The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 60 points to 12,482.22 (0.48%), the NASDAQ rose more than 17 points (0.64%) to 2,728.08, and the S&P 500 rose 0.35% or nearly 5 points to 1,293.66.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) cut to ‘hold’ at Jefferies; BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) started as ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan; Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) raised to ‘buy’ at Wunderlich; and Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) raised to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: McMoRan Exploration Co. (NYSE: MMR) is up 4.55% at $13.32; TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) is down -1.72% at $16.02; Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is up 0.67% at $29.81; Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is down nearly -8% at $28.29; and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) is up nearly 8% at $54.93.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Ku6 Media Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: KUTV) is up nearly 154% at $3.50. The Chinese online video company has signed an agreement with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to offer international viewers a Chinese video channel on YouTube.

Convio Inc. (NASDAQ: CNVO) is up nearly 48% at $15.89, after setting a new 52-week high earlier. The provider of software to non-profit organizations has agreed to be acquired by Blackbaud Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) for $16/share, or about $312 million.

Venoco Inc. (NYSE: VQ) is up nearly 31% at $10.05. The independent oil and gas company is being taken private by its CEO. We have more coverage here.

R.R. Donnelly & Sons Co. (NYSE: RRD) is down nearly -16% at $12.12 after posting a new 52-week low of $12.08 earlier. The business services company said revenues for 2011 are going to be lower than expected.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) is down nearly -14% at $29.57. The cruise ship operator is sinking following the disaster off the Italian coast that has left 11 dead and 29 missing. We have more coverage here.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. Federal Reserve Bank governor Daniel Tarullo is giving a speech. We have the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association mortgage applications
• 8:30 a.m. – Producer price index
• 9:15 a.m. – Federal Reserve report on industrial production
• 10:00 a.m. – Housing market index

Your email address

subscribe

terms and conditions

Paul Ausick

Berkshire Hathaway moved into the top spot as Warren Buffett celebrated his 80th birthday and four decades of remarkable investment success. Intel was hurt by a cut in its outlook. And JNJ dropped to the bottom sport as it announced another recall–this time for hip replacement devices.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Berkshire Hathaway	1 (6)	BRK	As Warren Buffett turns 80 years old, the company and its performance is testament to his extraordinary run as the world’s greatest investor.
	McDonald’s	2 (2)	MCD	The company’s strength last week is a sign that even with a slow economy, the firm’s prospects cannot be undermined.
	Coca-Cola	3 (3)	KO	Coca-Cola gets closer to a financially advantageous buyout for its bottling company.
	Apple	4 (4)	APPL	More evidence that iPad will hold a long-lived lead over rivals in tablet business. Jobs walled garden grows.
	Proctor & Gamble	5 (1)	PG	Will co-promote the insomnia treatment Silenor with Somaxon Pharmaceuticals.
	Disney	6 (5)	DIS	Walt Disney is close to agreement to renew carriage for ESPN on Time Warner Cable.
	Abbott Labs	7 (8)	ABT	Stock holds up well due to 3.5% yield, balance sheet, and steady business.
	Ford	8 (7)	F	August auto sales may soften but the No.2 car company is expected to gain share.
	IBM	9 (9)	IBM	Watches as rivals Dell and HP beat themselves up on 3Par deal. In the meantime, Big Blue quietly buys Sterling Commerce Interactive, an e-commerce gem.
	Philip Morris	10 (11)	PM	Yield of 4.5% keeps shares in good light as market dissolves.
	Intel	11 (10)	INTC	Warns on third quarter numbers but shares gain because the market feared it would be worse.
	Cisco	12 (12)	CSCO	Buys Extend Media to increase dominance of end-to-end, enterprise-to-consumer strategy.
	Pfizer	13 (13)	PFE	Pfizer releases data on blood thinner apixaban which could add significantly to sales.
	Google	14 (15)	GOOG	New free phone call offering may make the search company make money. But, buyout of social network Angstro provider could help Google’s competitive position in social networks.
	Oracle	15 (15)	ORCL	Stays in the background in week of tech M&A and jockeying for top spot is some niches. Glad to hold its current stable position.
	FedEx	16 (18)	FDX	Dahlman Rose initiates with “buy” rating on assumption that downturn in international shipping will be short-lived.
	Exxon-Mobil	17 (17)	XOM	PetroChina earnings strength bodes well Economic pullback has not bought crude down much.
	Microsoft	18 (16)	MSFT	Slowing PC sales cause concern as does ongoing failure of Window Mobile to dent Android growth.
	Dow Chemical	19 (19)	DOW	Handily beats DJIA last week. Yield and hope of industrial stimulus both help.
	Caterpillar	20 (21)	CAT	Caterpillar holds steady on the assumption that Asia construction will stay strong.
	Wal-Mart	21 (20)	WMT	Hurt by GDP concerns along with most retailers. Appeals class action status of female discrimination suit.
	Verizon	22 (22)	VZ	Early sales of Motorola Droid 2 bode well for Verizon Wireless growth. Yield is now extraordinary 6.5%.
	GE	23 (24)	GE	A great deal of the company’s broad product portfolio could be hurt by recession. Market skeptical that firm will see earnings rebound.
	Boeing	24 (23)	BA	Ugliness as 787 is delayed again. Company says earnings will not be affected–yet.
	American Express	25 (25)	AXP	Slowing economy could make default rates move up again. Forecasts for holiday earnings quarter will be essential to share price.
	Hewlett-Packard	26 (26)	HPQ	May win bloody bidding battle with Dell for 3Par, but the costs appears to be way too expensive given the value of the prize.
	JP Morgan	27 (28)	JPM	Fed easing should help banks fill balance sheet potholes. Market still assumes JP has less problems under the covers than most.
	Goldman Sachs	28 (27)	GS	Pick up in M&A should help its bottom line. Large financial firms also are finding ways around some of financial reform bill’s most difficult programs.
	AT&T	29 (29)	T	Faces pressure on price, according to new FCC study. Google telephone initiative is also bad news.
	Home Depot	30 (31)	HD	Stock moves up as yield play but movement will still be capped by troubled housing market.
	Bank of America	31 (32)	BAC	Touches 52-week low. Financial firm’s huge consumer bank business will almost certainly be damaged by second “dip.”
	Johnson & Johnson	32 (30)	JNJ	A recall almost every week. This time it’s hip-joint replacements.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) hit a yearly high of $28.03 following news that the company had launched its first ETF.

Och-Ziff Capital Management (NYSE: OZH) hit a yearly high of $12.74 following Friday’s announcement that the company’s flagship fund was up for the ninth month in a row.  

Venoco, Inc. (NYSE: VQ) hit a yearly high of $12.12, surging over 13% after the company announced that it had successfully sold $150 in senior notes in order to repay debt.

Garrett W. McIntyre

• Capital One (COF) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
• Celgene (CELG) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
• Gibralter Industries (ROCK) Raised to Neutral at Baird.
• Modine Manufacturing Co. (MOD)  Raised to Neutral at Baird.
• Smith & Nephew (SNN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
• AFLAC (AFL) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• America Movil SA (AMX) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
• SPSS (SPSS) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
• Venoco, Inc. (VQ) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• WMS Industries Inc. (WMS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

JON C. OGG

Last July, the company withdrew a planned IPO that would haveestablished an E&P master limited partnership. Venoco is alsotrying to complete the sale of about 18.4 million barrels of oilequivalent to Denbury Resources, Inc. (NYSE:DNR). Venoco expects torealize $150 million from the sale, which the company plans to use toreduce outstanding debt.

In other energy news, CREDO Petroleum Corporation (NASDAQ:CRED) issueda pat-itself-on-the-back press release this morning. The Denver Posthas named CREDO as the top performing energy stock in Colorado for 2008.

Let’s see, CREDO stock closed at $9.87/share on January 2, 2008, and at$8.42/share on December 31, 2008. That’s a drop of about 15%. Thingsmust be tougher than we thought in Colorado.

Paul Ausick
January 12, 2009

This has been standard operating procedure in the oil business sincethe early days: when profits are rolling in, spend; when profits aredeclining, save. For the little guys, like Venoco, this approach makessense, especially when credit is as tight as it is now.

But what about the big guys? They’re sitting on piles of cash. How arethey planning to use it? Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) expects to spend about$25 billion on capex in 2008. No word so far on plans for 2009. Capitalspending at Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is on track to be about $20 billion for2008. Both are increases over 2007.

But the increases were budgeted when the price of oil was climbingtoward $150/b, not falling in the direction of $30/b. If history is anyguide, Big Oil will restrict its capital spending on exploration for2009, and then when demand starts to pick back up as the economy comesout of its doldrums, there will be a shortage of supply that will takeseveral years to correct.

When China and India put a strain on oil supply in 2004, there was noway to keep up with demand. Prices soared as companies scrambled toinvest in new exploration. They found more oil, but it’s still in theground because it takes so long to develop a new discovery. And the oilmay stay there until crude prices head north again. Then, of course,the companies will start to re-invest in exploration, but it willdevelop too slowly to stop another spike in prices.

Big Oil might try to mollify investors with share buybacks, but that’sjust a continuation of business as usual. It’s time for these guys tothink about what’s next. How about some serious investment inalternative energy? The big oil companies have the money to do it, butthey lack the will. They think like the railroad companies (rememberthem?). Railroads forgot they were in the transportation business, notthe railroad business. Oil companies are in the energy business, notthe oil business. Think any of them will notice?

Paul Ausick
December 5, 2008

Earlier this week, Plains All American Pipeline LP (NYSE: PAA) completed a public offering of 6.9 million common units at $46.31/unit, generating net proceeds of $315 million. In February, Plains withdrew a proposed IPO for a master limited partnership (MLP) in its general partner, which may have generated much more cash.

OGE Corporation (NYSE: OGE) withdrew a proposed MLP IPO in January, citing "market volatility."

Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) had planned an MLP IPO for the third quarter of 2007, but the offering has neither gone forward nor been withdrawn.  This one is still in the "pending" category.

EXCO Resources Inc. (NYSE: XCO) filed in September 2007 for a public offering of 75 million common units in an MLP. Exco withdrew the offer in January, stating that "current market conditions do not support the completion of the offering in a manner that would result in the value enhancement to EXCO and its shareholders that was anticipated upon the initial filing of the registration statement."

Venoco Inc. (NYSE: VQ) announced an E&P MLP in February. This one is still outstanding as it is only 3-months old.  Venoco enjoyed a $3.00/share price jump on Monday’s earnings report.

Last week we saw a pricing from Western Gas Partners L.P. (NYSE: WES),a spin-out from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) saw a lacklusterIPO with a pricing below the indicated levels.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other secondary offerings, IPO’s, secondary offerings, special financings, mergers, spin-offs, and other special situations.

If you want to see an even more broad example of this trend in MLP’s, you can look at the ETF: BearLinx Alerian MLP Select Index ETN (NYSE: BSR)… This is technically an ETN, but who’s counting.  Its chart has been highly unimpressive.

It’s not all bad out there.  Some will still come public and some will still continue to do well.  We’ll be showing some other pending or withdrawn IPO’s in deals thatare similar, but aren’t going to be oil and gas or pipeline MLP IPO’s.Stay tuned.

Paul Ausick
May 15, 2008

• ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) Cut to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.
• Caribou Coffee (NASDAQ: CBOU) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Cowen.
• Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) Raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
• Intl Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE: IFF) Cut to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
• International Paper (NYSE: IP) cut To Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
• PF Chang’s (NASDAQ: PFCB) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Cowen.
• Procter & Gamble (NYSEL PG) Cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
• Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.
• Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) Raised to Hold from Sell at Citi.
• US Steel (NYSE: USX) Cut to Hold From Buy at Citigroup.
• Venoco (NYSE: VQ) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

Jon C. Ogg
April 17, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.  He can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Venoco Acquisition Company, L.P. is a Delaware limited partnership formed on September 25, 2007 by Venoco, Inc. that was set up to acquire, exploit, develop and produce oil and natural gas properties. 

This company has filed to sell 9.1 million units and has listed Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and UBS as its underwriters.  The underwriters also have listed 1.365 million units for the overallotment if they choose to sell extra shares.

The company’s assets have consisted primarily of mature oil and gas fields in coastal California and onshore in Texas.  As of December 31, 2006, the Partnership Properties had estimated proved reserves of 21.2 MMBoe, of which 86.2% were oil and 81.1% were classified as proved developed.  It also had a reserve-to-production ratio of 15.1 years. As of September 30, 2007, the Partnership Properties consisted primarily of working interests in 325 gross producing wells, with an average 38.5% working interest.

Jon C. Ogg
February 14, 2008