Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: CNOOC, Ltd., China Eastern Airlines, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and American Express Company

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 1, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights CNOOC, Ltd. (CEO - Analyst Report) as the Bull of the Day and China Eastern Airlines (CEA - Analyst Report) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS - Analyst Report), Morgan Stanley (MS - Snapshot Report) and American Express Company (AXP - Analyst Report).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

With favorable prospects for the resumption of China's economic growth and commodity prices off of their lows, CNOOC, Ltd. (CEO - Analyst Report) ADSs are expected to maintain their recent impressive performance momentum.

This, coupled with the company's positive production-growth profile, exclusivity in the offshore China region and lucrative LNG investments, account for continued favorable view.

The company's low cost operating model is also a competitive advantage. With approximately ten new projects going on-stream this year, full-year volumes are expected to increase by roughly 15%, with oil and natural gas production in the first half having gone up by 15.2%.

Bear of the Day:

We are maintaining our Underperform rating on China Eastern Airlines (CEA - Analyst Report). CEA reported 2009 first half earnings of RMB985 million, well above our estimate, reflecting a number of nonoperating items. These included gains of RMB831 million from an infrastructure levy refund and of RMB2,794 million on the fair value of fuel option contracts, partly offset by a RMB1,875 million decline in net exchange gains.

To shore up its balance sheet, China Eastern also announced the sale of up to RMB1.35 billion new A shares and 490 million new Hong Kong dollar-denominated H shares to parent, China Eastern Air Holding Co.

We continue to believe the fundamental outlook for airline carriers remains weak and a CEA/SAL tie-up will not change this. Both CEA and SAL shares are subject to special treatment, meaning that daily share price movements are limited to 5% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Moreover, the shares could be delisted should CEA and SAL continue to sustain losses in 2009.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

U.S. Profits from Bailed-Out Banks

The U.S. government has already retrieved about $4 billion in profits from 8 of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The government has recorded profits of about $1.4 billion from its investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS - Analyst Report), $1.3 billion from Morgan Stanley (MS - Snapshot Report) and $414 million from American Express Company (AXP - Analyst Report).

Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5507.

About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

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