Market Currents

• Friday, November 27, 2009

• 11:47 AM Tumbling crude futures (now -3.4%, to $75.35/barrel) are taking their toll on oil stocks - notably Exxon Mobil (XOM -1.8%), Chevron (CVX -1.6%), BP (BP -2.1%), ConocoPhillips (COP -1.9%) and Total (TOT -2.6%). Comment!

• Friday, October 30, 2009

• 10:56 AM The Occupational Safety and Health Administration hits BP (BP -1.1%) with a record $87M fine, as a six-month inspection shows the oil giant failed to correct hundreds of issues after the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion that killed 15 people. 1 Comment

• Tuesday, October 27, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: FTWR +12%. MVIS +9%. MDVN +8%. HTZ +8%. PCX +6%. LDK +6%. SVA +5%. BP +5%. LIFE +4%. TLAB +4%.
  Losers: BIDU -19%. HUVL -6%. LTD -6%. AGNC -6%. AIB -5%. Comment!
• 07:11 AM BP (BP): Q3 earnings of $4.67B (-47%) vs. consensus of $3.25B. Sees 2009 costs down by $4B vs. a previous $3B. Total production +6.9%. Shares +5% premarket. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: AGCO, AKS, AMTD, AVY, BEAV, BEN, BJS, BP, BYD, CE, CP, CPO, CTV, CVG, ECL, ELNK, ENTG, FE, FPL, GIGM, HSP, IACI, ICON, JCI, LIFE, LLL, PCAR, SAH, TXT, VLO, WYNN, X Comment!

• Friday, October 23, 2009

• 09:08 AM Sources say BP (BP) has hired Goldman Sachs (GS) to advise it on a rival bid to ExxonMobil's (XOM) $4B deal to purchase Kosmos Energy's stake in Ghana's Jubilee field. Goldman reportedly advised Cnooc (CEO) on a potential bid for the same stake; Goldman's switch to advising BP implies a Cnooc bid is not forthcoming. 2 Comments

• Saturday, October 17, 2009

• 18:24 PM Iraq approves a $15B deal with BP (BP) and Hong Kong's CNPC to to develop Rumaila, Iraq's largest producing oil field. Comment!

• Friday, October 9, 2009

• 08:26 AM British fund manager Neil Woodford sold his stakes in BP (BP) and Shell (RDS.A); the positions totaled 8% of his £18B funds. It's "getting increasingly expensive to find new oil and gas reserves, and when you look at the cash-flow dynamics, you see that at the sort of oil prices we are now seeing, both Shell and BP fail to generate enough cash to cover both their capital expenditure and their dividends," he said. Comment!

• Thursday, September 10, 2009

• 10:32 AM HSBC drops BP (BP -0.5%) to Neutral and Shell (RDS.A -0.3%) to Underweight, saying oil majors face weak oil prices, cheap natural gas, and narrowing margins. "As we now move out of the U.S. gasoline season, we see downward pressure on crude prices over the next two to three months," firm says. Comment!

• Friday, September 4, 2009

• 12:01 PM Morgan Stanley lifts French oil giant Total (TOT +1.6%) to Buy, saying it replaces BP (BP) as the "fastest growing large-cap next year" and saying it has "little to call in terms of valuation." With sentiment at a low point, "it can only improve from here," firm says. Comment!

• Thursday, September 3, 2009

• 16:28 PM Just how big is the impact from BP's (BP +0.5%) "giant" oil find - in particular, to the stock price? 1 Comment

• Wednesday, September 2, 2009

• 09:39 AM So just how giant is giant? UBS analysts say using the 'G word' is almost unprecedented among oil majors, and has generally been used for 1B+ discoveries. Late yesterday, BP's chief of exploration, Michael Daly, told BusinessWeek Tiber is even 'better' than Kaskida, BP's (BP +3.1%) previous big find, with an estimated total 4-6B barrels. 2 Comments
• 09:26 AM BP (BP +3.2%) owns 62% of the Tiber field, the location of this morning's 'giant' discovery; Petrobras (PBR +0.9%) has a 20% stake, and ConocoPhillips (COP +0.5%) owns the other 18%. Assuming a 20-30% recovery rate, the field could yield close to 1B barrels. Comment!
• 07:15 AM BP (BP) makes a 'giant' oil discovery in a deep well drilled in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico, but says an appraisal is necessary to determine the exact size and commerciality of the find. Shares +3.8% premarket. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, August 26, 2009

• 08:58 AM Infosys (INFY) signs a five-year contract to manage and operate a 'large portion of business systems' for BP (BP). Premarket: INFY +3.5%, BP -0.5%. 1 Comment

• Tuesday, July 28, 2009

• 06:54 AM BP (BP): Q2 EPS of $1.01 beats by $0.09. Revenue of $54.8B (-50%) vs. $64B. Shares -1.2% premarket. (BP press release (.pdf)) Comment!