BloggingStocks: Analyst upgrades: JPMorgan upgraded Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) to Overweight from Neutral following its gold valuation analysis. The firm set a $54 price target on Barrick shares and a $47 price target on Goldcorp shares. ... Read more

Let me preface this piece by saying I stole this specific instrument from Jeffrey Saut, who mentioned it in his weekly missive. Long time readers will know I've mentioned this market has become all about asset allocation, and sectors - I noticed this late in 2007 when we were hiding out in commodities while many other sectors were imploding but other than a few periods when "everything" is going down (or up) it appears a lot of individual stock selection is going out the window and "sectors" are more important. Some themes are broad like "China" or "commodities" (which in many ways are now the same theme), where others are narrower such as "casual dining restaurants". I don't know if its the dominance of program trading or the growing popularity of ETFs but this seems to be a secular change in the[More...]

The Money: $3.375 billion: $1.25 billion cash upfront; $2.125 billion in drilling costs over 2009-2012. The Position: CHK gives up 32.5% of their Marcellus position (or 600,000 acres of their 1.8 million acre position). The company had been looking to farm out 25% of their leading position in the play but at (...)[More...]