McClendon’s behavior has been shamelessly greedy, as has that of many of his board members. Investors should hope that each is thrown out.

Icahn wrote in a SEC filing:

We are not alone in criticizing this board.  Shareholders have filed lawsuits, withhold campaigns and have otherwise voiced disapproval and all three major proxy advisory firms (i.e., ISS, Glass, Lewis and Egan-Jones) have advised shareholders to withhold votes from directors at the 2012 annual meeting.  Chesapeake shareholders will benefit neither from a constant stream of negative news reflecting upon the companies troubled past, nor from a half hearted attempt by the board to make the minimum possible number of changes to skate by for one more year.  The board must not only find a way to eliminate the enormous funding gap, but also the more substantial creditability gap.

And,

To engender any meaningful credibility among shareholders, corporate governance reforms cannot, in our view, be led by directors whose irresponsible actions have brought this company to the edge of the proverbial cliff.  Accordingly, we propose that at least 4 of the current directors (other than Louis Simpson) should be immediately replaced by two persons designated by us and two persons designated by another large shareholder such as Southeastern Asset Management, the company’s largest shareholder.  In our opinion, only when these changes are effectuated will the board be truly independent and more importantly will investors come to believe that promises made will be promises kept; when a capital plan is agreed upon it will be maintained, not diverged from as it has in the past.

Among firms that had IPOs recently, the short interest in Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) rose 35% to 56.6 million. Shares sold short in Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) rose 19% to 20.7 million. Both companies have been under attack because many investors believe that they cannot sustain sales in a market in which the number of competitors is multiplying quickly.

Among Web 1.0 firms, the short interest in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was up 23% to 25.6 million. Although the firm has been able to make progress with its Asian assets, its core portal business is in trouble, and it recently replaced another CEO. Shares short in eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) rose 19% to 16.6 million.

Among other tech stocks, the short interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which continues to struggle in the critical mobile industry, rose 25% to 87 million. Shares sold short in badly wounded Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rose 18% to 53.4 million. The short interest in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 8% to 35.4 million shares.

Other companies with weak prospects hit by short sellers included Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK); shares sold short rose 27% to 85.2 million. There are questions about the CEO’s practice of investing individually in some of the firm’s drilling projects. Shares short in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) rose 20% to 116.7 million. The third-largest wireless company continues to lose ground to AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

Short interest in major banks also rose as worries about Europe’s finances and new regulations pushed share prices down. Shares sold short in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose 6% to 150.7 million. The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 16% to 35.5 million. Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) moved higher by 11% to 36 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Chesapeake plans to sell some $11.5 billion in assets by the end of the year as it tries to shore up its finances. The company has also said it would sell oil-rich assets in the Permian Basin of Texas and spin-off a royalty trust to develop its Mississippian Limestone deposits.

Shares of Chesapeake are up about 1% at $15.25 in a 52-week range of $13.32-$35.75.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) posts better-than-expected earnings and says it will fire 27,000 people. (Reuters)

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) loses an important ruling in an intellectual property suit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). (Reuters)

Shareholders sue Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) because of trouble with its IPO. (Reuters)

Facebook may move to the NYSE (NYSE: NYX). (Reuters)

Some large investors receive warnings from analysts that projections of Facebook’s earnings have come down. (WSJ)

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) increases drilling on the Utica Shale in Ohio. (WSJ)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) will sell part of its LCD business to Sharp. (WSJ)

The head of sales at Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) departs. (WSJ)

Yields on German bonds fall to all-time lows as capital moves to safety. (WSJ)

General Electric (NYSE: GE) says its industrial profit margin will rise in 2013. (WSJ)

Oil falls below $90 for the first time since October. (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) will begin to drill in far north areas of Alaska. (NYT)

Martha Stewart will once again become chairperson of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO). (NYT)

A deal for financial coordination among EU nations will be put off until a June meeting. (FT)

Shale gas helps the U.S. lower emissions. (FT)

Large companies turn over CEOs less than in the downturn, according to Booz & Company. (FT)

BMW will triple its output in China. (Bloomberg)

Detroit turns off street lights to save money. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A.McIntyre

CalSTRS will vote its more than five million investor shares against the entire board’s reelection at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. annual meeting. We encourage our fellow shareholders to do the same.

Walmart has not been very good to CalSTRS, and many other investors, as least as far as returns go. Its share price has been nearly flat over the past decade. But, like other holders of shares in the world’s largest retailer, it has ignored the rule that people, including executives, are innocent until proven guilty. The fund writes in a letter about its plans:

Based on these allegations, which indicate a breakdown of corporate governance and lack of oversight that should have averted this situation, CalSTRS does not have confidence that the current board has the independence and leadership needed to address these difficult issues.

A number of charges have arisen against Walmart over bribery activity at its Mexico operations. There are also allegations that past and current management knew about them and covered them up. Federal investigations, and a probe by Walmart’s board, have only just begun. It may be months before these conclude. In the meantime, no one in management or on the board has been pushed out, which is as it should be.

If the CalSTRS approach set a standard by which to measure boards and management, all of the leaders of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) would be gone by now. The same holds true for dozens of companies that have been through recent ethical scandals. Some board members and executives has been forced out at companies where there were breaches of reasonable standards. This includes Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR). There have been no widespread suggestions that the entire boards and top managements of these corporations resign or be turned out by shareholders. Not everyone on the boards of these two public corporations was part of the wrongdoings. By forcing the resignations of those who had violated fair codes of conduct, these board members actually have proved their worthiness as fiduciaries.

The CalSTRS pressure to unseat the entire Walmart board is too radical. The directors who should reasonably judge the chairman and two CEOs ought to be left to do their jobs.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Natural gas producers like Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), and EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) have slowed production in an effort to get gas prices to rise. Coal producers like Consol Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX), Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU), Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR), and Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) have also cut production, but in their case the effort was to reduce costs.

Natural gas inventories remain high, though off by about 13% from their peak in March. Lower injections into storage have helped, as have warmer temperatures in some parts of the country. But temperatures are expected to moderate and the forecast for summer does not include long periods of high temperatures. That means that natural gas inventories will enter the traditional winter drawdown period beginning in October with above average inventories again. Inventories need to drop by more than 500 billion cubic feet by the end of summer or there won’t be any place to put new production. The early estimate for inventory growth this week calls for 67-88 billion cubic feet to be added to already bulging stocks.

As for the coal producers, they could continue to get squeezed at natural gas price below $3.00 because generation plants that have switched to gas won’t want to switch back until they are sure that gas prices are going to remain elevated. Utility companies will drive a hard bargain on coal pricing until it’s clear that gas prices are going to remain high.

The recent modest increase in natural gas prices is not going have much impact coal production unless the price hike gets above about $3/thousand cubic feet and stays there. That does not appear likely at this point.

Paul Ausick

While most estimates of the size of the Bakken crude deposits are around 4-5 billion barrels, Hamm believes there are 24 billion barrels just waiting to be squeezed out of the ground. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in October 2011, Hamm said, “[T]he United States could be ‘completely energy independent by the end of the decade. We can be the Saudi Arabia of oil and natural gas in the 21st century.’” And Hamm appears willing to put his money where his mouth is.

But in March of this year, a company owned by Hamm and Continental’s President Jeff Hume sold 38,000 acres in the Bakken play to Continental for $340 million in stock. At the time of the sale, Hamm owned 123 million of Continental’s 180 million outstanding shares. Another 100,000 shares is a rounding error.

According to the company’s proxy statement:

Wheatland Oil Inc. (“Wheatland”) is owned 75% by the Hamm Revocable Trust and 25% by our President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Jeffrey B. Hume. Wheatland participates in several of the Company’s crude oil and natural gas properties located in the states of Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Oklahoma. The Wheatland interests generally range from 5% to 10% of the Company’s interests. During the year ended December 31, 2011, we disbursed net crude oil and natural gas revenues of approximately $36.7 million to Wheatland and were paid for billed costs of approximately $64.9 million by Wheatland. We also paid Wheatland approximately $5,000 in 2011 for their share of undeveloped leasehold adjustments. At December 31, 2011 $17.6 million was due from Wheatland and $3.5 million was due to Wheatland.

This does not sound much different from the Founder Well Participation Program that Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) had going with CEO Aubrey McClendon.

But investors do like insider buying. Continental’s shares are up nearly 6% in late morning trading today at $75.44 in a 52-week range of $42.43-$97.19.

Continental’s proxy filing detailing related party transactions is available here.

Paul Ausick

Earlier last week S&P issued a similar downgrade on Chesapeake’s credit. In its report, Fitch said:

The downgrade reflects the company’s aggressive spending amid a period of expected weak natural gas price realizations and concerns relating to constrained liquidity longer term given the planned spending.

Fitch’s concerns are focused on the Chesapeake’s liquidity, which the ratings firm points out depends on Chesapeake’s ability to shed assets. S&P took a somewhat broader view, citing “revelations that underscore shortcomings in Chesapeake’s corporate governance practices, [and] covenant concerns” as well. However one looks at it, Chesapeake’s salad days are behind it.

The report from Fitch Ratings is available here.

Chesapeake’s closed up 6% on Friday, at $14.36 in a 52-week range of $13.32-$35.75.

Paul Ausick

The heads of Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will discuss a settlement to patent wars between the two companies over smartphone IP. (Reuters)

General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) Opel faces a harsh reaction from workers arising from plant closures. (Reuters)

Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) will change its trading systems after trouble with the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) IPO. (Reuters)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) says its has Chinese approval to buy Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI). (Reuters)

Dalian Wanda Group, based in China, will buy the AMC movie chain for $2.6 billion. (WSJ)

Greece’s conservative parties, which favor austerity, begin to show improvements in U.S. polls. (WSJ)

The European Union’s José Manuel Barroso says Greece should expect pressure over austerity to remain high despite indications otherwise from the G8 meeting. (WSJ)

Some accountants say that Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) costs misrepresent the firm’s financial position. (WSJ)

The G8 meeting and the opinions of EU leaders may press Merkel to allow Europe to aid some large banks in the region. (WSJ)

UK and US bank regulators prepare for any failure of several financial firms, which include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS). (FT)

China begins to cancel or delay some commodities imports — another sign its economy has slowed. (FT)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the EU should prepare for the departure of Greece. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Facebook IPO, priced at $38, will raise $16 billion. (Reuters)

A new poll shows Greeks favor pro-bailout leaders who will keep the country in the eurozone. (Reuters)

Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) wireless operations will charge more for 4G data plans. (Reuters)

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to cut its workforce by 25,000 to 30,000 people. (WSJ)

The United States sets duties on Chinese solar panels. (WSJ)

Gamestop (NYSE: GME) cuts its sales forecast. (WSJ)

Though Angela Merkel’s view of austerity for the region has been challenged recently, she appears to have no interest in changing her approach. (WSJ)

Twenty venture-backed U.S. firms are now valued above $1 billion. (WSJ)

The custodian of a group of New York City pension funds wants shareholders to vote against two directors on the Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) board. (WSJ)

The Gap (NYSE: GPS) raises its sales forecasts as its turnaround finally takes hold. (WSJ)

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) had no treasurer in place when its CIO made risky trades. (WSJ)

Treasury yields hit their lowest level ever as a flight to quality accelerates. (WSJ)

The eurozone may have done a good job preparing for a Greek exit. (NYT)

The U.S. Post Office will consolidate 48 mail processing centers to save money. (NYT)

JP Morgan’s trading unit has $100 billion in risky assets. (FT)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may offer an iPhone with a larger screen. (Bloomberg)

In China, home prices fall and car inventories rise — more signs of a slowing economy. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre