Chesapeake Enjoys A Good Day On Stock Market

• Scott Detrow
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  Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
  
  Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.
  
  Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

Earlier today, we told you about Chesapeake Energy’s ongoing financial woes: the company owes more than $13 billion, and has been hampered by probes into questionable loans taken out by CEO Aubrey McClendon.
But Chesapeake’s stock has been climbing in recent days, and two hours before the market’s close, its shares are up 20 cents. As the AP reports, that’s because investors are expecting changes to be announced soon:

NEW YORK — Chesapeake Energy shares are climbing in anticipation that prominent investors will force changes to the natural gas giant’s board of directors.
Investors are worried about growing debts at Chesapeake following a plunge in natural gas prices. They’re also frustrated with founder Aubrey McClendon, who has been at the center of several recent corporate governance controversies.
Late last week, billionaire investor Carl Icahn called for an overhaul of Chesapeake’s board. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli seconded the call on Tuesday. DiNapoli is the trustee of a retirement fund that owns Chesapeake shares.
Those calls are expected to be addressed at a shareholder meeting on June 8.

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