Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) is going to be reporting its fourth quarter numbers on Monday. Going into Monday's report, Wall Street is expecting to see the company post earnings of $1.19 per share.

During the same period last year the company posted earnings of $1.55 a share.

Unconventional energy -- which comes from hard-to-get sources like shale -- is red hot. The biggest sign of this is Exxon's (XOM) recent deal to pay $30 billion for XTO (XTO).

As a result, the expectation is that there will be many more deals in the sector. This week Total SA (TOT), which is one of the largest oil companies in the world, agreed to form a joint venture for natural gas with Chesapeake Energy (CHK). The deal may involve as much as $2.25 billion.

U.S. stock markets are poised for gains Monday, the first trading day of the New Year. Investors are emerging fresh from a year of economic hardships, but one that also produced big gains for some. Ahead of the opening bell, futures on the bellwether Dow Jones industrial stocks were higher by 60 points, while those in the S&P 500 rose 7 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up nearly 22 points.

The gains in part are a reaction to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments Sunday about the role low interest rates play in creating stock bubbles. Speaking at a conference in Atlanta, Bernanke said the housing bubble, which many have blamed on low interest rates in the early part of the last decade, would have been dealt with more effectively through regulation -- not interest-rate manipulation.

Sun Microsystems (JAVA) rallied to close at $9.28 on hopes for a deal closure with Oracle's (ORCL) proposed purchase of Sun Microsystems. ORCL announced in April it was paying $9.50 in cash per share for JAVA. January put option implied volatility is at 28 below a level of 41 from a month ago, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) closed at $24.37. Natural gas is recently up 1.46% to 5.41, according to Bloomberg. January option implied volatility is at 42; April is at 46, below its 26-week average of 49, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the biggest companies can lobby their way to huge profits.

Anyone serious about climate change knows that coal is the worst enemy of the environment. We can have all of the electric cars we want, if they are hooked into a coal-based utility system then the gains are irrelevant. We can also be sure that while all sorts of companies, like the General Electrics (GE) (Cramer's Take) and Cokes (KO) (Cramer's Take) and Nikes (NKE) (Cramer's Take) and Nestles, support climate control, they are not equal to one Southern Company (SO) (Cramer's Take), which is an important coal-burning company and a huge lobbyist for the coal industry.

Our nation has a two-pronged climate philosophy: pushes on conservation and on renewables. Neither is enough to get us through the next 10 years; we can't produce enough renewable energy at a cheap price and we can't caulk our way out of the jam.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says perhaps he can learn from Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, who has become a believer in the fuel.

Maybe President Obama can make the transition to natural gas that Ed Rendell just did in Pennsylvania. The transition is a simple one: Focus on jobs and many things go well; don't focus on jobs and you aren't focused on anything.

When I first heard of the Marcellus Shale from Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) (Cramer's Take), I was pretty much in disbelief. How could there be so much natural gas in some place in western Pennsylvania? Too good to be true.

Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's better than expected Q3 results and improved volume outlook. Deutsche raised its target on shares to $100 from $72.
• Thomas Weisel upgraded Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to Overweight from Market Weight and raised its target to $11 from $7 and said they expect Motorola to benefit from several upcoming catalysts that include new Android-based smartphone products and they believe the handset division could break even by year end of 2010.
• Janney Montgomery upgraded Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) and Cinemark (NYSE: CNK) to Buy from Neutral on expectations both companies will benefit from a strong box office in Q4. The firm has a $14 price target on Regal shares and a $13.50 target on Cinemark shares.
• Marshall & llsley (NYSE: MI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
• F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
• William Blair upgraded Lindsay Corporation (NYSE: LNN) to Outperform from Market Perform.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says natural gas is the preferred fuel, but Congress isn't paying attention.

Congress can't rein in coal, but the Environmental Protection Agency can.

One of the most amazing shams I have seen in my life is the alleged "clean coal" campaign by so-called King Coal. Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) (Cramer's Take), Peabody (NYSE: BTU) (Cramer's Take) and the rest of the gang have incredible congressional mindshare, and the notion of carbon sequestration -- which has no potential for feasibility within the next 10 years, if ever -- has become gospel in Washington.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says it's great to see stocks go up, but discipline remains paramount.

Can you weary of a market going higher? Can you be as exhausted of the rally as you are of a selloff? Sometimes that's how I feel when I look at my bases for stocks I own and where they are now and realize the impossibility of reaching for even the best names. It feels like what happens when you bought low, and then it turned out that things could go much lower. You feel like you should sell, but then the stocks go much higher and you get left behind.

This is a time when discipline has failed people. It is when the market is most electric and exciting and people just figure, "What the heck? I will hold on to that Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) (Cramer's Take) or Deere (NYSE: DE) (Cramer's Take) or Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) (Cramer's Take) or Devon (DVN) (Cramer's Take) ... and why not? It hasn't hurt me."

"If there was ever a stock we can hold for a few years, natural gas company Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) is it," says Ian Wyatt. Here's the latest from his Top Stock Insights.

"Chesapeake Energy is the largest independent natural gas company and most active driller of wells in the US. Its operating activities include the onshore exploration and production of natural gas.

"The Obama administration is keen on achieving energy independence for the US. Natural gas is a good option for energy, since it is inexpensive, clean and domestic. I believe the administration will continue to push natural gas as an alternative to oil, and create incentives for the industry.

Baxter (NYSE: BAX) is hosting an analyst day on September 16. BAX closed at $55.60. BAX September option implied volatility of 22 is near its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) closed at $23.09. Natural gas is recently up 1.32% to 2.844 according to Bloomberg. CHK September option implied volatility is at 45, October is at 47; below its 26-week average of 61, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the plunge in China overnight is being blamed on the industrial metal, so expect some carry-over.

It turns out copper was the metric. Drats, I thought it was the dollar or oil. I thought we were supposed to buy the cyclicals on earnings being better than expected. I thought we might be buying the minerals and the steels and the oils off the morning proxy of the Baltic Freight Index, known as the Baltic Fright Index in the days when it kept going down, and kept us out of the Freeports (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and Vales (NASDAQ: VALE) (Cramer's Take) and Union Pacifics (NYSE: UNP) (Cramer's Take) and U.S. Steels (NYSE: X) (Cramer's Take).

Silly me.

The interest in using natural gas as an alternative to crude has helped natural gas-based companies appreciate in value. Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) has benefited from that interest, with a gain of more than 20% this year.

CHK is an interesting story in that during the craze in energy prices in 2008, the CEO of the company was forced to liquidate his entire position. That forced selling created an opportunity to buy the stock at an incredibly cheap price, even beyond the artificially low energy prices reached earlier this year.

You have to love OPEC. It's not uncommon for the barons of the giant cartel to voice their interest in seeing oil at such-and-such a price.

Recently, OPEC reiterated its desire to see oil prices at $80 per barrel. This, they claim, is the price needed to spur additional investment in crude projects. Apparently, anything less will result in oil sitting idle in the ground.

As I've written in the past, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) CEO Aubrey McClendon has come under some well-deserved fire for his high compensation in the face of poor results and a declining stock price. He was paid a one-time $75 million bonus at the end of 2008 -- suspicious timing given that the stock had lost most of its value in recent months and Mr. McClendon had lost his entire stake in the company to margin calls.

The company also made the extremely unusual decision to use $12.1 million of company money to buy some of McClendon's collectible maps to decorate the company's offices.