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 FP Trading Desk submits: Oil companies are flush with cash thanks to the recent period of high energy prices. At the same time, reinvestment in their core business has lagged. This could put Calgary in the middle of a consolidation wave for the sector. The world’s top five oil companies finished the third quarter with C$62-billion in cash and annual cash flow of C$232-billion, according to Canaccord Adams. As a result, it expects an increased focus on M&A in the coming year. Canada and the oil sands in particular, could get a lot of attention since it offers meaningful reserve and production growth in a reasonably stable fiscal environment. Complete Story »
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Mike Havrilla submits:As a follow-up to the top rated companies highlighted from the ETF Innovators ((ETFI)) healthcare and transport indexes, below are some top rated companies from other sectors and industry groups.
From the Global Tobacco Index, Altria Group (MO) is a top rated stock with a dividend yield near 8% which is set to acquire smokeless tobacco maker UST Inc. (UST) early next year and is poised to capitalize on a strong U.S. Dollar (UUP) compared to the international operations of Philip Morris (PM). Complete Story »
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Andrew Mickey submits:Now is a good time to buy. The world financial crisis and slumping oil prices have made energy assets more attractive.
Complete Story »
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Michael Fitzsimmons submits:Gasoline has fallen to $1.99 a gallon here in my neck of the woods. Everyone seems to be really happy about this. However, it will come as no surprise to my faithful readers that I can even find problems with cheap gasoline! Cheap oil and gasoline will simply reinforce the uninformed American public's opinion that they have an inalienable right to oil which is both plentiful and cheap. Read some of the editorials in the latest financial magazines and you will see that $145/barrel oil and $4.50/gal gasoline have already been long forgotten (it was only 6 months ago). So what do I propose? Well, at a time when the US government is printing trillions of US dollars to, as Jim Rogers says, "transfer money from the competent (the US tax-payer) to the incompetent (bankers, Wall Streeters, insurance & automotive execs)", and since the US dollar is strong (?), why not use some of these paper dollars to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? I mean, if Bush thought buying oil at over $100/barrel was a good idea, it must be a real steal under $60. Besides, the next oil crisis is going to be a real doozy! Don't believe me? Just look at all the canceled production projects recently as the credit crunch and cheap oil take their toll. Meanwhile, the skeleton-in-the-closet (oil reservoir depletion rates) keeps knocking most mature oil reservoir yields at about a 6% a year clip. Complete Story »
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 Kurt Wulff (McDep Associates) submits: Stock prices may have started a new uptrend, yet to be confirmed, even though the economic news may not be encouraging. Futures prices for oil and gas may closely follow stocks considering the strong winter demand season is approaching. Stock prices were ahead of futures in confirming the need for investor patience in the recent downtrend. Oil and gas stock prices fell below the 200-day average in July, while oil and gas futures fell below the 200-day average in early September. Meanwhile, quarterly results to be reported in the next few weeks are likely to be positive compared to the year ago quarter, judging by the trajectory of oil and gas price. The markers were strong indicators of actual results in past quarters. Reported results can also reveal surprises and at the least provide operating information for use in anticipating more precisely the impact of commodity price in future quarters. Complete Story »
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Michael Fitzsimmons submits:Last week, US automakers went to Congress with their hat in hand. The auto executives were all smiles, as was Nancy Pelosi and others. As a US taxpayer, I can tell you that I was not smiling, and I resented their happy demeanor. The automakers' insistence on building non-competitive SUVs and Hummers and the like hurt the US in two major ways: first, it helped increase our reliance on foreign oil. Second, it allowed Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC) to eat their lunch. Of course Congress is to blame as well by not raising the CAFE standards, legislating tax-breaks to encourage business purchases of SUVs (?), and by caving to automotive lobbyists on every possible occasion. Net-net, the US imports 70% of its oil, many jobs have been lost, and the economy has suffered as a result. So, now the middle class taxpayer has yet another sector to bailout. Since no one is going to bail me out, I want to insist that Congress get something out of these auto executives for my money: Complete Story »
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Investors who think oil and gas will stay cheap should think again. Already Russia is putting President-elect Obama to the test... and an inevitable oil and gas showdown looms. Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking.
- Vice-President-elect Joe Biden Complete Story »
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Mark J. Perry submits: 
According to the EIA, the major energy producing companies (listed here) like [[BP]], Exxon (XOM), Shell (RDS.A), Chevron (CVX), etc. earned $131.5 billion in profits in 2006 (most recent year available, data here), see chart above. Complete Story »
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Michael Fitzsimmons submits:The biggest mistake the United States could make right now is to assume recent weakness in oil and gasoline prices means the energy crisis is over and the US can go back to our old energy habits and policies. An editorial in Friday's edition of The Wall Street Journal inferred that high oil prices were solely the result of weak US dollar policies which caused a speculatory oil price bubble. The author conveniently neglected to point out that while the dollar did drop roughly 40% since Bush got elected, oil prices went up 500%. The author then recommended US auto companies not use their tax-payer bailout dollars to manufacture fuel efficient automobiles because there would be no market for them with oil under $50/barrel, which is coming (according to him). Notably, the author neglects to mention the role high oil prices played in the current automotive manufacturing crisis as the US big three focused on gas guzzling Hummers and SUVs as opposed to fuel-efficient intelligent design. Complete Story »
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John Henry submits:For the last 3 years, the world’s oil majors have not had an easy time from the oil producing states. Increasing oil prices has led to a complacent attitude by oil reliant governments. This often masks inefficiency, sometimes corruption, and has led to high taxation coupled with unsound business practices. Russia's oil production for instance, has been reducing each year despite the governments desire to increase output. Easy credit and a speculative environment resulted in many new oil companies coming to the market, with high valuations and little, if any, proven reserves. As the oil price increased so did the tax receipts and so did the smaller companies share prices. This resulted in state influenced companies investing less and the global situation where finding new oil, or purchasing oil reserves, became ever more expensive due to the barrel price and the demand for people and equipment. Times change, oil is now trading around $65 per barrel, a 16 month low, but still way above its 2002 price of $25. Prior to this it has not been higher than $30 since 1987. Was $25 artificially low? Have China, India and Russia really started using so much more oil in the last six years that oil should be substantially more than $25? Complete Story »
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Greentech Media submits: By Ucilia Wang Financing for wind farms has disappeared and fewer companies will be able to develop the kind of "mega projects" needed to feed the growing demand for energy, said Reyad Fezzani, CEO of BP's (BP) wind and solar operations, at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference Wednesday. Complete Story »
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Keith Fitz-Gerald submits:Iraq recently signed its first oil deal in 35 years with a foreign company. And – quite surprisingly to many observers – the company wasn’t one of ours. Complete Story »
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C.S. Jefferson submits: We all know and heard of the tired analogy “don’t try to catch a falling knife” to describe the temptation of jumping into a declining market. There are certainly too many analysts or money managers that have been completely eviscerated and butchered by calling the bottom prematurely in the financials and housing market since fall of 2007. Don’t like playing with knives? Here’s a better analogy to use instead of the requisite kitchen cutlery. Remember when you were a kid and your smart-ass uncle would wave a dollar in front of you and say: “If you can catch the dollar as it falls between your fingers, it’s yours.” Complete Story »
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Greentech Media submits: By Ucilia Wang BP Solar (a subsidiary of energy giant [[BP]]) has canceled a $97 million plan to expand manufacturing in Maryland, citing an increasingly intense competition in the global market. Complete Story »
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