Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » Scientific Advisory Board;

Inovio Biomedical Corp. (INO) Announces Product Information at Vaccine Conference

QualityStocks — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:04:31 +0000

Leading DNA vaccine discovery company, Inovio Biomedical Corporation announced that their Scientific Advisory Board Chairman, Dr. David B. Weiner, highlighted advances in the company’s leading electroporation-delivered SynCon™ DNA vaccines at the AIDS Vaccine 2009 Conference in Paris. The study, led by Dr. Weiner’s team at the University of Pennsylvania, included collaborators from Inovio and Merck. The [...]

DANR, PWRM, NWMT Stock-PR August 26, 2009 Stock Headlines

Stock-PR — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:45:21 +0000

Las Vegas CRWENewswire.com is pleased to announce a stock highlight on Dana Resources (OTC.BB:DANR), Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB:PWRM), NewMarket Technology, Inc. (Pinksheets:NWMT) Dana Resources (OTC.BB:DANR), a US-based precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the initiation of the production program at its Collota gold deposit. Dana Resources currently owns and operates seven [...]

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! 8/11/09, ALL, RTN, TSTF, VCRT, N, SFSF

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:23:11 +0000

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! Tuesday August 11, 2009 ************************************************************** Allstate (NYSE: ALL), the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer, is reaching out to job-seekers - especially entrepreneurs investigating second careers. The company has launched a recruitment campaign to attract successful, self-motivated entrepreneurs for a career as an Allstate Exclusive Agent. Raytheon Company (NYSE: [...]

FDA, Clinical Trial Updates: Pro-Pharma (OTC:PRWP) Looks Promising

Bullish Bankers — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:00:21 +0000

Below is a summary of updates to the BioMedReports.com database of over 200 entries included in the FDA and Clinical Trial Calendars. The FDA Calendar includes companies with pending new drug, biological agent, or medical device new product decisions at the FDA sorted by their PDUFA decision deadline dates while the Clinical Trial Calendar encompasses pending [...]

BioNeutral Group, Inc. (BONU.OB) Meets Global Demand to Clean Fossil Burning Emissions and Greenhouse Gasses

QualityStocks — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:02:16 +0000

BioNeutral Group, Inc.’s proprietary Ogiene(TM) formulation is able to entrap and deliver the active chemical environment needed to eradicate a variety of noxious and toxic gases that harm the planet and threaten all who live on it. “This is a multi billion dollar opportunity and the impact will be extremely positive for countless industries across [...]

Oil & Gas Industry – Industry Outlook

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:41:49 +0000

While downside risks remain, the overall outlook for the oil sector has improved in recent days, owing largely to the tentative signs of a supply response to anemic global demand. With demand falling sharply due to worldwide economic problems, inventories started building at a faster rate since last fall.

In response, OPEC (which accounts for roughly 40% of all oil supplies) announced a number of production cuts. While there was ample skepticism early on regarding OPEC's ability to enforce the announced cuts, recent evidence suggests a significant level of compliance within the cartel.

As such, while oil prices over the coming weeks will track the outlook for the global economy, the commodity's improved supply situation is expected to help prices consolidate around current levels.

Natural gas, on the other hand, is a North American story and developments here over the coming months will determine its outlook.

On balance, we see more upside potential than downside risk in the sector.

OPPORTUNITIES

The risk-reward trade-off for a number of sub-sectors remains very compelling, in our view. The large-cap integrateds, oilfield services and offshore drilling sub-sectors offer lucrative opportunities at current levels.

The relatively low-risk energy conglomerate business structures of the large-cap integrateds, with their fortress balance sheets, ample free cash flows even in a low oil price environment, and growing dividends are well suited for uncertain times like these. Our preferred names in this group remain Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX).

The underlying business fundamentals of oilfield service companies, particularly those with an international focus and deepwater-capable drilling contractors still remain robust. We like Schlumberger (SLB) and Baker-Hughes (BHI) in the oilfield service space, and our preferred deepwater drillers remain Transocean (RIG) and Diamond Offshore (DO). We like Pride (PDE) as an emerging and relatively under-appreciated deepwater driller.

WEAKNESSES

We strongly feel that industry players in the servicing and drilling ends of the business with substantial natural gas-focused and North America-centric operations should be avoided.

The two major sub-sectors that fit that description would be the onshore drillers and service players with heavy pressure pumping operations. We believe that pricing and margins for operators in these two sub-sectors will remain under pressure through 2010, even as the outlook for natural gas price improves.

Halliburton (HAL), the largest North American pressure pumping player, and BJ Services (BJS), one the largest in this category, need to be avoided. We also have Sell recommendations for Nabors (NBR) and Patterson-UTI (PTEN), two major North American land drillers.

Zacks Investment Research

FNF’s Volume Much Higher – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:32:35 +0000

Fidelity National Financial Inc (FNF) shares are experiencing unusually high trading volume. The Jacksonville-based company's stock jumped over 6% at noon.

Zacks Investment Research

OMGI Trades below Average Volume – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:31:49 +0000

Orion Marine Group Inc (OMGI) shares recorded an unusually low trading volume today. Shares rose almost 1% at $12.10 in the afternoon trading.

Zacks Investment Research

Inflation or Deflation? – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:30:31 +0000

Highlights include Apartment Investment (AIV), Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA), Marriott International (MAR) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT).

The specter that has been haunting the markets is the specter of deflation. Those concerns have been partially assuaged by the release yesterday of the Producer Price Index (PPI) and of the Consumer Price Index today (CPI). The CPI came in at an increase of 0.4% on a headline basis, following a 0.3% rise in January.

The increase was largely the result of higher energy costs, particularly for gasoline. Prior to these back-to-back increases, the headline CPI had declined for 3 straight months, by 0.8% in December and October, and by 1.7% in November. The fears that we were headed into deflation were clearly not unfounded.

However, those declines were due to the collapse in energy prices. The Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, has been low and stable over the past 7 months, never rising more than 0.2% and never actually dipping into negative territory. The core CPI came in at 0.2% in both January and February.

Digging deeper, the housing portion of the index was unchanged for the 3rd straight month. At least this means that rents are not falling on a nationwide basis, and alleviates some of the concerns that investors in Apartment REITs like Apartment Investment (AIV) and Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA). If they were, the potential future declines in housing prices would increase.

The "lodging away from home" part is another story. Hotel prices fell 1.8% for the month, and marked the 5th straight decline. This is clearly not good news for firms like Marriott (MAR) and Starwood (HOT).

So are we out of the deflationary woods?

The PPI data provides mixed signals in that regard. Unlike the CPI, it is reported at several different levels: Finished, Intermediate and Crude. Think of them as Bread, Flour and Wheat.

The finished goods level ("bread") is the one that is most widely reported in the press, and like the CPI is reported on both a headline and a core basis. Headline PPI rose 0.1% in February, down rather sharply from a 0.8% rise in January. However, prior to January, it had been in a steep decline, with 5 straight negative numbers, including back-to-back 2.6% declines in October and November, and a 1.9% drop in December.

Keep in mind that these are month-to-month changes, not seasonally adjusted annual rates. Thus, those declines are very large indeed.

However, as with the CPI, those declines were mostly due to the path of Energy prices. On a core basis, there has been only one decline in the PPI over the last year, and that was a 0.1% decline in November. In February, core PPI came in at 0.2% following a 0.4% rise in January. Well so far so good -- looks like deflation has been avoided, especially when one excludes energy prices.

The problem comes when you look farther back up the chain. At the intermediate goods level ("flour") prices fell 0.9% in February following a 0.7% decline in January. The February decline marked 7 straight months of falling prices. Even so, the declines were noticeably smaller in the first 2 months of this year than they were in the 4th quarter of last year when they were falling by at least 4.0% per month. Even when you strip out food and energy prices, at the intermediate level deflation seems to have a fairly firm grip. On a core basis, intermediate goods prices have been down for 5 straight months.

The picture is even more extreme at the crude goods level ("wheat") which is not unusual; crude goods prices are essentially commodities and tend to swing wildly in price. On a headline basis, crude goods are down for 7 straight months, including a 4.5% drop in February which followed a 2.9% decline in January. However, once food and energy prices are stripped away, crude goods rose 1.5% in February following a 0.1% rise in January.

All in all, the low but positive inflation we are seeing is good news for the economy and the markets. It will take a few months to be absolutely sure that the potential deflationary storm has passed, but so far, so good.

Read the full analyst report on "AIV"
Read the full analyst report on "MAA"
Read the full analyst report on "MAR"
Read the full analyst report on "HOT"
Zacks Investment Research

Allied World Breaks Out – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:23:09 +0000

Allied World Assurance Holdings Ltd.(AWH) jumped nearly 5% at midday to break through a short-term level of resistance at $38.04. This Zacks#1 Rank (Strong buy) stock is now trading above both indicators and its natural support level at $36.74. AWH beat the consensus estimate in 3 of the last 4 quarters.

Zacks Investment Research

NJR Near 200-day MA – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:07:09 +0000

New Jersey Resources Corp.(NJR) advanced more than 3% at noon and was pressuring its 200-day moving average of $35.53. NJR is a Zacks#1 Rank (Strong buy) stock. Analysts, on average, see the company's earnings per share growing by 6.76% in fiscal 2009.

Zacks Investment Research

Save AIG, Save the World (So Far) – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:05:55 +0000

Highlights include American International Group, Inc. (AIG), Societe Generale (GLE), Deutsche Bank (DB), UBS (UBS) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

The Government's Backdoor to Propping Up the Financial System?

Members of the President's administration, Timothy Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury), Barney Frank (Democrat House Representative and Chairman of the Financial Services Committee) and others are pontificating upon the "Audacity of Bonuses" paid by AIG Insurance (AIG) to managers and other employees viewed as being responsible for creating the problem after and resulted in the need for the company to receive $173 billion in U.S. government bailout funds so far.

However, we suspect the more important issue to focus on is this: that by not letting AIG fail and pay on its counter-party agreements, the US government was, in effect, propping up not only the banking system of our country, but other countries as well.

From September 16 through December 31, 2008, the company paid more than $90.0 billion to various banks. Some of these included European entities such as (but not limited to) Societe Generale (GLE), Deutsche Bank (DB), UBS (UBS), Calyon and Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, U.S. entities such as Goldman Sachs (GS), as well as payments on Guaranteed Investment Agreements held by cities across the country to include but not limited to those in California, Virginia and New York.

We suspect that potential for additional payments to have been made by AIG since is high. However, we would note that had the U.S. not stepped in to prevent AIG from going under, the losses that could have been experienced by financial entities in 3Q-4Q09 would have rippled around the world -- resulting in a number of financial behemoths failing (at worst) or being significantly crippled for years, creating an even deeper retrenchment of economies and financial markets globally than we have experienced to date.

Therefore, keeping AIG around has been a necessity.

Read the full analyst report on "DB"
Read the full analyst report on "UBS"
Zacks Investment Research

Teekay Shipping Stays Afloat – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:43:56 +0000

We are maintaining our Hold on Teekay Corporation (TK), but reducing our target price to $15. TK reported 3rd quarter EPS of $1.29 before nonrecurring items, above consensus and our estimate of $1.12, largely reflecting higher-than-expected revenue growth.

We are cutting our 2008 diluted EPS estimate to $3.75 from $4.00, as well as our 2009 estimate to $1.15 from $2.75, as we have moderated our revenue assumptions. Results should reflect the impact of global economic weakening on both spot rates and shipping volumes. We note that TK released restated financial results for the first half related to changes in the accounting treatment for long-term incentive compensation.

TK recently announced a 15% increase in the annual dividend rate to $1.265 and a $200 million stock repurchase plan. However, we would not be surprised to see a dividend cut and suspension of stock repurchases in the event of a protracted economic downturn.
Read the full analyst report on "TK"
Zacks Investment Research

WBD Swings to a 4Q Loss – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:43:44 +0000

Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC (WBD) swung to a fourth quarter net loss of $7.9 million as results were impacted by the ruble's devaluation against the US dollar. The Russian dairy products and juice manufacturer had earned a profit of $34.4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue this quarter shrunk 7.4% to $629.4 million from $680 million. Meanwhile, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization climbed to $79.2 million from $71.2 million.

Full-year earnings were reduced to $101.7 million, compared with the previous year's net income of $140 million.

WBD did not issue any guidance for 2009, citing the fragile economic outlook.

Shares of this Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") stock are down more than 5% today.

"WBD" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

MGM Shares Down on Q4 Results – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:41:52 +0000

Shares of MGM Mirage (MGM) moved lower this morning after the Las Vegas-based casino operator posted lackluster fourth-quarter results late Tuesday.

MGM Mirage earned 10 cents per share for the quarter, while the consensus estimate was pegged at 17 cents.

The company, which had earlier warned that it might violate debt covenants, said on Tuesday that it repaid $300 million to its lenders for a waiver on its senior credit facility through May 15.

MGM is a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") stock.

"MGM" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

Fed Announces Bold Measures – Analyst Blog

Charles Rotblut — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:35:04 +0000

The big news from the Fed today was its intention to buy more debt-related securities.

Specifically, the Fed will purchase up to an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities. Furthermore, the Fed will purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months.

The announcement was a surprise not only because of the decision to actually buy treasuries, but also because of the sharp increase in the amount of money being spent to buy agency debt. The Fed is more than doubling the size of its purchase programs.

This is a bold move and is specifically designed to push yields down and make credit widely available.

The markets are clearly applauding the move with stocks soaring. Financial stocks, such as Hartford Financial Services (HIG) and Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) added to their intraday gains. Cyclical stocks, like Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNI) and Nordstrom Inc. (JWN), which had been down before the announcement, are also rebounding.

Still, investors have to wonder what took the Fed so long and what are they seeing that has them moving into near panic mode. Today's announcement will not have an immediate impact on the economy, but it does set the stage for high inflation once the economy recovers. Nonetheless, the risk of not taking bold action now far outweighs the potential problems we'll have to deal with later.

Let's hope today's annoucement moves the economy closer towards a recovery over the next several months.

The vote for today's actions was unanimous.

Read the Fed statement.

Read the full analyst report on "BNI"
Read the full analyst report on "HIG"
Read the full analyst report on "JWN"
Read the full analyst report on "HBAN"
Zacks Investment Research

PetroChina Remains Expensive – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:18:17 +0000

PetroChina Company Ltd. (PTR) is the largest integrated oil company in China. The company's activities include: the exploration, development, production and sale of crude oil and natural gas; the refining, transportation, storage and marketing of petroleum products; the manufacture and sale of chemical products; and the transmission of natural gas, crude oil and refined products.

PetroChina ADRs have been weak in recent days, in line with the rest of the group, due to the pullback in crude oil prices and the broad turmoil in global markets. But they are hardly cheap. Based on most conventional valuation metrics, the ADRs are currently trading at a premium to the Chinese and other emerging market peers.

We are maintaining our Hold recommendation on PetroChina ADRs ahead of year-end 2008 results, though we have lowered our estimates to reflect a lower commodity-price deck. Our new 2009 earnings per ADR estimate is $5.78, down from $8.80. We have also introduced our 2010 estimate at $6.95.

PetroChina's leverage to the Chinese market is expected to help sustain its growth momentum. But market distorting fuel price caps and heavy taxes offset most, if not all, of the Chinese market positives, in our view.
Read the full analyst report on "PTR"
Zacks Investment Research

HST Global, Inc. (HSTC.OB) Strengthens Scientific Board with New Member

QualityStocks — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:02:04 +0000

HST Global, Inc. announced earlier this month that Dr. Kyl Smith has joined its Scientific Board. Much of Dr. Smith’s visibility has been earned in the world of natural medicine. He is a noted researcher, inventor, lecturer, author and scientist, and is known as the inventor of Focus Factor®, the number-one selling brain support product [...]

Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. (KBLB.OB) Makes Significant Breakthrough in the Labs

QualityStocks — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:01:31 +0000

Earlier this month, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories announced that its scientific team, including Dr. Malcolm Fraser, Dr. Wang, Dr. Sohn, and other members, have found a process capable of doubling the number of gene transfers performed, greatly increasing productivity of the spider silk and high performance polymer development program. Kraig Biocraft is focused on developing and [...]