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only arca and nite left at .015
lol thats funny
looks good thnx
i agree slow and steady then in jan run run run
great
Constellation Energy calls off merger with Buffett unit, will do venture with France's EDF
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Constellation Energy said Wednesday it will sell half of its nuclear power business to French state-controlled nuclear power company EDF for $4.5 billion, scuttling a $4.7 billion offer from a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway for all of the company.
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Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group Inc. had agreed to the $26.50-per-share bid by Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, back in September. The deal, which included a much-needed $1 billion capital infusion, came after Constellation's shares plummeted amid liquidity concerns that had analysts worried the nation's largest wholesale power generator would go out of business.
But Electricite de France SA, already Constellation Energy's largest shareholder with a 9.5 percent stake, had complained that MidAmerican's offer shortchanged the company. EdF then offered to buy all of Constellation for $35 a share but backed off that proposal in October. It made its latest offer two weeks ago. Earlier this month it made its own $4.5 billion bid for Constellation's reactors in Maryland and New York. The transaction could lead to the only foreign ownership stake in U.S. nuclear plants.
"This agreement with EDF Development Inc. provides an opportunity for Constellation Energy shareholders to achieve greater value for the company's significant asset base," Mayo A. Shattuck III, chairman, president and chief executive of Constellation Energy, said in a statement.
EdF's offer for half of Constellation's nuclear business includes an immediate $1 billion cash infusion and an option for Constellation to sell up to $2 billion of non-nuclear generation assets to the French company in a transaction expected to close in six to nine months. Unlike the deal with MidAmerican, the offer from EdF allows Constellation to remain an independent company.
Constellation's nuclear business includes three nuclear power stations with five reactors in Maryland and New York. Nuclear power accounts for 61 percent of Constellation's total electricity generating capacity of 8,700 megawatts. The companies already have a joint venture to plan new nuclear projects in the U.S.
Constellation's non-nuclear assets include coal- and natural gas-fired electric plants, as well as oil and renewable energies such as solar, geothermal and hydro power.
Even without completing the deal for Constellation, MidAmerican still comes out well. Constellation will have to pay MidAmerican $593 million in cash -- including a $175 million termination fee -- and issue MidAmerican 20 million shares, or 9.9 percent of its stock. The preferred stock that MidAmerican bought with its $1 billion infusion will be converted into a loan with a 14 percent interest rate that will have to be repaid in a year.
Constellation shareholders had been expected to vote on the deal Tuesday. The transaction already had received several regulatory approvals.
Constellation shares fell 97 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $27.77 in trading Wednesday morning.
The deal is just the latest in a string of acquisitions for EdF, the world's largest owner of nuclear power plants and Europe's leading power producer. In September, it said it would buy British Energy Group, Britain's biggest electricity producer, for $18.5 billion. It also has bought controlling stakes in two North Sea gas fields from the British unit of U.S. company ATP Oil & Gas Co. in a deal to expand its natural gas supplies and has invested in a Turkish wind farm company.
MidAmerican wished Constellation well on its deal with EdF.
"We were pleased to have been able to quickly provide a significant amount of capital that was critical to Constellation Energy as they went through unprecedented financial times," Gregory E. Abel, president and chief executive of MidAmerican, said in a statement.
MidAmerican Energy distributes energy in the U.S. and U.K. consumer markets and has approximately 6.9 million electricity and gas customers. Its subsidiaries include California utility PacifiCorp.
E-Trade's client assets fall 42 percent
Wednesday December 17, 12:00 pm ET
E-Trade's client assets fall 42 percent in November amid downturn
NEW YORK (AP) -- Brokerage firm E-Trade Financial Corp. said Wednesday it added a net of about 26,000 new accounts in November, but total retail customer assets fell 42 percent from the year-ago period amid a tumbling market.
E-Trade clients had about $110.1 billion in assets last month, down from the $191 billion the same time last year and 8 percent lower than the $119.4 billion they had in October.
Daily average revenue trades, or DARTs, also fell 2 percent from a year earlier. About 217,800 trades were made each trading day in November, down from the roughly 222,200 the same time last year.
Accounts totaled 4.5 million at the end of the month, according to the New York-based company.
E-Trade shares were unchanged at $1.30 in midday trading.
Madoff appears at courthouse, has curfew set
Judge sets new conditions for Madoff bail, including curfew and ankle bracelet
Wednesday December 17, 2008, 2:00 pm EST
Yahoo! Buzz Print NEW YORK (AP) -- Disgraced investor Bernard Madoff made a surprise appearance at the Manhattan federal courthouse as a judge set new conditions for his bail, including a curfew and monitoring bracelet.
Madoff remains free on bail. He said nothing to reporters as he walked out of the building; it's unclear why he was at the courthouse because his hearing had already been postponed.
Part of Madoff's bail conditions required that he find people to co-sign for him, and his wife and brother had already done so.
Madoff had been required to find two additional co-signers to vouch for him, but with the scandal swirling around him, he was unable to do so. So the judge modified the bail package, and gave lawyers until next Monday to come up with additional paperwork.
Madoff has already surrendered his passport, and now will be required to be at his Manhattan apartment from 7 p.m to 9 a.m. His wife was also required to surrender her passport.
Madoff was arrested on charges that he carried out what prosecutors said he called a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
OPEC cuts record 2.2 million barrels a day from output -- Russia keeps its distance from group
ORAN, Algeria (AP) -- OPEC on Wednesday agreed to slash 2.2 million barrels from its daily production -- its single largest cut ever -- while bloc outsiders Russia and Azerbaijan announced their own cutbacks of hundreds of thousands of barrels from the market.
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"I hope we surprised you," OPEC President Chekib Khelil said when asked whether the size of the cut would shock moribund oil markets into an upward trend. "If you're not surprised we need to so something about it."
And yet markets weren't impressed.
Crude oil sank to $40.20 after the announcement, a level not seen since the summer of 2004 and a clear sign investors are more worried that the world is heading for a long and painful recession in which energy use will continue to erode.
In just five months, crude has given up all of the price gains made over the past four years.
Making matters worse for OPEC, Moscow distanced itself from direct ties with the 13-nation producers' group, further dampening OPEC hopes of coordinated production cuts that might put a floor under crude prices.
OPEC said oil ministers of the 11 nations under the group's quota system agreed to take 4.2 million barrels a day off the market, but that includes two previous announced cuts that totaled 2 million barrels.
That leaves the new output reduction announced Wednesday at 2.2 million barrels, effective Jan. 1.
Still, even the record cut was unable to counterbalance consumers' concerns about the dismal world economy.
In the U.S., the world's largest crude consumer, the Federal Reserve's decision to slash its target interest rate to nearly zero buoyed global stock markets Tuesday and early Wednesday.
But the news on the U.S. economy is expected to get worse before it gets better. Businesses, which have already cut nearly 2 million jobs since January, keep laying off workers in the face of slumping demand.
The government reported Tuesday before the Fed rate announcement that home builders slashed production in November by 18.9 percent, the biggest drop in nearly a quarter century. That pushed activity down to a record low annual rate of 625,000 units as the woes in the property market, where the current economic troubles began, showed no signs of abating
Focusing on the shrinking oil market, OPEC noted in its statement that "crude volumes entering the market remain well in excess of actual demand."
"Moreover, the impact of the grave global economic downturn has led to a destruction of demand, resulting in unprecedented downward pressure being exerted on prices," it said.
The group said "if unchecked, prices could fall to levels which would place in jeopardy the investments required to guarantee adequate energy supplies in the medium to long term."
In addition to signaling that a major cut was in the offing in the days leading up to the Oran conference, OPEC ministers had expressed hope that Russia -- the No. 2 producer after Saudi Arabia -- would join in a significant cutback that would bolster prices.
Such support would be significant. Non-OPEC members Mexico, Norway and Russia last slashed production in the late 1990s, at a time oil was selling for about $10 a barrel.
But although Russian Deputy Premier Igor Sechin and Azeri Energy Minister Natik Aliev announced cutbacks of a total of more than 600,000 barrels a day, their commitments appeared largely symbolic.
The Russians indicated their reductions had already been implemented in November, while Azerbaijan's output had already been reduced by about a third due to production problems earlier this year.
Among those hoping for Moscow's support was oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia.
"We also hope that other producers who are not in OPEC will chip in for the purpose of bringing stability to the market," said Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi said, in a nod to Russia.
Sechin, in comments to The Associated Press, said "Russian oil companies have already made a decision to cut deliveries to the market ... approximately equivalent to 350,000 barrels per day." But he specified that his country's cuts had already been enacted ahead of the OPEC meeting.
Sechin did hold out the possibility of further reductions, saying Russia was ready to pare another 320,000 barrels a day "if we see the continuation of the current level of prices on the world oil markets."
But with Russian production falling, due in part to lagging investment, it was unclear whether some of the cuts enacted or proposed were simply a way of packaging Moscow's inability to keep up present output levels. Even before Sechin's comments, Russian output -- now close to 10 million barrels a day -- was expected to decline by 1 percent this year and by around 2 percent in 2009.
That -- and the fact that Russia was announcing reductions already enacted -- diminished the significance of its move.
Sechin's vague comments on further cooperation with OPEC -- he mentioned plans for possible "permanent observer status" without specifying what that meant -- also signaled Moscow's reluctance to trade its traditional independence for closer ties with the 13-nation producers' group.
Sechin did not rule out full membership eventually, but said, "We are not rushing." A member of the Russian delegation who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment was blunter, saying his country had no interest in joining OPEC.
OPEC President Khelil sought to cast a positive light on the Russian moves, suggesting that while Russia might rethink membership it was a sovereign country that can "cut maybe more strongly or less strongly -- or maybe (do) nothing."
"We cannot tell them, you know, what to cut, and how to cut, and when to cut. They have to make their own decision."
But the Russians "are probably going to change their minds in the future and become full members," he said.
Azerbaijan's Aliev said his country "will support the OPEC cuts," slashing up to 300,000 barrels a day from the country's output. That would be more than a third of total production for the country on the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
Still, Azerbaijan's proposed cuts may be involuntary. After an accident on the main BP pumping platform in October, oil industry analysts say the country's output has dropped to around 500,000 barrels a day -- the level Aliev was proposing at Oran.
Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Alfred de Montesquiou and Adam Schreck in Oran contributed to this report.
yeap i wish i was invited
that would be nice
hey Stocksurgeon what do you know about East Delta?
yeah and its .025 x .028
time will tell right
we will find out soon
doubt that so much more crap is still going on
hdsn is the only one at .005 now
nothing we can do it is what it is
agree with that
lol
coudn't say it better
better get them out at these prices lol
ok will check it out keep it comming
ok here we come
you where right
looking good
not sure lets see what the afternoon brings
i agree
PSPFE vol coming in
looking good
yeah here we go
its not a stock
thnx
SSDD
Good morn Santa
OPEC likely to cut oil production by 2 million barrels -- with outside producers joining in
ORAN, Algeria (AP) -- OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia said Wednesday the group will slash a record 2 million barrels from its daily production as of Jan. 1, while Russia and other OPEC outsiders announced their own cutbacks of hundreds of thousands of barrels from the market.
Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi said there was an OPEC consensus ahead of a formal agreement later in the day for the cut.
An official decision to pare 2 million barrels from output all at once would be a first for the organization. An OPEC reduction of that size four years ago was enacted in stages.
Oil prices rose above $45 a barrel Wednesday in anticipation of the record OPEC reduction.
By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for January delivery was up $1.66 to $45.26 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Also significant would be formal support from Russia, Azerbaijan and other non-OPEC producers. Mexico, Norway and Russia slashed production in the late 1990s, at a time oil was selling for about $10 a barrel.
Russian Deputy Premier Igor Sechin and Azeri Energy Minister Natik Aliev announced cutbacks of a total of more than 600,000 barrels a day.
Still, their commitments appeared to be at least partially symbolic. The Russians indicated their reductions were already implemented in November, while Azerbaijan's output had already been reduced by about a third due to production problems earlier this year.
Naimi first mentioned the 2 million figure in Oran on Tuesday, the eve of the oil ministers' decision-making meeting. On Wednesday he said the ministers were likely to agree "on a reduction of 2 million barrels per day from what we are doing today ... a significant cut."
Naimi said OPEC's cuts will be effective Jan. 1
"We also hope that other producers who are not in OPEC will chip in for the purpose of bringing stability to the market," he said, in a nod to Russia, the top oil producer after the Saudis.
Sechin, in comments to The Associated Press, said "Russian oil companies have already made a decision to cut deliveries to the market ... approximately equivalent to 350,000 barrels per day."
In later comments he specified that his country's cuts had already been enacted ahead of the OPEC meeting, and "if the current situation stays as it is, the actions of our companies will be continued."
Sechin did hold out the possibility of further reductions, saying Russia was ready to pare another 320,000 barrels a day "if the current crisis remains on the global market."
But with Russian production falling due in part to lagging investment, it was unclear whether some of the cuts simply reflected an inability to keep up present output levels.
That -- and the fact that Russia was announcing reductions already enacted -- reduced the significance of its move.
Aliev said his country "will support the OPEC cuts," slashing up to 300,000 barrels a day from Azerbaijan's output. That would be more than a third of total production for the country on the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
Still, Azerbaijan's proposed cuts may be involuntary. After an accident on the main BP pumping platform in October, oil industry analysts say the country's output has dropped to around 500,000 barrels a day -- the level Aliev was proposing at Oran.
Aliev said his government had calculated the 2009 budget based on an oil price of $70 a barrel, and would have to compensate for the loss of money by tapping into a strategic government oil fund. Oil prices have plunged stunningly in recent months to less than $50 a barrel from $147 a barrel in July.
That might be good for consumers already straining from the financial crisis. But -- like Azerbaijan -- OPEC and non-OPEC producers are hurting from levels that are in some cases now below what's needed to balance their budgets or earn a profit.
Oil producers fear a drawn-out lull in prices could hurt investment and lay the groundwork for another sharp price spike when the world's economy rebounds.
"There's always been some finger-pointing at OPEC, but now even some (rich consuming nations) are saying maybe prices have gone too far," Olivier Jakob of energy analysis firm Petromatrix in Switzerland said ahead of the meeting. "In terms of security of supply, you are much worse at $40 a barrel than at $75."
OPEC gave ministers ammunition to justify cuts in its latest monthly market report, released Tuesday, which predicted demand for its crude oil will have fallen by 700,000 barrels per day this year and will drop by at least twice that amount in 2009 as the worsening global economy "is expected to have a strong impact on oil demand."
Ahead of a formal decision, other OPEC ministers also expressed sentiment for a large cut to shock the market and put a floor under prices.
Still, while eager to push prices higher, OPEC must weigh production cuts against the risk of driving the economies of its top customers deeper into recession.
A senior OPEC official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said "reasonable" OPEC nations would accept prices around $50 a barrel in the short term so as not to contribute to the world economic downturn.
Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Alfred de Montesquiou and Adam Schreck in Oran contributed to this report.