Zacks.com Announces That Ian Wyatt Highlights the Following Stocks: Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhilips, and Chevron.

CHICAGO -- Ian Wyatt, editor of the Growth Report newsletter, says energy investors are trapped in a see-saw market. Discover why and learn about Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), ConocoPhilips (NYSE:COP), and Chevron (NYSE:CVX). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://at.zacks.com/?id=84

Highlights from the November 3 Featured Expert column by Ian Wyatt include:

The Slippery Slope of Oil

Oil companies are in a pickle, victims of their own success. As consumers bear the brunt of higher energy costs, oil industry giants including Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), ConocoPhilips (NYSE:COP) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) must now answer to Congress, Wall Street and even their own shareholders as to why they should enjoy such windfalls, and how are they going to beat their own quarterly numbers in the future.

Recent earnings reports out of Exxon Mobil and Chevron reveal that, while consumers have gotten pinched at the pump and will suffer painfully high heating oil and natural gas prices this winter, oil companies have refused to share in their misery. Quite the opposite. While Exxon's net income in its most recent quarter soared 75 percent from a year ago, ConocoPhillips jumped an even greater 89 percent. Exxon became the first company ever to report revenues of over $100 billion in a single fiscal quarter. Its sales of $100.7 billion and quarterly profits of $9.92 billion were a record for any.

By most accounts, higher prices should start to yield softness in demand, particularly in gasoline consumption. Moreover, Congress has begun making noises about price gouging by the oil companies and possibly taxing any excessive profits.

As OPEC suggests it will be able to raise output to meet any increasing demand for oil this winter, traders are worried that profits could be capped at current levels (if not decline slightly), given the windfalls they've already seen. Furthermore, investors are wondering if such obscene profits might already be as good as it gets.