After the open… Falling oil prices appear to have caused a major casualty this morning, as Civeo (CVEO), a Canadian and Australian oil services company, announced that it would suspend dividends and slash expenses as its customers are scaling back dramatically on spending, causing the stock to drop 45%. There is nothing surprising here—there’s really no way oil service companies, except for the largest and most diverse, can adjust their operations quickly enough to avoid a painful ding from the collapse of global fuel prices. This won’t be the last.
There’s a confirmed case of Ebola in Scotland, confusion in Greece, a confirmation that AirAsia flight 8501 crashed into the ocean, and a $60 rise in the price of gold this morning, but the market is taking it all more or less in stride. The S&P 500 is down 0.3%.
Here are your Tuesday morning market metrics. Industries doing well today include Metals & Mining, Airlines and Food & Staples. Industries showing weakness include Energy Equipment, Construction & Engineering and Multi-Utilities.
The VIX is up 4% to 15.68 after closing on Monday at 15.77. The most active option strikes are for the National Bank of Greece (NBG) with 3,525 January 7 calls changing hands. The total put-call volume ratio is 0.72 (215,164/154,858). NYSE Adv/Dec 1,228/1,751. Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1,015/1,385.
