed and ran current account deficits towards those that lent and ran surpluses." Everything he has to say about the UK is true in spades for the US. The US. is more dependent on consumption than is the UK and perpetually runs trade (current account) deficits. We need for the US to ...