We have compiled earnings preview on each company using Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and added color on each if applicable.  Some of these are market moving, some are sector moving, and some are just interesting for traders to watch around the earnings reports.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) estimates are $0.56 EPS and $2.2 billion in revenues. At $12.55, the maker of World of Warcraft has been very range bound.

Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG) estimates are $1.57 EPS and $13.73 billion in revenues.

Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB) estimates are -$0.23 EPS and $16.78 million in revenues. This will be a first real look of a full quarter and unfortunately this one has been cut in half as investors have tempered expectations for the personal data backup service provider.

A federal mortgage deal with banks over mortgage fraud would give states enforcement power. (Reuters)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) expects a $2.9 billion loss. (Reuters)

Long-term investors continue to reject investments in long-term Italian bonds. (Reuters)

The House votes to extend a pay freeze for federal employees. (Reuters)

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) will consider alternatives now that their merger has collapsed. (Reuters)

The size of Facebook’s IPO would top Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG). (WSJ)

January car sales rose 11% to the fastest pace in four years. (WSJ)

AMR will cut 13,000 jobs. (WSJ)

Deutsche Bank posts a loss. (WSJ)

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) recalls a number of birth control pills. (WSJ)

Samsung says a German court rejected an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) request to stop the sales of Galaxy tablets and Nexus phones. (WSJ)

States with energy exploration businesses did well during the recession while manufacturing states are still struggling. (WSJ)

Many in Congress have rejected Obama’s new mortgage relief plan. (WSJ)

Disagreements between Germany and the IMF have slowed Greek bailout talks. (WSJ)

Kodak wants out of a deal that puts it name on the location where the Oscars are held. (WSJ)

Whirlpool’s (NYSE: WHR) cost cuts helped drive its profits. (WSJ)

Regulators are worried that a marketing deal between Verizon Wireless and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) would be anticompetitive. (WSJ)

EU regulators may back down on plans to make banks keep large amounts of safe assets. (WSJ)

Spain announces plans to improve its troubled bank sector. (WSJ)

Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) sold $7 billion in bonds, near a record for emerging market companies. (WSJ)

A deal over Greek debt raises concerns that a rescue of Portugal will follow. (NYT)

Large U.S. companies have raised money at record low rates. (FT)

CDS on both corporations and sovereign debt show less concern about financial troubles. (Bloomberg)

The number of people who filed for unemployment benefits in Spain during January reached a record. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The new gathering system will serve the Keathley Canyon area and serve producers Anadarko Petroleum Co. (NYSE: APC), Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Eni SpA (NYSE: E), Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR), and Plains Exploration & Production Co. (NYSE: PXP). Keathley Canyon was the site of the first major oil discovery in the US Gulf once drilling was reopened following the Macondo well explosion in April 2010 that killed 11 workers on a rig operated by BP plc (NYSE: BP). Exxon, which made the discovery, has estimated the resource at 700 million barrels.

The joint venture, called the Southeast Keathley Canyon Pipeline Co. LLC (SEKCO), plans to build an 18-inch pipeline to transport 115,000 barrels/day of crude to a floating production platform and connect to Enterprise’s Poseidon pipeline system to move the oil onshore. The southeast portion of Keathley Canyon is estimated to hold about 300 million barrels of reserves.

In related transactions, Genesis is acquiring a 28% stake in the Poseidon pipeline system from Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO), as well as a 29% stake in the Odyssey pipeline system which is majority owned and operated by Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) and a 23% stake in the Eugene Island pipeline system owned by a group including Exxon, Shell, Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). Genesis is paying about $206 million for these three acquisitions, which includes about $26 million for the value of the crude already in the pipelines. The company used its revolving credit facility to finance the purchases.

The SEKCO pipeline system is expected to be in service by mid-2014.

Paul Ausick

24/7 Wall St. has focused on the ratings with a “positive” outlook from Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and/or Fitch with a bias towards nations that investors can easily invest in via ADR shares, closed-end funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The featured nations that may be upgraded in 2012 are Brazil, Chile, China (with Hong Kong), Indonesia, Peru, Russia, South Korea, and Turkey.

Read: Nations Set For Credit Ratings Beyond Upgrades, Beyond The Euro Crisis

There is another slew of countries for which S&P has a “positive” outlook stance: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Latvia, Panama, and Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, these nations are almost impossible for Americans to invest in due to their size, the small number of public companies, and a lack of ETFs or mutual funds covering them.

The 24/7 Wall St. list is presented alphabetically and features relevant ratings. Also included are economic details and important developments to consider. Lastly, we have provided a list of the key closed-end funds, ETFs, and ADRs specific to each nation. Population estimates and purchasing power parity GDP for 2010 were taken from the CIA World Factbook.

We’ve surveyed eight major oil companies, both integrated and E&P only, to try to find out where value in these stocks might be based on analysts’ target prices and implied upside on the stock. The companies we looked at are Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), ConocoPhillips Corp. (NYSE: COP), BP plc (NYSE: BP), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO), Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA), and Petroleo Brasileiro SA (NYSE: PBR), more commonly known as Petrobras.

All data comes from Yahoo! Finance and MarketWatch, with current prices from about noon today.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) has a median target price of $90.00 from 17 brokers. Shares are trading today at $79.31, for an upside potential of $10.69, or 13.5%. Exxon pays a dividend yield of 2.4% and its forward P/E is 9.38. Exxon’s upside is the second-lowest in this group, and is dragged down by the company’s expressed decision to retain its refining operations. Because refining is, at the best of times, cyclical and profitability depends largely on crude oil prices, the current upward movement in WTI pricing will affect the company’s refining margins.

In the third quarter, Exxon’s US refining profits totaled $810 million, up 79% from the third quarter of 2010. Non-US refining profits actually fell by -23% because the WTI/Brent differential did not affect overseas crude pricing.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) has a median target price of $122.00 from 19 brokers. Shares are trading today at $101.88, for a potential upside of $20.12, or 19.8%. Chevron pays a dividend yield of 3.1% and its forward P/E is 7.91. Chevron, like Exxon, has rejected the option of hiving off its refinery operations, and also like Exxon, that decision will affect profits as refinery margins fall. In the third quarter, Chevron’s price differential between WTI and Brent crude averaged $17/barrel. As Brent prices fall due to resumed production from Libya and WTI prices rise, the differential will close further and the $2 billion in profit that Chevron made from its downstream operations will also decline. Fortunately for Chevron, the higher realized prices for its crude will offset a fair portion of that downstream drop-off.

ConocoPhillips Corp. (NYSE: COP) has a median target price of $80.00 from 17 brokers. Shares are trading today at $70.80, for an implied upside of $9.20, or 13%. Conoco pays a dividend yield of 3.7% and its foward P/E is 8.39. Conoco announced its intention to spin-off its refining operations into a separate company, but it may have waited too long to be able to set a premium price for its refineries. The company’s potential upside is the lowest of this group, and that is likely due to what investors see as a probable delay in the refinery spin-off or a decision by the company to go ahead with the deal at a less-than-desired price.

BP plc (NYSE: BP) has a median target price of $54.12 from 12 brokers. Shares are trading today at $43.23, for an implied upside of $10.96, or 25.4%. The company pays a dividend yield of 3.8%, the highest of this group, and its forward P/E is 6.58, the second-lowest in this group. While BP has managed to boost its share price by more than 60% from its low in June of 2010 following the Macondo well explosion that killed 11 workers and dumped 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, investors remain wary of the company’s ability to put the disaster fully behind it. BP is also trying to sell two refineries, not to bolster its reserves, but simply to get rid of them. At the same time, it is upgrading its Indiana refinery to accept more crude from Canada’s oil sands.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) has a median target price of $115.00 from 19 brokers. Shares are trading today at $97.20, for an upside potential of $17.80, or 18.3%. The company pays a dividend yield of 1.9% and its forward P/E of 11.72. Because Oxy has no refining operations, it is insulated from the decline in refining margins. The company’s stock was upgraded recently from ‘neutral’ to ‘outperform’ with a target price of $135.00 by Credit Suisse. The company owns high-potential shale oil fields in California and other properties in Texas that will benefit from rising crude prices, without suffering any drag from refining.

Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) has a median target price of $33.00 from 18 brokers. Shares are trading today at $27.14, for an implied gain of $5.86, or 21.6%. The company pays a dividend yield of 2.2% and its forward P/E is 7.99. Marathon successfully spun-off 100% of its refining assets into a separate company, Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC), in June this year. Marathon averaged 46,000 barrels/day of production from its Libyan assets in 2010. The company has not indicated when any part of that production will be back on-line, but a resumption should be just around the corner.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) has a price target of $134.00 from 23 brokers. Shares are trading today at $100.87, for an upside potential of $33.13, or 32.8%. The company pays a dividend yield of 0.6% and its forward P/E is 8.3. Apache’s target price is a few pennies below its 52-week high, which may signal that the company is fully priced. Apache’s strongest point has been that it is able to sell about 75% of its production at Brent prices. As the price gap between WTI and Brent narrows, that won’t have a lot of impact on the company unless Brent should suddenly fall below WTI. Like Oxy and Marathon, Apache has no refining to concern itself with.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (NYSE: PBR) has a median target price of $38.04 from 20 brokers. Shares are trading today at $27.28, for an upside potential of $10.76, or 39.4 %, the highest upside in this group. The company pays a dividend yield of 0.6% and its forward P/E is 6.42, both the lowest in this group. Petrobras is investing nearly $225 billion over the next few years to begin producing some 5 billion barrels of crude from the basins offshore of Brazil. In the third quarter, the company produced about 2.6 million barrels/day and expects to raise that total to 3 million barrels/day by the end of 2012. It will need to continue that level of production growth in order to keep up with the costs it will incur.

Of the eight companies in this group, the favorite probably has to be Apache, which has no refining operations and is able to sell the vast majority of its crude at the highest price available. Oxy is a strong second choice. The major integrated companies will feel the drag from their refineries, and Marathon needs to get its Libyan oil back online. As for Petrobras, it’s really a crapshoot at this point.

Paul Ausick

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) has a median target price of $120.00 from 19 brokers. Shares are trading today at $100.74, for an implied gain of $19.26, or 19%.Chevron’s forward P/E is 7.69 and the company pays a dividend yield of 3.1%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $80.41-$109.94, and at today’s price that’s about 25% above its 52-week low and 8% below the 52-week high. Chevron put out a preliminary estimate on third quarter earnings last week and noted that production would be lower than the second quarter but that profits should be flat at about $3.55/share. The company sees fourth quarter profits going higher. The stock is poised to push past its 52-week high, but the target price does not to be in danger yet.

ConocoPhillips Corp. (NYSE: COP) has a median target price of $80.00 from 17 brokers. Shares are trading today at $69.11, for an implied gain of $10.89, or 16%. Conoco’s forward P/E is 8.33 and the company pays a dividend yield of 3.8%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $58.37-$81.80, and at today’s price that’s about 18% above its 52-week low and 16% below the 52-week high. Conoco continues to struggle with a leaking well in China’s Bohai Bay that could end up costing the company millions in fines. The company is also spinning off its refining operations, which will not help either its revenue or profits if the refining spreads remain high. Warren Buffett still maintains a hefty position in Conoco shares.

BP plc (NYSE: BP) has a median target price of $54.69 from 12 brokers. Shares are trading today at $40.85, for an implied gain of $13.84, or 34%. BP’s forward P/E is 6.08 and the company pays a dividend yield of 4.2%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $33.62-$49.50, and at today’s price that’s about 22% above its 52-week low and 17% below the 52-week high. Following last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s shares fell below $30 before rising to their current 52-week high. Earlier this week the company agreed to accept $4 billion from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) as that company’s share of the clean-up bill. Payouts have been smaller and have happened more quickly than expected. BP’s biggest problem is that the company sold off so many assets to raise cash, which it might turn out the company won’t need after all.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) has a median target price of $115.00 from 19 brokers. Shares are trading today at $84.18, for an implied gain of $30.82, or 37%. Oxy’s forward P/E is 10.18 and the company pays a dividend yield of 2.2%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $66.36-$117.89, and at today’s price that’s about 27% above its 52-week low and 29% below the 52-week high. Oxy’s lack of refining assets doesn’t make it an exact fit with the other companies in this list, but the company’s market cap of around $68 billion pulls is a better fit here. The company has sold off its Argentine assets and is investing in oil and gas exploration in the US, primarily in the Bakken field of North Dakota. The company also does a lot of secondary and tertiary recovery in the Permian Basin, and it recently purchased a controlling interest in a large natural gas play in California.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (NYSE:PBR) has a median target price of $36.97 from 20 brokers. Shares are trading today at $23.97, for an implied gain of $13.00, or 54%. Petrobras’s forward P/E is 5.92 and the company pays a dividend yield of 0.7%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $20.76-$42.75, and at today’s price that’s about 15% above its 52-week low and 44% below the 52-week high. Petrobras shares have been hit by the almost unbelievable amounts of money the company will have to spend to develop the massive Brazilian offshore fields. The company has committed to spending $225 billion by 2015, and about a quarter of it this year. That’s a ton of money, but the really bad news is that it could cost even more if the exploration wells don’t live up to expectations.

Paul Ausick

We wanted to give our readers an updated list of those with Libya exposure.  These companies should now be the beneficiary of the outcome rather than be the losers due to the conflict and interruptions.  At the time of the outbreak of fighting, Libya produced around 1.5 million barrels per day and that was mostly exported to Europe.

AECOM Technology Corporation (NYSE: ACM) originally had what was roughly a $500 million contract over five years building Libyan infrastructure projects.  Much of the work had been done, but now that infrastructure has been damaged it would seem that they would be a shoe-in for more infrastructure building unless the old regime ties are just deemed too strong by the new leadership.  Shares were around $28 after the first drop from the Libyan exposure, and along with the rest of the global austerity the stock closed Friday at $18.64.

Eni SpA (NYSE: E), the big Italian energy company, withdrew its foreign personnel with 10% of its natural gas supplies in Libya and much more throughout North Africa.  It was close to $47.55 at the time of the withdrawal and shares closed at $35.48 on Friday.

As Italy has larger exposure than many nations to Libya, the iShares MSCI Italy Index ETF (NYSE: EWI) is down at $12.56 per Friday’s close, about 30% lower than the $18.13 price.  This ETF had a whopping 18% exposure to ENI earlier this year before Libya blew up.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY) has (or had) operations there and shares were around $106 after the Libya situation first blew up.  Occidental closed Friday at $80.91.

Global oil players have exposure in Libya, although they are very diversified.  Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) operated under permits in Libya as well and shares were around $70.85 per ADR after the situation erupted; shares closed Friday at $61.72.  BP plc (NYSE: BP) had deeper ties in Libya and its shares were around $48 after the blow-up began; shares closed Friday at $38.46.

Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) originally said that there were no indications at the start of the onslaught that its operations in Libya were affected over its exploratory offshore block in the North African country.  The ADR was at $38.89 back then, and shares closed at $27.17 on Friday.

Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (NYSE: AFK) had 20% at the time of its allocations in Egypt but nothing seen about Libya.  Shares closed at $28.37 on Friday and the 52-week range is $26.77 to $36.45.

JON C. OGG

Bunge has said that it will invest $2.5 billion to expand its Brazilian sugar cane and biofuel capacity by 2016. The investment will expand the company’s milling capacity (called crush in the industry) by 50%, to a total of 30 million metric tons annually. The investment plans follow last year’s $12 billion joint venture, Raizen, in cane ethanol by Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) and Brazil’s Cosan Ltd. (NYSE: CZZ).

Other US ethanol makers, including Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NYSE: PEIX), and Great Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (NYSE: GPRE), are also preparing for an end to US subsidies on corn-ethanol although there is not likely to be much impact on their top or bottom lines. The subsidy has largely been passed through corn producers.

Bunge’s decision should help Brazil return to self-sufficiency in ethanol production. The country has been unable to meet demand for ethanol and is importing some from the US and Europe. That has driven up prices for ethanol and gasoline, which at some times has been cheaper than ethanol due to government caps on the price of fuel.

Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, has been forced to sell gasoline at less than cost at times, and the company will be glad to see an increase in the crushing capacity for sugar cane. Petrobras recently announced that it would invest $328 million in a new facility to make cane-ethanol. The oil giant plans to spend more than $2 billion on ethanol production and increase its market share in Brazil from 5% to 12% by 2015.

In the US, the federal mandate for ethanol blending with gasoline increases demand and is partly responsible for the run-up of corn prices. Ethanol production consumes about 40% of the total US corn crop. Once the subsidy for corn-ethanol and the $0.54/gallon tariff on imported ethanol end, imports from Brazil could take off.

Ethanol made from cellulosic material was supposed to have contributed 250 million gallons to US supplies this year. Instead, it is producing approximately none. The mandated volume for 2012 is 500 million gallons, which the government is considering reducing to 3.5 million gallons. And even that small amount will be a challenge.

Bunge, Raizen, and Petrobras are putting themselves in a strong position for domestic consumption in Brazil as well as for exporting ethanol to the US, where supply is unlikely to be able to keep up with demand.

Bunge shares are up more than 0.5% today, at $61.19, in a 52-week range of $50.52-$76.13. The ELEMENTS MLCX Biofuels Index Total Return ETN (NYSE: FUE), though quite small and lightly traded, is up more than 1% today, at $12.33, in a 52-week range of $7.40-$13.24.

Paul Ausick

We have shown estimates from Thomson Reuters, given price performance data, and added in appropriate color where applicable.  We are not including consensus price targets from analysts this week because the huge drops in shares this week will distort the implied upside artificially as those targets may be coming down sharply in many cases.

MONDAY, AUGUST 8

Silver Wheaton Corporation (NYSE: SLW) has estimates of $0.46 EPS and $221.3 million in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.52 EPS and $253.9 million in revenues.  Shares are trading around $33.00, the 52-week trading range is $17.00 to $47.60.  If metals and metals stocks continue the volatility, this one will be far less important to traders than it has been.  While it is still up 100% from lows, look at how much it is down from highs as silver has proven over and over that $40 is a death trap.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:    TSN) has estimates of $0.41 EPS and $8.3 billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.41 EPS and $8.16 billion in revenues.  Shares are trading around $16.00, the 52-week trading range is $14.59 to $20.12.  Tyson is supposed to be a defensive stock, but its narrow focus on meats has prevented that safety net from being the case as have some missteps.  The chicken is choked.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9

SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWRA) has estimates of -$0.18 EPS and $583 million in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.21 EPS and $741.7 million in revenues.  Shares are trading around $17.00, the 52-week trading range is $9.61 to $23.36. The merger-lite move in recent weeks was recently met with lower guidance and the sector has been under pressure from all fronts.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) has estimates of $0.73 EPS and $10.45 billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.67 EPS and $10.8 billion in revenues.  Shares are trading around $34.90, the 52-week trading range is $31.55 to $44.34.  The Mouse House has yet to stay turned around.  This was a $44.00 stock less than ninety days ago and the stock has never recovered.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has estimates of $0.38 EPS and $10.97 billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.39 EPS and $10.98 billion in revenues.  Shares are trading around $14.60, the 52-week trading range is $14.36 (Friday) to $24.87.  What is there to say… a restructuring, layoffs, slow enterprise spending, austerity measures slowing IT, and on and on.

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) has estimates of $0.69 EPS and $3.99 billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.99 EPS and $4.05 billion in revenues.  Shares are trading around $32.40, the 52-week trading range is $32.11 (Friday) to $56.61.  8-times earnings and dirt cheap value… but, who cares in this environment.

Petrobras raised about $70 billion in a secondary offering last year, including about $43 billion in new shares to the Brazilian government for the rights to produce oil from the six fields.

The company expects to spend about $55 billion in 2011, slightly less than the $57 billion it spent in 2010. There could be some good news in this planned spending for drilling companies like Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE), Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO), and Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG). Services companies like Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) could also see a boost. Then again, maybe not.

A lot depends on how Petrobras chooses to proceed. The company announced a tender in June for construction of 21 new drilling rigs that are to built in Brazil. The idea of course is to boost the Brazilian economy by providing jobs. Seven rigs are already under construction in Brazil.

It’s also possible that Petrobras will withdraw the tender, as it did recently with a request for new ships. The company decided the shipbuilding bids were too high.

Earlier this week Petrobras extended its contract for two Diamond semi-submersible rigs in exchange for a $10,000/day drop in the the rental price. Diamond, no doubt, is looking ahead for a bigger piece of the action in the $224.7 billion spending.

Leasing rigs would almost certainly be cheaper than building and maintaining new rigs that Petrobras owns. But there’s always a political dimension to spending figures of this size, and the government may push for more domestic purchasing.

Either way, the company thinks it can nearly triple its production, from around 2 million barrels/day to 6 million by 2020. That is both an aggressive and very expensive plan.

Paul Ausick