Stone Energy Corporation (SGY) reported third-quarter 2009 earnings of $1.06 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 66 cents and the year-earlier earnings of $1.04. The robust results were driven by increased production volumes and reduced costs.

Production during the quarter averaged 239 million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), compared to average daily production of 209 MMcfe/d in the prior quarter and 129 MMcfe/d in the year-ago quarter. This increase was primarily due to the company’s successful execution of its hydraulic rig work over program, reduced cycle time and optimization of individual well rates.

A subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy Inc. (CNP) and NextEra US Gas Assets LLC, an affiliate of FPL Group Inc. (FPL) signed an agreement to explore the construction of a pipeline in north Louisiana. The new pipeline will transport natural gas from the Haynesville Shale area.

The expected capacity of the potential new pipeline is up to 2.0 billion cubic feet per day. The pipeline would connect Haynesville Shale natural gas production to markets in north Louisiana and CenterPoint Energy's Perryville Hub.

By Dirk van Dijk

I want to talk about the challenge of exponential growth in a finite world. This is a concept that, while on its surface seems easy to get, most people don’t fully grasp.

Suntech Power Holdings Company Ltd. (STP) posted strong third quarter results of 16 cents, double the Zacks Consensus Earnings per American Depository Share (EPADS) estimate of 8 cents. However, the company fell short of the year-ago EPADS of 33 cents by 17 cents.

Suntech registered total net revenues of $473.1 million in the reported quarter, an increase of 47.4% from $321 million in the previous quarter. Operating expenses were $39.3 million compared to $38.6 million in the previous quarter. Operating expenses included a net $3.5 million reversal of bad debt provision. Income from operations was $44.8 million compared to $21.1 million in the prior quarter.

After almost a year of initiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to rescue the nation’s financial industry, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that it would auction off stock warrants it acquired from three big banks that received a significant portion of taxpayers’ money and have fully repaid the same. The government is taking this step to free the lenders from the federal bailout program.

The three banks, whose warrants will be sold via auctions over the next month, are JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Capital One Financial (COF) and TCF Financial Corporation (TCB). These three banks, that received a total of $28.9 billion from the TARP, have fully repurchased Treasury's preferred stock investment. The current move to sell their warrants will completely free these banks from government intervention.

Gap Inc. (GPS), a premier international specialty retailer, has reported healthy third quarter results despite challenging market conditions. The company reported net income of $307 million or 44 cents per share during the quarter compared to $246 million or 35 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

The robust earnings were primarily driven by strong sales at its low-price Old Navy segment and the highest third quarter operating margins in a decade. Net sales during the quarter were $3.59 billion compared to $3.56 billion in the year-ago quarter, largely due to a 10% increase in comparable sales across 1,060 Old Navy stores that account for about 40% of the total sales.

NetApp Inc. (NTAP) reported second-quarter EPS of 37 cents, exceeding the Zacks Consensus estimate of 19 cents per share.

Revenues

The Gymboree Corp. (GYMB) reported its fiscal third quarter results after the closing bell on Wednesday. The company posted earnings of $34.8 million, a growth of 12.6% from $30.9 million recorded in the year-ago period. Earnings per share came in at $1.15, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.13.

Gymboree is a specialty retailer offering apparel and accessories for children under the Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, Janie and Jack and Crazy 8 Brands, as well as play programs under the Gymboree Play & Music brand. At the end of October 2009, the company operated a total of 951 stores across the U.S., Canada and in Puerto Rico.

American Express Company (AXP) said on Wednesday that it will acquire Internet payment platform Revolution Money for about $300 million.

The deal is expected to close in early 2010. Following the closure of the deal, Revolution Money would operate as a subsidiary of AmEx. The founder and chief executive of Revolution Money, Jason Hogg, will continue as president and chief executive.

Genzyme Corporation’s (GENZ) problems continue with the company recently announcing the discontinuation of the development of its kidney disease drug. Genzyme reported results on its advanced phosphate binder (APB) from a phase II/III study.

Although the candidate met its primary endpoint, results showed that it was not more effective than Renvela, a product that is marketed by Genzyme. Based on these results, the company has decided to discontinue further clinical development of the APB.

This week, initial claims for unemployment insurance (or jobless claims) were 505,000, the same as last week’s revised figure. However, the initial read was 502,000, so it is just as valid to see this as a 3,000 increase.

That, however, is not much in the overall scale of things. The four-week average fell by 6,500 to 514,000, and is now almost 145,000 below its mid-April peak.

Boeing Co. (BA) delivered its first 777-300ER (Extended Range) airplane to GE Capital Aviation Services and its lease customer Philippine Airlines. It is the first 777 in the fleet of Philippine Airlines. The aircraft was packed with relief supplies for victims of Typhoon Ketsana.

The airline has four more of this aircraft on order with Boeing. In the recently reported third quarter of fiscal 2009, the company booked 96 gross orders. The company finished the quarter with segmental backlog of $254 billion.

Autodesk Inc.'s (ADSK) third quarter earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate but fell below the year-ago levels. However, earnings increased sequentially due to higher cost controls.

The company reported net income on a non-GAAP basis of $63.1 million in the third quarter of 2010, down 51.5% from last year. Earnings per share (EPS) of 27 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 15 cents, but were down from 56 cents reported in the year-ago period. However, earnings increased from 24 cents a share sequentially.

Sprint Nextel (S) has expanded its fourth-generation (4G) wireless broadband network to two more US cities. The third largest US carrier has officially launched commercial services in San Antonio and Austin in Texas. The company’s 4G services now covers about 25 markets in the US, with plans to address more than 120 million people by the end of 2009.

Subscribers across the newly launched markets can now enjoy lightning fast mobile broadband experience by paying just $10 per month over their existing 3G wireless data plans. The 4G WiMax network offers up to 10 times faster network speeds than the existing 3G deployments. The download speeds enabled by the 4G WiMax network average 3−6 megabits per second (Mbps), with peak speeds exceeding 10 Mbps.

US telecom giant AT&T (T) has reportedly expanded its portfolio of premium cloud-based solutions with an innovative cloud computing service that delivers on-demand computing through a self-service approach over the company’s reliable and highly secured network cloud platform. The service called “AT&T Synaptic Compute as a Service” will offer businesses of all sizes on-demand access to computing resources based on their requirements.

Customers can use the service to quickly address immediate demands for variable computing processing power and increase capacity according to their business needs. The service will be officially launched in the US during fourth-quarter 2009 and will be expanded across select international markets in due course.

EnCana Corporation (ECA) – a major Canadian oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) company – reported weak third quarter results, hit by lower prices and volumes. Operating earnings per share, excluding hedging and foreign exchange effects, came in at $1.03. This fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.11 and way behind the year-ago profit of $1.92.

Revenues were down 64.2% year over year to $3.9 billion. During the quarter, total production was down 7.0% to 4,387 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), of which 81% was natural gas. Natural gas production decreased roughly 9.3% year-over-year to 3,551 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), while oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) production was up 3.7% to 139 thousand barrels per day (MBbls/d).

In October, Housing Starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 529,000, a 10.6% decline from September and down 30.7% from a year ago. That puts housing starts at their lowest level since April, and takes a lot of steam out of the incipient economic recovery.

Most of the damage, however, came in the very volatile apartment and condo area. Starts in buildings with five or more units dropped to their lowest level yet in this cycle at an annualized rate of just 48,000. That is down 33.3% from September and is off 78.1% from an already depressed level of a year ago.

Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) third quarter earnings beat the Zacks Consensus expectation but fell below the year-ago levels. However, earnings increased sequentially due to higher cost controls.

The company reported net income on a non-GAAP basis of $63.1 million in the third quarter of 2010, down 51.5% from last year. Earnings per share (EPS) of 27 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 15 cents, but were down from 56 cents reported in the year-ago period. However, earnings increased from 24 cents a share sequentially.

After market closed, SINA Corp. (SINA) reported revenues of $96.4 million in the third quarter of 2009. Revenues was down 8.6% year over year but was up 6.8% sequentially. Revenues exceeded the company's guidance of $91.0 – $94.0 million and easily beat the Zacks Consensus estimate of $94.0 million.

This reflects strong execution of the company’s online advertising business in China , which grew double-digits sequentially. We expect a huge improvement in SINA’s advertising business, as advertising spending recovers.