Liam Denning, Columnist

Halliburton Somehow Turns the Obvious Into a (Bad) Surprise

A second profit warning in two months is worrisome, but the road ahead is clear.

September 5, 2018 at 6:23 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

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Halliburton Co. is in that most undesirable of pursuits known as putting your toe out into the void and looking for a floor.

The stock was down about 4.5 percent early afternoon on Wednesday after CEO Jeff Miller effectively unveiled a profit warning in remarks at a conference in New York. It’s the biggest drop since July 23, when the company … effectively unveiled a profit warning. The consensus forecast for the third quarter dropped precipitously then and now looks set to fall another 15 percent or so: