Mixed Bag on Oil Rig Counts (BHI, OIH, DIG, USO, OIL)

Baker Hughes, Inc. (NYSE: BHI) has released its weekly rig counts, and the results are not as strong as you would expect considering $80 oil is here.  We have watched the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH), the Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (NYSE: DIG), the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) ETF and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) react to this news.  The overall figure is up, but barely.

• U.S. Rig Count is up 8 from last week at 1048; down 916 year over year.
• Canadian Rig Count is down 6 from last week at 244; down 203 year over year.
• The US Offshore rig count is 34, up 1 from last week; down 39 year over year.

Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH) is down 1.9% at $127.96, the Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (NYSE: DIG) is down 2.7% at $37.43, the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) ETF is down 0.25% at $41.36 and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) is down 0.3% at $27.35.  Oil measured by NYMEX WTI Crude is down $0.30 at $80.89 per barrel.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 23, 2009