ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) stated today that its third quarter earnings would be hurt by weak North American natural gas prices, and that its total output would drop nearly five percent from the second quarter. The company’s production is expected to reach 1.78 million barrels of oil, hurt by maintenance on operations in Britain and Alaska. Margins for refining oil into products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, have also weakened versus the previous quarter and levels a year prior. And the company’s worldwide refinery utilization rates are expected to come in near the upper 80 percent range. -Reuters

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) disclosed that its September same-store sales rose 5.3%. Front-end same-store sales during the month increased 2%, while pharmacy same-store sales increased 7%. September total sales rose 10.3% to $5.35 billion.

When Ken Lewis finally leaves Bank of America (BAC) he will receive a $125 million retirement package from the financial giant, that is, unless the federal government steps in and decides to challenge. A majority of Lewis’ compensation was established long before the big bank got into trouble and had to tap into $45 billion worth of TARP funds, so his employment contract may be sacrosanct. If so, he will claim one of the largest severance packages in American corporate history. According to Reuters, the package includes $53.2 million in retirement benefits, mostly from a program frozen years ago, and $72.8 million in accumulated stock and other compensation. -24/7 Wall St.

Citadel Investment Group LLC raked in about $1 billion last year in a unit that does high-frequency trading. The figure, which emerged this week in a Chicago court battle involving Citadel, shows how lucrative this secretive trading practice can be. High-frequency trading, in which traders use computers to make quick and timely decisions to capture fleeting moves in the market, last year proved one of the rare successful market strategies, as traders capitalized on the market’s volatility. -The Wall Street Journal

U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday after government data showed many more jobs were lost in September than economists anticipated, casting doubts about the pace of recovery from a deep recession. –Reuters

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) the 101-year-old commercial lender, seeks to cut at least $5.7 billion of debt to help it avoid collapse and return to profitability after nine straight quarters of losses. The company asked bondholders to exchange unsecured obligations for new secured debt maturing in four to eight years and preferred shares. Investors holding bonds closest to maturity will get additional new debt, while those with notes due later will receive proportionately more equity, according to a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission today. –Bloomberg

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS, which stated that the iPhone’s prospects look bright. It also disclosed that the company may be working on building a foundation for a service to provide seamless access and mobility of digital content across its products. -Marketwatch

by Jutia Group