Rising Oil Weighs Down Markets

Rising oil prices weighed down the markets during the midday with the Dow tumbling 88 points to 7398.  Nasdaq dropped 9 points to 1482.

On the upside

Citi Investment Research analyst Robin Shoemaker said that demand will continue to weaken for shallow water mat rigs and set a price target of $1 for Hercules Offshore (NYSE: HERO) with a Sell rating.  However, the stock price rose

DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) secured a three-year contract valued at approximately $630 million to provide exploratory drilling for Petrobas (NYSE: PBR) in the Black Sea.

Shares of Tenneco (NYSE: TEN), Visteon (NYSE: VSTN) and American Axle (NYSE: AXL) all surged on news that the government will provide up to $5 billion in financial support to auto parts suppliers.

On the downside

RBC Capital Markets downgraded BioMed Realty Trust (NYSE: BMR).

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Prudential Financial's (NYSE: PRU) senior debt rating two notches citing the insurer's capitalization and lowered profitability.

Rising oil prices weighed down shares of AirTran Holdings (NYSE: AAI).

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 6 to 5 on the NYSE, but were edged out by a margin of more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 414.