During the Chicago Bulls' great run of NBA championships, Michael Jordan was once asked if he was worried about competing against an impressive Utah Jazz team in the finals one year.

"Not really," Jordan said.

Likewise with my stance toward Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO). FRO has meandered somewhat since recommended on April 28, 2009 at $19.17, but just look on that as an extended buy opportunity. I'm reiterating my Buy rating for FRO.

Today was a light economic day, and the tone was essentially nothing but profit taking the whole day. The markets opened weak and stayed weak all day, except in technology stocks on NASDAQ. Banks were the big losers today on waves and waves of financial firms doing dilutive capital raises.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,421.08 -153.57 (-1.79%)
S&P 500 909.60 -19.63 (-2.11%)
Nasdaq 1,731.24 -7.76 (-0.45%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

While other earnings may have disappointed last week, the news was good for oil giant ConocoPhilips (NYSE: COP). In what some took as a good sign for big oil, the Houston-based company reported that third quarter net income surged 41% year over year to $3.39 per share, and that revenue also surged 52% to $70 billion. We'll see whether the good news extends to other petroleum giants scheduled to report quarterly results this week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are looking for BP (NYSE: BP) profits to have grown 43.2% in the most recent quarter to $2.34 per share on revenue of $109.7 billion, and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) to post earnings up 39.4% to $3.25 per share on revenue of $86.8 billion. Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO), ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) likewise are expected to report higher net income of $2.33 per share (sales of $23.4 billion), $2.40 per share (sales of $131.4 billion), and $2.65 per share, respectively. Even Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) is expected to post earnings slightly higher to $1.46 per share (sales of $36.4 billion), despite the effects of Hurricane Ike. Among these companies, only BP and Valero beat earnings expectations in the previous quarter. Not surprisingly, analysts on average recommend buying all except Valero, and shares of all of these companies have recently hit 52-week lows.

Boeing Inc. (NYSE: BA) has won a tactical victory in its $35 billion competition for the Air Force's airborne refueling tanker. Bloomberg News reports that Defense Secretary Gates notified Boeing and EADS/Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) that their bids would be due after the November election.

Boeing said it wanted the delay so it would have time to prepare a competitive bid. "Boeing threatened August 21 to pull out, saying that the 767-200 plane it offered more than a year ago is now too small to 'fit the bill' in clarified Air Force guidelines. The Northrop-EADS entry, based on the Airbus A330 commercial jetliner, can carry 250,000 pounds of fuel, more than Boeing's 205,000," according to Bloomberg.

This is great news for Boeing -- but it depends on who gets elected. If McCain becomes president, EADS/Northrop will probably win since his former finance Chair is Tom Loeffler, an EADS lobbyist. But if Obama wins, the competition is likely to be decided on the merits. Regardless, for the time being Boeing has won an important tactical victory which it should savor.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. Portfolio will publish his book about Boeing, You Can't Order Change: Lessons From Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing, in December 2008. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

The Associated Press reports that John "Freedom Fries" McCain employs former lobbyists for EADS, the parent of Toulouse, France-based Airbus, on his staff. EADS and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) recently won a $100 billion contract to build refueling tankers for the Air Force, edging out Boeing Inc. (NYSE: BA) which has filed a protest.

McCain now employs the people who lobbied for EADS on his own staff. According to the AP report, EADS retained The Loeffler Group to lobby for the tanker deal in 2007. Loeffler Group lobbyists on the project included Tom Loeffler, who lobbies for EADS and serves as McCain's national finance chairman; Susan Nelson, who left Loeffler and is now the campaign's finance director; and former Secretary of the Navy William Ball III, who has campaigned for McCain.

EADS also had a long-term relationship with Ogilvy Government Relations, formerly known as the Federalist Group. Ogilvy lobbyist John Green, who records show worked on the EADS account, recently took a leave of absence to volunteer for McCain as the campaign's congressional liaison.