BP shares hurt despite positive leak reports
BP shares continue to take a hit for the oil disaster even as the oil giant reports success capping the leak. The U.S. government has also sent signals that it’s going to increase its oversight of the Gulf.
Carola Hoyos from The Financial Times in London attributes the poor financial performance to the political tone in Washington. “The U.S. is terribly important to BP’s business,” she says, “and the fact that the U.S. president is goign against BP so hard is really making people worried.”
Reports also say President Obama wants to prohibit the company from paying profits to its shareholders, and the administration may try to charge the company for
the lost wages of oil workers idled by the leak. “It’s definitely rather unusual,: says Hoyos, “and I think the whole tone has been very aggressive. We’re a little surprised at the tone we’re hearing at BP versus against, for example, Goldman Sachs, and I think that is very much affecting the share price.”
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