- Shares of A.P. Moeller-Maersk (OTCPK:AMKAF, OTCPK:AMKBY), owner of the world’s biggest shipping line, are off to their worst start to a year for more than two decades.
- Maersk is being battered “by a toxic cocktail with challenges in both the oil and the container division, [but] it's now become the oil price that's the main driver," says Nordea analyst Stig Frederiksen, expecting shares probably will be driven by the price of oil through 2016.
- Maersk Oil, which mainly explores in Qatar and in the North Sea, has set its breakeven level at ~$55/bbl, and while a series of job cuts may have helped reduce that figure, Frederiksen figures it would still be “a lot higher than the current oil price.”