U.S. stocks are trading lower as the nosedive in oil prices continue. Among the stocks making big movesare oil-and-gas concerns SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE:SD) and Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC), as well as mobile payments stock Square Inc (NYSE:SQ). Here's a quick look at what's moving shares of SD, MPC, and SQ.
SandRidge Energy stock is the biggest loser on NYSE, after the company announced plans to buy Bonanza Creek Energy (BCEI) for $746 million, or $36 per share. SD stock was down 16% at $15.48, at last check, with today's bear gap sending the shares to a fresh record low of $14.65 earlier. The stock is now down 33% year-to-date.
Short interest on SandRidge stock fell nearly 8% during the past two reporting periods, but still represents more than six days' of pent-up buying demand. However, SD shares today are on the short-sale restricted list.
Shares of Marathon Petroleum are trading lower, as investors react to sinking crude oil prices and a downgrade to "neutral" from "buy" from UBS. While the analysts sees limited upside after MPC stock's solid performance of late, they hiked their price target to $65 from $63. MPC was down 1. 2% at $61.70, at last check, but notched an all-time high of $63.41 just last week, after flashing a "buy" signal in September. Ahead of MPC's downgrade, analysts were unsurprisingly optimistic, with12 out of 14 analysts sporting "buy" or "strong buy" ratings.
Square stock is touching fresh record highs today, amid reports the company is allowing select customers to buy and sell bitcoin through its app. The software stock was up 2% at $40.54, at last check, after peaking at $41.80 earlier. SQ is now up more than 230% year-over-year.
Square options traders are going wild, too. SQ calls are crossing the tape at four times the average intraday pace, and are outnumbering puts more than 6-to-1. However, a healthy portion of the action is attributable to a trader selling to open December 45 calls, to bet on a short-term ceiling of $45 for Square stock, according to Trade-Alert.