For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – April 14, 2010 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Ford (F), EnCana (ECA), Chesapeake (CHK), Kinder Morgan (KMP) and Gilead Sciences (GILD).
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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:
Trade Deficit Deteriorates
Oil really is at the core of our problem, as our oil deficit is 45.7% of our total deficit in goods, and 57.7% of the overall Trade Deficit. The increase in the oil portion of the deficit from a year ago is responsible for $9.7 billion, or 73.6% of the $13.3 billion increase in the monthly deficit relative to a year ago.
Reducing our oil consumption would be like chemotherapy to cure the cancer on the economy that is the Trade Deficit. Like chemo, the process would not be painless, but there is a therapy that would have relatively low side effects: natural gas.
All around the world there are cars and trucks that run on compressed natural gas, some of which are actually made by Ford (F) and GM. Thus it is not really a technological issue, it is a “chicken and the egg” issue of having enough refueling places for natural gas. But since gas is piped just about everywhere, that should not be too big of a hurdle to overcome. One could even imagine people being able to refuel at home if the right sort of compressor were installed (there are some safety issues there, but are not insurmountable).
Natural gas is extremely cheap relative to oil (on an energy-equivalent basis, multiply the price of natural gas, currently about $4.00 by six to get the equivalent of a barrel of oil. Right now I would say that oil at the equivalent of $24 a barrel looks pretty good. Then add in the environmental benefits, as gas produces far less CO2 than oil (and about half as much as coal) per BTU.
Of course, CO2 is not the only sort of pollution that we need to be concerned about, and natural gas produces almost none of them. Thanks to the new shale plays we have lots and lots of gas here at home. We also probably find at least as much natural gas as oil in the offshore areas that President Obama recently opened up for exploration.
While such a shift would obviously benefit the big natural gas-oriented energy firms like EnCana (ECA) and Chesapeake (CHK), as well as the owners of natural gas pipelines such as Kinder Morgan (KMP), the losers would be people like Hugo Chavez and Saudi Arabia. Somehow I don’t see that as being all that terrible.
Yes, there will be some transition costs, and there is some risk to natural gas drilling. Still, it seems like the best bridge fuel until we can get to the point where most of our energy comes from renewable sources like wind and solar. Adding to our wind and solar-generating capacity will also help reduce our dependence on imported oil, but it cannot be scaled up as quickly as can natural gas, and they are not very practical as transportation fuels.
Gilead initiates Late-Stage Trial
Recently, Gilead Sciences (GILD) initiated the phase III program of Quad, which is a fixed dose combination of four drugs: elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. The phase III program consists of two trials (Studies 102 and 103), which will compare Quad with a standard HIV therapy in treatment-naïve patients.
In addition, Gilead is examining the efficacy of cobicistat as a boosting agent for other antiretrovirals. The company also plans to initiate a phase III trial to evaluate the impact of cobicistat-boosted atazanavir as against ritonavir-boosted atazanavir, both in combination with Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate).
In the phase II trial, it was observed that after 24 weeks, about 90% of the patients in the Quad arm experienced a reduction in the viral load factor (less than 50 copies/mL) compared to 83% in the Atripla arm.
Study 102 has been designed to compare Quad with Atripla in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. About 700 HIV-infected treatment naïve adults with HIV RNA levels greater than or equal to 5,000 copies/mL will participate in the trial. They will receive either Quad or Atripla over a 96-week period.
The patient profile for study 103 will be similar to study 102. This study will compare Quad with ritonavir-boosted atazanavir and Truvada over a 96-week period across more than 200 study sites in multiple locations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
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