Diamond Offshore raised at Morgan Stanley as floater availability has peaked

• Diamond Offshore (DO +1%) is upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight with a $57 price target, up from $47.50, at Morgan Stanley, which says earnings risk has largely played out and shares have an attractive yield.
• The cycle is turning and floater availability has peaked, the firm believes, expecting trading to be driven increasingly by the reduction of floater availability through a pickup in fixtures rather than the confirmation of negative data points on dayrates.
• Stanley sees negative sentiment on the offshore drillers group reversing to the extent that ballooning floater availability is absorbed from upcoming contract announcements.
• Also: ATW +1.4%, HERO +1%, NE +0.8%, ESV +0.8%, RDC +0.5%, RIG +0.4%.