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

Some brokerage firms stop taking orders for Facebook shares. (Reuters)

Japan’s gross domestic product rises 3.5% in the first quarter, helped by consumer spending. (Reuters)

President Obama may force more harsh rules on banks after the JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) loss. (Reuters)

Pinterest raises $100 million. (WSJ)

Some Facebook shareholders will sell $3.5 billion of stock in the initial public offering. The firms include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). (WSJ)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may launch an iPhone with a larger screen. (WSJ)

Verizon Wireless will cut unlimited data plans when customers upgrade to 4G LTE. (WSJ)

LG Electronics releases its own series of new smartphones. (WSJ)

The Mortgage Bankers Association releases data that shows the percentage of homes in foreclosure has not fallen much in the past two years. (WSJ)

The number of loans in China has fallen, which may hurt the economy. (WSJ)

Japan’s economy grows an annualized 4.1% in the quarter ended in March. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) changes the way sites are measured as it tries to cut sites that try to “game” its system. (WSJ)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has been tardy in opening new, small stores, which is hurting it in competition with Target (NYSE: TGT) and other retailers. (WSJ)

Coty will use Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan for its IPO. (WSJ)

JP Morgan’s trading loss could rise 50%. (NYT)

Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) releases a DVR that allows viewers to skip ads. (NYT)

The Federal Reserve says it is worried about the eurozone crisis and its effect on the U.S. economy. (FT)

Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) says natural gas prices could surge by 2015 due to demand. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Chesapeake board has eight members other than McClendon.

Board member Kathleen Eisbrenner was elected in December 2010. She is currently creating an organization called Next Decade. This new company will build opportunities in the integrated international liquefied natural gas industry. Eisbrenner did work for Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A), which makes her an industry insider. She has no qualifications to sit on a huge public company board. And her activities today are tied too closely to the industry in which Chesapeake operates.

V. Burns Hargis has been a board member since September 2008, as well as the president of Oklahoma State University since March 2008. Viewed another way, he runs an education institution inside Chesapeake’s home state.

Board member Frank Keating is a former governor of Oklahoma. Merrill A. Miller Jr. is another industry insider. He runs National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV), which supplies oilfield services, equipment and components to the natural gas and oil industry. Don Nickles is a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma.

A review of the backgrounds of the Chesapeake board members shows what a joke governance is at the company. Perhaps investors got what they deserved because they did not do more to challenge the election of these members. McClendon packed the board with people who could help him, but not challenge him.

What McClendon did at Chesapeake should never have happened. A look at the board shows why it did.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Shell is paying a 95.6% premium to the closing price on January 4th, the date on which Cove announced that the company would be sold. Thailand’s PTTEP PLC had topped Shell’s original bid for Cove with a bid of $1.8 billion, the same amount Shell has finally agreed to pay for Cove. PTTEP has indicated only that it is considering its options.

Under the terms of the deal, Cove may seek other bids, but must pay a break-up fee of about $18 million should it choose to accept one.

Paul Ausick

The Iraqi government is auctioning 12 exploration blocks and 47 other companies have been qualified to bid in the leasing round, currently scheduled for May 30-31. Among those companies welcomed into the auction are Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A), a partner with Exxon in developing Iraq’s massive West Qurna field.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) are the only other US-based companies included among the qualified companies. BP plc (NYSE: BP), Total SA (NYSE: TOT), and Eni SpA (NYSE: E) were also okayed. A complete list is available from Reuters.

Paul Ausick

BP plc (NYSE: BP) killed a joint venture with Rosneft late last year, but the Russian company still has deals working with Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A). Norway’s Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) recently announced discovery the company estimates at 300 million recoverable barrels in the Barents Sea, which is adjacent to the Kara Sea where Exxon and Rosneft will be conducting exploration.

Rosneft will also receive 30% of some Exxon projects in the Canadian oil sands, Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies will also evaluate developing “tight oil” resources in Western Siberia.

At this time, the source of this sheen is unknown, and Shell’s priority is to respond proactively, safely, and in close coordination with regulatory agencies.

The company also said that there is no “current indication that the sheen originates” from either its Mars or its Ursa operations.

The mere appearance of the sheen calls to mind the experience of BP plc (NYSE: BP) two years ago when the Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing eleven workers and dumping more than 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf. France’s Total SA (NYSE: TOT) is currently combatting a natural gas leak from a well in its North Sea Elgin field.

The Wall Street Journal cites one analyst who said, “There is a nervousness over the whole spill situation, following Deepwater Horizon and Total in the North Sea, so people are going to sell first, ask questions later.” That sounds about right.

Shell’s shares are down about -4% in the premarket, at $65.05 in a 5-week range of $57.97-$77.97.

Paul Ausick

Facebook will list on the Nasdaq. (WSJ)

Samsung expects a record first quarter, based to some extent on it mobile product business. (Reuters)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) will announce its reorganization next Tuesday. (Reuters)

PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) is in talks with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) and Hess (NYSE: HES) about shale oil exploration. (Reuters)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) presses developers to make apps for its Windows Mobile OS. (WSJ)

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) may buy an idled ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) refinery to hedge jet fuel costs. (WSJ)

Alcoa (NYSE: AA) to cut aluminum production. (WSJ)

Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA) starts another copyright suit against Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube. (WSJ)

JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) cuts staff at its headquarters. (WSJ)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Toyota (NYSE: TM) post modest car sales in China in March. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) to invest in a new $600 million facility in China. (WSJ)

Many retailers report better-than-expected March sales. (NYT)

Spanish bond yields still test multimonth highs. (FT)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) mounts a defense of its e-book pricing. (Bloomberg)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) loses more workers as it adjusts its strategy. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) shut-in and evacuated nearby operations earlier this week, and the company will surely seek some compensation.

In addition to the gas leak, some amount of liquid condensate is also escaping, and has covered several square miles of the sea with a sheen that may have to be cleaned up once it is safe to return to the area.

Total may also be forced to drill a relief well, which would add about $58 million to the cost according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Drilling a relief well could take up to seven months and cost the company $200 million.

The company only says that its costs are currently running at $1.5 million per day. Total’s shares are down -2.3% today at $49.96 in a 52-week range of $40.00-$64.44. Since Monday, shares are down about -9%.

Paul Ausick

At the same time that it announced its Shell decision, the Department also said that it would target 2013 as the starting date for additional seismic studies off the east coast of the US. These coastal areas have been off-limits to exploration and drilling for more than 30 years.

Environmentalists have fought the Alaska project and will certainly object to the proposed exploration along the east coast. The exploration area stretches from Delaware Bay to Cape Canaveral, Florida, not exactly the cheapest real estate in the country. Environmentalists are likely to get some help from local property owners who will object to oil production in their own front yards.

Paul Ausick