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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carpenter who wrote (10378)	2/2/1998 5:51:00 PM
From: Czechsinthemail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

John, I think it was a mixed picture day today. Not bad considering the negative sentiment floating around the fears of huge increases in UN sanctioned oil sales for Iraq. Crude oil prices stayed pretty flat throughout the day. It is interesting to me that many on the thread have focused on the relative weakness of the drilling company stocks rather than the relative strength of the crude market. Many of the offshore drillers were up fractionally on the day and few were down significantly. Disappointing compared with other stocks, perhaps, but not bad. The bargains in this sector will become increasingly compelling as time goes on and oil prices stabilize. Though many are skittish about pulling the trigger and buying these companies, eventually the combination of cheap prices and high growth grabs people and they do. It grabbed me today, and I bought more MDCO. It's also worth remembering that these are among the few stocks that will do well in the event things escalate with Iraq. Overall, the risk to reward here looks great. Understandably, people around here have been so snakebitten that they continue to dread another major downturn that I think is unlikely to happen, particularly given the general bullishness of the market as a whole. I think we've most likely seen the lows from the recent decline -- at least for the offshore drillers and the offshore-oriented service companies, and the general trend should be up from here. It may continue to be ragged, but the chances of big jumps seem good. While concerns about the land drillers may produce some continuing weakness in that group, I think the risks of being out of the offshore drillers outweigh the risks of being in them at this point. Good luck, Baird