Crude Oil Prices Steady as OPEC Keeps Current Quotas, Says S&P Oil & Gas Equity Analyst
new.stockwatch.com 2003-03-11 17:28 ET - News Release
NEW YORK, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's oil and gas equity analyst has issued her latest outlook on the supply and pricing of crude oil. A leading provider of independent research, indices and ratings, Standard & Poor's made this announcement through Standard & Poor's MarketScope, its real-time market intelligence service.
"The price of April crude oil has steadied above $37 per barrel, as OPEC meets in Vienna today," says Tina Vital, Integrated Oil & Gas Equity Analyst, Standard & Poor's. "According to reports from Platts, OPEC has agreed to keep its current output quotas of 24.5 million barrels per day. However, Standard & Poor's believes OPEC will back an informal plan to produce as much oil as possible should a war disrupt Iraqi oil supplies. But with OPEC's spare capacity between 1.5 million and 3 million barrels per day, and with exports from Venezuela reduced, if a conflict in the Middle East spills over into Kuwait, we believe OPEC may not be able to cover the shortfall, raising the prospect of additional hikes in oil prices," concludes Vital.
Standard & Poor's Stock Appreciation Ranking System (STARS), which was first introduced on December 31, 1986, reflects the opinions of Standard & Poor's equity analysts on the price appreciation potential of more than 1,230 U.S. stocks for the next 6-12 month period. Rankings range from five-STARS (strong buy) to one-STARS (sell).
A model portfolio comprised of Standard & Poor's equity STARS recommendations was recently recognized by Investars.com as outperforming those of other equity research firms who analyze more than 500 stocks, over the 12-month period ending December 31, 2002.*
Standard & Poor's analytic services are performed as entirely separate activities in order to preserve the independence of each analytic process. In this regard, STARS, which are published by Standard & Poor's Equity Research Department, operates independently from, and has no access to information obtained by Standard & Poor's Credit Market Services, which may in the course of its operations obtain access to confidential information.
Standard & Poor's has the largest U.S. equity coverage count among equity research firms that are not affiliated with a Wall Street investment bank, analyzing more than 1,230 U.S. stocks. Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies , is a leader in providing widely recognized financial data, analytical research and investment and credit opinions to the global capital markets. With 5,000 employees located in 19 countries, Standard & Poor's is an integral part of the world's financial architecture. Additional information is available at www.standardandpoors.com.
*Note to Editors: Investars.com has created a performance measurement tool called ROSS (Rate of Success System). The system quantifies the recommendations of Equity Research Firms by hypothetically purchasing shares in the recommended stock at the time of the recommendation. In short, the system calculates returns as if the Firm had actually purchased or sold shares at the time of the recommendation. Furthermore, the amount of shares purchased depends on the strength of the recommendation. For example, if a Firm's initial recommendation for the period is a buy on Cisco Systems (CSCO) then the system purchases 300,000 shares in CSCO at the price at the time of the recommendation. The price used is the opening price on the day of the recommendation. If the Equity Research Firm upgrades Cisco at a later date from a "buy" to a "strong buy" then the system increases the number of shares by 50% at the time of the upgrade. Similarly, if an Equity Research Firm downgrades a stock then the system decreases the number of shares by 33.3%. If a Firm reiterates a recommendation then the position in that stock is left unchanged. If a Firm issues a bearish rating on the stock (underperform, sell or strong sell) the system goes short the stock in the hypothetical portfolio. A short position is calculated as the inverse of a long position to reflect an analyst's market timing and to eliminate a natural mathematical bias towards long recommendations. Investars returns are excellent for relative performance of analyst rating but are not comparable to market returns or stock returns. Standard & Poor's
CONTACT: John J. Piecuch, Communications Manager, +1-212-438-1102, John_Piecuch@standardandpoors.com, or Tina Vital, Integrated Oil & Gas Equity Analyst, +1-212-438-9516, Tina_Vital@standardandpoors.com, both of Standard & Poor's
Web site: www.standardandpoors.com