For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 24, 2009 – 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: XTO Energy (XTO), Chesapeake (CHK), EOG Resources (EOG), Nabors (NBR) and BJ Services (BJS).

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Natural Gas Continues to Build

Continued strong domestic production (from a number of unconventional natural gas fields) and recessionary consumption (due to the economic downturn), particularly in the industrial sector, are at the core of the commodity’s current woes. The supply picture is expected to reverse in the coming months as the lagging effect of the sharp drop in domestic drilling activity takes effect. Partly offsetting the production drop is the expected ramp-up of LNG imports this year.

The commodity’s weak near-term outlook, coupled with the ongoing credit market turmoil, has prompted natural gas producers to curtail capital expenditure plans for 2009. As such, we remain cautious on natural gas-focused E&P players such as XTO Energy (XTO), Chesapeake (CHK) and EOG Resources (EOG). We currently rate shares of these companies as Neutral.

In particular, we remain wary of land drillers such Nabors (NBR) and natural gas-centric service providers such as BJ Services (BJS), given the extent of excess capacity in the sector that is expected to weigh on dayrates and margins well into next year. We have Underperform recommendation on both the companies.

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