oil and gas exploration

The stock is trading at $60 a share -- about where it was during the March 2009 market low. Even as oil has rebounded to $74 from $40 at that time, ExxonMobil languishes. That could soon change.

Construction stocks have lately been dormant, if not huge losers. But some analysts are starting to divine that global engineering and heavy construction will come alive in the second half of 2010. And they're changing their tune on Foster Wheeler.

Oil and gas company Apache is doing its own exploration, snapping up rival Mariner Energy in a deal valued at $$2.7 billion, Apache announced Thursday. The merger will give Apache an entry into deep water exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, where it has considered venturing for years. And it comes on the heels of another Gulf of Mexico acquisition announced earlier this week, when it acquired the shallow water oil assets of Devon Energy (DVN) for $1.05 billion.