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

To: marc chatman who wrote (41850)	4/8/1999 9:43:00 AM
From: Platter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

From TheStreet.com....Oil-Service Firms Won't Be Well Served by First-Quarter Earnings By Mavis Scanlon Staff Reporter 4/7/99 3:19 PM ET Oil prices are up, but don't expect oil-service earnings to follow, at least in the short term. Earnings season for the group picks up in earnest at midmonth. And while there will be a few bright spots, first-quarter earnings for the most part should be ugly. Even at this late date, consensus estimates still are too high in some cases, observers say. So many companies will fall short of expectations if those targets aren't ratcheted down over the next two weeks. Slippery Slope First-quarter earnings drop sharply in the oil patch Company 1998 1999 (est.) % Change Schlumberger (SLB:NYSE) 67c 32c -52% Halliburton (HAL:NYSE) 46 21 -54 Baker Hughes (BHI:NYSE) 35 12 -66 Smith International (SII:NYSE) 72 16 -78 BJ Services* (BJS:NYSE) 47 7 -85 Weatherford International (WFT:NYSE) 63 9 -86 Transocean Offshore (RIG:NYSE) 63 72 14 Santa Fe International (SDC:NYSE) 59 49 -17 Diamond Offshore (DO:NYSE) 56 38 -32 Global Marine (GLM:NYSE) 39 20 -49 Ensco International (ESV:NYSE) 61 4 -93 R&B Falcon (FLC:NYSE) 42 2 -95 Grey Wolf (GW:NYSE) 1 -7 n.a. Helmerich & Payne* (HP:NYSE) 38 22 -42 Nabors Industries (NBR:NYSE) 36 15 -58 J. Ray McDermott** (JRM:NYSE) 22 31 40 Fiscal second quarter. * Fiscal fourth quarter. Source: First Call. If these disappointments occur, they'll come amid a revival in these stocks. Beginning in early March, investors piled into the sector on hopes, later realized, of an OPEC-led production cut aimed at boosting oil prices. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange oil service index soared 50% by the end of March, to a high of 71.84 from 47.40 on March 1. The rally has since tempered, with the index falling back to 61.43, but it's still far above the earlier lows. So the question is, Will poor quarterly earnings send investors fleeing?