Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Follow @wallstCS

Stocks to Watch: Conoco Philips, Apollo Group, and Apache

October 28 2009 Tweet Email This

Reported This Morning: Conoco Philips (COP)

COP reported earnings of $1.00 before the bell, beating estimates by $.06.

Report Recap: Earnings fell 71% year-over-year on a $1.5 billion drop in profits.

“Although we operated well, we were adversely impacted by low North American natural gas prices and worldwide refining margins, which led us to curtail approximately 300 million cubic feet a day of natural gas production starting in late August and reduce refinery runs,” said CEO Jim Mulva.

Though it wasn’t all bad, the meager earnings beat did little to prop up the stock after an unexpected rise in gasoline supply was announced this morning.

As of 2:35 PM EST shares were trading down 2.96% at 49.39. COP had recently broken through intermediate-term resistance at around $48, and today’s trading doesn’t auger well for the coming weeks.

COP

Trading Big Today: Apollo Group (APOL):

APOL also reported earnings this morning, beating by $.02, but that’s not why they’re trading big. Along with the small earnings beat, this provider of higher education and owner of The University of Phoenix announced that federal regulators were probing it’s revenue-recognition practices. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wednesdays-biggest-gaining-and-declining-stocks-2009-10-28.

Shares are trading down over 18% and at least 3 brokerages have downgraded the company .

APOL

Reporting Tomorrow: Apache Corp. (APA):

APA, once the apple of the eye of nat gas momentum traders, has traded down nearly every day since hitting a 52-week high of 105.59 a week ago today.

Analysts are expecting APA to report earnings of $1.60 tomorrow before the bell.

The way this stock has been trading for the past week, it’s hard to know if anything they say can save it. Expect competitors XTO Energy (XTO) and Anadarko Petroleum (APC), who are both reporting next week, to trade in unison with APA tomorrow.

APA