Spill takes a big bite out of energy shares

[Cali_Democrat]

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- The Deepwater Horizon disaster has taken a $100 billion bite out of the market caps of the five key companies connected to the spill over the last six weeks, and it has dragged down the sector overall.

BP PLC has led the way, with a sizable $17 billion of its $69 billion market-cap loss coming Tuesday alone, while Anadarko Petroleum , Transocean Ltd. , Halliburton Co. and Cameron International Corp. have given up nearly a cumulative $40 billion in market value.

That's the tally since the disaster hit the deepwater drilling rig April 20. Three of the companies hit peaks a few days after the rig exploded -- Halliburton, Cameron and Anadarko -- before joining BP and Transocean in the 6-week-long slide. BP, of course, is leasing the rig operated by Transocean, while Anadarko owns 25% of the well. Halliburton cemented the leaking well, while Cameron was responsible for the faulty blowout preventer.

Combined, the five companies have lost 36.6% of their market capitalization since the week in which Deepwater Horizon exploded and later sank, spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

"Not surprisingly, companies directly implicated in the spill have performed poorly, especially since April 28, though companies with 'heavy exposure' to the Gulf have performed even worse," analyst Arjun N. Murti of Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients Tuesday.

Read more at link...http://www.marketwatch.com/story/spill-takes-big-bite-out-of-energy-shares-2010-06-01?dist=afterbell

[TexasObserver]

1. BP closed at 36.54 today. Down 24 points since the gusher began.

And it's not done falling yet.

Aren't you glad you didn't jump on BP at 52 a share? Can you imagine investing tens of thousands of dollars on BP when it was at 52 a month ago, and watching it drop to 36 in a month's time? If nothing else, it would be a lesson in investment, wouldn't it? So much for day traders who think they're experts. People who jump into and out of stocks are kidding themselves. They might as well be playing craps or roulette.