Pride International Inc. (PDE) completed the spin-off of Seahawk Drilling Inc. – a former subsidiary of Pride that owns 20 mat-supported jackup rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) – as a stock dividend to existing shareholders. For every 15 shares of Pride, stockholders would receive one share of Seahawk, besides a cash payment for fractional shares of Seahawk. Seahawk shares will start trading today under the ticker symbol of “HAWK" on the Nasdaq. The mat-supported jackup market in the GoM has been hit hard by the sharp drop in overall activity levels due to weak natural gas prices and tight credit market conditions. Since experiencing very strong demand in the 2004–2007 period, utilization levels and dayrates have fallen steadily and currently remain at depressed levels. With this spin-off, Pride has completed its multi-year restructuring and asset repositioning program that has transformed it from ...

The world may be headed for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production. The scenario may come true according to Dr. Fatih Birol, the chief energy economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA is charged with the task of assessing future global energy supplies by countries of the OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Recently, the IEA conducted the first-ever assessment of the world’s major 800 oil fields, which cover three quarters of global reserves. The IEA found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago. On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by both oil companies and oil-producing

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Chevron Corp. (CVX) inked a five-year contract with Transocean Ltd. (RIG) for the use of a newly built ultra-deepwater drillship, Discoverer Clear Leader, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The state-of-the-art vessel is the first of two new drillships to be commissioned for Chevron. The second vessel, Discoverer Inspiration, is expected to be ready in early 2010.

Clear Leader features Transocean’s patented dual-activity drilling technology designed to enable parallel drilling operations from a single derrick that saves time and money in deepwater well construction compared with conventional rigs.

Clear Leader is capable of drilling wells in 12,000 feet of water to a total depth of 40,000 feet. It offers advanced deepwater drilling facilities and will enable Chevron to expand the search for new domestic sources of energy.

Chevron’s current oil and gas development project pipeline is among the best in the industry. The company is one of the

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• Kraft (NYSE:KFT) posted second-quarter results 2 cents above projections at 56 cents, as revenues fell 5.9% from a year ago to $10.16 billion, off estimates of $10.37 billion. For the year, the firm issued in-line guidance of $1.93, up from its prior view of $1.88

• Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), whose results were feared likely to show a negative impact from declining consumer spending, reported a one cent better than estimated fourth quarter earnings of 80 cents a share; however, revenues of $18.66 billion were below Street estimates of $19.32 billion.  Fiscal 2010 guidance was issued of $3.65 to $3.80 a share, compared with Street projections of $3.76 a share

• Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) reported inline returns of 43 cents a share on revenues of $2.7 billion, versus estimates of $2.8 billion

• Sony (NYSE:SNE) announced plans for a new e-reader at a low price point of $199 in the US, aimed

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* Nike (NYSE:NKE) reported a worse-than-expected decline in new orders, down 12% through November from a year ago, or 5% excluding currency adjustments. Fourth quarter earnings, however, beat expectations at 99 cents ex-items, three cents ahead of projections, as revenues fell 7% to $4.7 billion

* Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported better-than-expected earnings and revenues with first quarter guidance beating estimates.  The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of 46 cents ex-items, two cents ahead of estimates, as revenues fell 5.2% to $6.86 billion versus estimates of $6.47 billion. First quarter earnings estimates of 31 cents to 33 cents a share beat estimates of 30 cents

* Toyota's (NYSE:TM) new President said the firm is expected to face "two more difficult years"

* Lennar (NYSE:LEN) reported a loss of 76 cents versus a 76 cent loss a year ago, worse than estimates of a 64 cents loss as write downs increased. Revenues fell 20.9% to $892 million

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 25, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research highlights Kroger (KR) as the Bull of the Day and Gerdau S.A. (GGB) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Exxon (XOM), Transocean (RIG) and Ingersoll Rand (IR).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Kroger (KR) reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings per share, beating our estimate by $0.04 per share. We are increasing our EPS estimates for this year and next to reflect the first quarter upside.

For fiscal year 2009, Kroger expects identical-store sales of 3% to 4% and earnings per share of $2.00 to $2.05. That said, we still believe that the company may

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Contraction Slowing, Inflation Not ImmediateThe Fed's statement from this month's meeting is presented below, along with its previous statement from the April meeting and my interpretation and commentary interspersed."Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the pace of economic contraction is slowing. Conditions in financial markets have generally improved in recent months. Household spending has shown further signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Businesses are cutting back on fixed investment and staffing but appear to be making progress in bringing inventory stocks into better alignment with sales."Although economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time, the Committee continues to anticipate that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, ...

With the expected spin-off of its mat-supported jackup fleet in the Gulf of Mexico in the next few months, Pride International (PDE) will become a pure-play deepwater driller. The company plans to complete the spin-off of Seahawk Drilling, the offspring's name, as a stock dividend to existing shareholders.The spin-off will complete Pride's multi-year restructuring and asset repositioning program that has transformed it from a diversified oilfield service and equipment operator to a focused deepwater driller.We believe that growing appreciation of Pride's emergence as a deepwater contractor will aid valuation by bringing its multiples inline with other deepwater operators, such as Transocean (RIG) and Diamond Offshore (DO).Pride's current fleet is comprised of 41 rigs, including 14 deepwater rigs (of which two are ultra-deepwater units) and 27 jackups. The company also has another four ultra-deepwater rigs ...

The New York Times has an article today reporting that domestic Natural Gas reserves are 35% higher than previously estimated due to improved ability to tap deep shale deposits. (Zacks Equity Research senior analyst Sheraz Mian has also posted a blog on this earlier.) This helps explain why natural gas prices are so low relative to oil prices. In terms of energy content, there is a 6:1 ratio between an MCF [thousand cubic feet] of gas and a barrel of oil. At the current futures price of $4.12 an MCF, natural gas is going for the equivalent of only $24.72 a barrel, a massive discount to the current $71.06 price of oil. This will make a very significant difference to your energy investments. At least for the near term, look for E&P companies that are "oily," like Denbury Resources (DNR) rather than "gassy" like ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 18, 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: Weatherford (WFT), Baker Hughes (BHI), Diamond Offshore (DO), Transocean (RIG) and Linktone (LTON).

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 Wednesday's Analyst Blog:

Oil's Inventory Overhang Easing

Given growing concerns about the impact that the recent increase in gasoline prices may have on the emerging economic recovery, the stalling or reversal of gasoline's price momentum can only be termed positive, in our view. We have all along been for a pause in

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