Market Currents

• Friday, November 20, 2009

• 09:47 AM Valero (VLO) to close its refinery in Delaware City, Del., taking a charge of $1.7B-1.8B, or about $2/share. The refiner will shed about 550 jobs - and operating expenses of some $450M. Shares +1.6% to $16.62. 7 Comments

• Tuesday, October 27, 2009

• 08:07 AM Valero (VLO): Q3 EPS of -$0.39 misses by $0.06. Revenue of $19.5B (-45.8%) vs. $18.8B. Refining margins continued to suffer from a combination of weak demand for refined products and high inventories. Shares +0.6% 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, September 18, 2009

• 18:08 PM Top U.S. refiner Valero (VLO) is postponing a $250M expansion in St. Charles, La., from early 2010 until 2012, bringing the delayed expansions there to $1.7B in projects as the company's poor margins persist. Comment!

• Friday, September 11, 2009

• 11:37 AM Valero Energy (VLO) CEO Bill Klesse says he's not making any changes to the business to deal with cap-and-trade legislation - amounting to a bet on the bill's failure. There may not be a choice: Refining-only companies can't offset refining impact with oil and gas production. Klesse thinks Valero's share of emissions costs in 2020 will be $6B, 10% higher than its record profit. Comment!

• Tuesday, July 28, 2009

• 08:16 AM Valero Energy (VLO): Q2 EPS of -$0.48 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $17.9B vs. $16.3B. Shares -2% premarket. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Tuesday's open: AMB, BEAV, BP, CE, CHKP, COH, CVH, DRH, ECL, ELNK, ENR, FPL, IPG, JEC, MHP, NOV, ODP, PCAR, PCX, ROK, SII, SVU, TEVA, TXT, VIA.B, VLO, VSH, WAT, WDR, X Comment!

• Thursday, July 2, 2009

• 14:17 PM The White House suspends a Bush administration ruling from January that found refiners were controlling cancer-causing gases like benzene, which may lead to new regulation costs for Exxon Mobil (XOM -2.6%), Valero (VLO -4.4%), ConocoPhillips (COP -1.9%) and other refiners. Comment!

• Monday, June 29, 2009

• 08:57 AM Here's a new one: oil refiner Valero Energy (VLO) recently built a wind farm to supply one of its refineries with green electricity. "We didn't build the wind farm so we could get into the wind-energy business. We built the wind farm so we could support the refinery and run it more economically." Comment!

• Wednesday, June 3, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: TIVO +47%. PPHM +22%. TSRA +11%. SAY +11%. CTIC +11%. PMI +10%. AAI +8%. ANPI +6%. FE +6%. HEB +5%. CHLN +5%. TGB +5%. AIB +4%.
  Losers: VLO -12%. STLD -10%. JBLU -9%. FFBC -9%. AET -9%. RBS -7%. UBS -6%. BCS -6%. MT -5%. HOV -4%. GFI -4%. SOL -4%. Comment!

• Tuesday, June 2, 2009

• 16:28 PM Valero (VLO): Sees Q2 EPS of -$0.50, vs. consensus of $0.74, impacted by "extended downtime at its Delaware City and McKee refineries and by the continuation of weak sour crude oil discounts and lower diesel margins." Also announces 40M common share offering. Shares -7.1% AH. (PR I, II) 5 Comments

• Tuesday, April 28, 2009

• 07:55 AM Valero Energy (VLO): Q1 EPS of $0.59 beats by $0.09. Revenue of $13.8B (-50.5%) vs. $19.9B. Shares +2.5% premarket. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Tuesday's open: AG, AMB, AVY, BDX, BEN, BMS, BMY, BP, CCE, CE, COL, CVH, ECL, ELNK, EME, FMER, FPL, HCP, HL, HSP, IPG, LAZ, LVLT, MHP, NXY, ODP, PCAR, PCH, PCZ, PFE, PMTC, SMG, TLAB, VLO, VSH, WAT, WDR Comment!

• Friday, April 17, 2009

• 11:49 AM Bargain-hunting mutual-fund manager Tom Forester wins MarketWatch's Stockpicker of the Quarter award. Stocks he likes include HPQ, VLO, DAI, and SYMC. Comment!

• Tuesday, January 27, 2009

• 13:18 PM U.S. refiners face negative margins if they can't balance gasoline supply with drastically reduced demand, Valero (VLO) CEO Bill Klesse says on today's call. "There is too much capacity to make gasoline in this environment." 1 Comment
• 09:00 AM Premarket losers: GLW -8%. CEF -7%. BNK -7%. GERN -6%. SLW -5%. DOW -4%. EMC -3%. VLW -3%. MHP -3%. DAL -3%. VLO -3%. Comment!