Oil and Gas

With the debt downgrade out of the way, is now the time to invest in French companies? French listed large caps trade on multiples that are only two-thirds of the biggest U.S. companies (PE of 12 in France versus 19 in the U.S. according to Bloomberg). This means they are cheap if you think the outlook will improve. Some investors obviously do since, in aggregate, demand to borrow French large caps is down 6% over the past quarter.

As a mixed earnings season draws to a close and investors grapple with the risk on risk off environment and fret about the near-term outlook, we have screened the Russell 3000 index for shares with low and falling multiples and analyze the level of short interest. We find that short sellers are generally deterred by low and falling Price Earnings Ratios. Yet there are standout names which see both high levels of short interest and trade on low PE multiples, including First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), RAIT Financial (NYSE:RAS) and Bio Reference Laboratory (NASDAQ:BRLI).

As the earnings season rumbles on against a backdrop of plunging share prices and macro economic uncertainty, we have created a screen which highlights that stocks within the Energy and Technology sectors currently see the greatest short interest amongst those US companies reporting earnings this week. Standout names include Northern Oil and Gas (AMEX:NOG), ATP Oil and Gas (NASDAQ:ATPG), Sunpower Corp. (NASDAQ:SPWRA), AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) and EBIX, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBIX).

Energy stocks