Mixed Picture in Oil Rig Counts (BHI, OIH, USO)

With all of the trouble in drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, we wanted to look at the most recent weekly rig count data just released from Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI).  We are also watching the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH) and the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) as the two key ETFs on the rig count data, although the services sector is much more direct of a look than the oil commodity ETF that has tracking issues.

Baker Hughes is showing how low the offshore oil rig counts are today:

U.S. Rig Count is up 4 from last week at 1571; up 651 year over year. The US Offshore rig count is 12, down 4 from last week; down 23 year over year.  The Canadian Rig Count is up 17 from last week at 365 and is up 213 year over year.  Canada to the rescue.

Unfortunately for these players, the very weak stock market today is skewing the impact from some of the data.  Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH) is down 2.55% at $101.04 and the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) is down 1.6% at $34.03.  Both are seeing lighter than normal trading volume today.

JON C. OGG