Shia LaBeouf, who is starring as Gordon Gekko's protege in the upcoming Wall Street sequel, recently offered a strange text message to a GQ reporter working on a story on him: "IOC's momentum is major, and it will surprise to the upside."

IOC is Interoil (IOC), an oil and gas exploration company with a $3 billion market cap and no proved reserves. Ex-con turned fraud fighter Barry Minkow has alleged that the company is nothing more than a pump and dump (see his website devoted to the company InterNoOil.com).

Equally interesting is that prior to joining InterOil as a PR person, Andrews was an equity analyst who covered the company.

Interoil (IOC - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company said it will have to redrill part of its Antelope-2 well in Papua New Guinea due to mechanical issues. The company now expects the horizontal extension at Antelope-2 to be completed in late April. Despite crude futres being up more than 2.5% today, IOC is down a good deal on this less-than-stellar news. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on IOC.

This morning, IOC opened at $66.43. So far today the stock has hit a high of $67.80 and a low of $65.00. As of 11:50, IOC is trading at $66.53, down $2.05 (-3.0%). The chart for IOC looks bearish.

Monday, March 31

• InterOil Corporation (AMEX: IOC) to report quarterly earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
• Fed Reserve San Fransisco Bank President Janet Yellen to speak about foreclosures at 12:00pm.

Tuesday, April 1

• Happy April Fools Day, watch out for pranks!
• A-Power Energy Generation Systems (NASDAQ: APWR) to report quarterly earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to report monthly sales, Ford at 1:00pm, GM at 2:00pm.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite speculative choice for 2008 is InterOil Corp. (Toronto: IOL)," says Yola Edwards, editor of the technically oriented Yola Edward's Charts.

"The company is a junior exploration company involved in liquified natural gas. InterOil has partnered with Merrill Lynch Commodities, Inc. to develop a project in Papua New Guinea.

"InterOil's assets consist of petroleum licenses covering about 9 million acres, an oil refinery, and retail and commercial distribution facilities in Papua New Guinea. During 2006, the company announced a gas and condensate discovery, and doubled the downstream business by acquiring Shell's distribution assets in Papua New Guinea.

"The company announced a net loss of $17.9 million, or 60 cents per share (diluted), for the third quarter of 2007, compared with $7.3 million net loss or 25 cents per share (diluted) in the third quarter of 2006.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) may not go through with their expected buyout of Harmon International Industries (NYSE: HAR), according to the Wall Street Journal, as a result of the credit crisis and lower results at Harmon.
• The Financial Times reported that Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group (OTC: LNVGY) is open to acquiring companies, but buying companies is not a top priority, according to Lenovo CEO Bill Amelio.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Guardian reported that Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is considering a move into the U.K. wireless market after regulator Ofcom proposed taking back over a third of the mobile phone spectrum that Vodafone Group (NYSE: VOD) and O2 have been using for 22 years to auction it for new entrants.
• From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column:
  
• How much higher can Apple Inc (NADSAQ: AAPL) go? Of the 27 analysts who track Apple, 23 still recommend buying it, 4 rate it a hold, while none advise selling it.
• A week after Boone Pickens disclosed a 9.9% stake in InterOil Corporation (NYSE: IOC), the stock gushed from $28 on Aug. 8 to $40.75 on Aug. 13, the day the oil-and-gas explorer disclosed it found evidence of oil in its Elk-2 well in Papua New Guinea.
  
• Bioenvision Inc (NASDAQ: BIVN), the small biotech that Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) agreed to acquire in May at $5.60 a share, may not close on the deal unless Genzyme raises its offer.

Few people know the energy industry as well as T. Boone Pickens and, if you like to follow 13-D filings in search of investment ideas, you may want to take a look at InterOil (AMEX: IOC) because Pickens has increased his stake in the company to 9.9%.

It's interesting to see the once-feared raider involved in InterOil because it looks like a very speculative investment: InterOil is working on a natural gas project in Papua New Guinea, but currently has no proven reserves and a lot of debt. All this for a market cap of just south of $1 billion.

But if you're going to speculate on an energy stock, you could probably do a lot worse than to follow Pickens into InterOil. No one knows exactly what his intentions are -- he won't talk and neither will the company -- but the presence of such a prominent oilman should help the company's future fundraising efforts. The shares have been extremely volatile of late, but the upside of a super-investor may not be priced in yet.

I would continue to watch this one from the sidelines for now.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Tompkins plc (TKS), Commerce Bancorp (CBH), Tribune Co (TRB) and Progressive Gaming International Corp (PGIC) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Merrill Lynch upgraded shares of Tompkins plc (NYSE: TKS) to Neutral from Sell on valuation as they believe the company's exposure to the weak U.S. residential and automotive markets is priced into shares.

• RBC Capital raised Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH) to Sector performer from Underperformer. They view the terms of the consent order as a positive and believe the company will now consider a sale given the resignation of CEO Vernon Hill. Keefe Bruyette also upgraded shares of Commerce to Market Perform from Underperform.

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Tribune Co (NYSE: TRB) to Buy from Hold as they believe the going-private transaction will be completed.

• ThinkEquity upgraded Progressive Gaming (NASDAQ: PGIC) to Buy from Accumulate following a recent trip to Macau and marketing meetings with management that reinforced their confidence in the company's long-term viability and strong market positioning...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman upgraded Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ: COST) to Buy from Neutral.

• Wachovia raised The McClatchy Co (NYSE: MNI) to Outperform from Market Perform.

• InterOil Corp (AMEX: IOC) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

• JP Morgan added Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) to its Focus List.

• Banc of America added Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE: ADM) to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).