Sarah Wasserman (swasserman@sir-inc.com) Oil stocks were in the hot seat on Wednesday, after a White House panel found that BP plc (BP), Transocean Ltd. (RIG), and Halliburton Co. (HAL) made a series of risky, cost-cutting moves that ultimately contributed to last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. The report concluded that, "Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time."
Interestingly enough, RIG has actually added over 1% today, as investors believe that the finger-pointing report might actually save the company from a costly gross negligence charge.
Option players were all over RIG on Wednesday, with 57,000 contracts crossing the tape -- triple the equity's expected daily option volume.
RIG's January 75 call was a popular choice on Wednesday, with nearly 4,800 contracts traded -- the bulk of which changed hands at the bid price, indicating they were likely sold. Open interest increased by 1,060 contracts overnight, confirming that fresh positions were added at this strike. By selling to open the January 75 call, option players are betting on RIG to remain below the $75 level over the next few weeks.
Technically speaking, RIG has not closed a week above $75 since April 23. The stock is currently trading right at $74.
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