Founded in 1989, Chesapeake Energy (CHK) has grown to become the second largest producer of natural gas and one of the most active drillers of new wells in the U.S. Chesapeake competes with other oil and gas producers like Exxon Mobil (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP), Anadarko (APC), BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX). Chesapeake owns interests in around 44,100 producing natural gas and oil wells that are currently producing around 2.4 billion cubic feet equivalent (bcfe), 93% of which is natural gas.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) announced it has agreed to sell approximately 487,000 net acres of leasehold and producing natural gas properties in the Fayetteville Shale play to BHP Billiton (BHP) for $4.75 billion in cash before certain deductions and standard closing adjustments. Chesapeake Energy overall option implied volatility of 34 is near its 26-week average, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was up 27% to 20.94.

Options Update is by stock specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

The impressive story continues with Potash Corp. (POT), first discussed here on March 3, 2009, at a price of $80.81.

In November, BHP Billiton (BBL) withdrew its unsolicited proposal to acquire Potash for $130 a share. As outlined in December, Potash is worth a lot more than $130, and the recent move to above $180 confirms the aforementioned.

Shares of Anadarko Petroleum (APC) gapped higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, thanks to a report that BHP Billiton (BHP) may be eyeing the firm as a potential takeover target. According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail, BHP could be prepping an offer worth $90 per share to acquire Anadarko. However, neither company has issued a formal response to the speculation.

After jumping to a new annual high of $76.50 bright and early Thursday morning, APC is on pace to notch a weekly finish atop the $70 level for the first time since April 23. In fact, if the shares can maintain their positive momentum through Friday's close, the shares could stage their first weekly victory north of $75 since June 2008.

"Commodities are experiencing a long-term bull market that will last for years, despite periodic ups and downs," notes Yiannis Mostrous, editor of The Silk Road Investor.

Mostrous -- author of the just-published The Rise of the State: Profitable Investing and Geopolitics in the 21st Century -- explains, "Our latest new buy is BHP Billiton (BHP) is the world's largest mining company by market capitalization.

"Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (MOO) offers a great opportunity to capitalize on the move in the sector; the fund focuses on the 40 most actively traded companies in the agriculture chemical and product business," says Jim Farrish.

The exchange-traded fund specialist and editor of SectorExchange.com explains, "Below, we review the ETF as well as some individual agriculture-based stocks poised to break out on the upside.

"The agriculture stocks have been moving up aggressively since the end of June. The initial push came on the drought issues in Russia and wheat production.

In the wake of the BHP Billiton's (BHP) failed $39 billion offer and its new hostile $40 billion takeover bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT), agricultural fertilizer companies, including CF Industries Holdings (CF), are starting to look pretty juicy to investors.

Fertilizer companies have been struggling during the past few years as cash-strapped farmers have been pulling back on their purchases, but the tide appears to be changing.

With rising prices for crops like wheat and corn, it is starting to look like it is going to be a really good year for U.S. farmers, which means they are going to have plenty of money to reinvest in new machinery and more fertilizer.

In my search for value investments among the top twelve stocks by capitalization -- the "super caps" -- I began by reviewing the price-to-earnings and price-to-sales ratios. Today we will move on to examine price-to-book (P/B) and price-to-cash flow (P/CF).

If you are one of the lucky ones that benefited from the market's long rise from the depths of Hades and are now looking to rotate into less volatile positions, or you still remain apprehensive and want to stake out a new position, some of these super caps may be just for you.

Since early last fall, the majority of pundits have been saying that there would be a rotation from small cap stocks to the safety of large cap stocks in the new year. So far, the small cap stocks have maintained the lead, but a shift is taking place and the longer the bull runs and the worse global news becomes, the more this is likely to continue.

I have decided to examine the largest of the large cap stocks; lets call them the "super" caps; the top twelve as of May 13, 2010. Over the course of this series, the order will change and the bottom few may fade in and out as the market activity dictates. I may update the order, but for simplicity's sake will not change the stocks from the current list.

"We recommend Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), which bills itself as "the world's largest publicly-traded copper company". However, it also owns large deposits of gold and molybdenum," says Glenn Rogers.

The contributing analyst to The Internet Wealth Builder adds, "We also recommend BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), an Australian-based mining giant that has diversified into other areas such as crude oil, natural gas, and, most recently, potash in Saskatchewan. Its mineral assets include aluminum, silver, uranium, nickel, iron, diamonds, lead, and more.

"To beef up our already strong collection of natural resource plays, we're adding Australia's BHP Billiton (BHP) to the mix," says long-term growth stock expert Stephen Leeb.

In The Complete Investor, he explains, "This $175 billion company is the largest mining company in the world and makes up some 14% of Australia's market index. It's truly the big fish in resource-rich Australia's ocean-sized pond."

"With more than 100 operations in 25 different countries, BHP produces a huge array of commodities and has a geographically diverse footprint to boot.

In The New World 3.0, the advisor explains, "BHP Billiton is the only major listed company to that boasts such a diversified energy portfolio.

"Recently, analysts have unleashed an avalanche of upgrades for companies in the mining sector, coinciding with higher price forecasts for a wide range of metals.

"The main reasons for the recent upsurge in optimism regarding miners are strong economic growth in China and an anticipated restocking of materials in developed nations.