One struggling oil driller could be getting a lifeline from its billionaire founder, and now the stock is up 90%
Stocks aren't doing much, but we got a 170% rally somewhere in the market today.
Shares of deepwater-drilling contractor Seadrill surged by as much as that on Friday. According to Bloomberg, the company's major billionaire owner John Fredriksen raised $150 million in cash that investors are speculating could be used as part of a bailout.
Seadrill had said it will announce plans to restructure $11 billion in debt by the end of June. And so, Fredriksen's cash has investors that were short the stock scrambling to cover their bets.
Bloomberg notes that there's heavy shorting across the rigging industry, which is not surprising since the count of oil rigs has been in free-fall since late 2014.
Other offshore drillers were sharply higher on Friday, including Transocean and Ensco, which rose more than 10%.
Seadrill broke its record for volume, with up to 92 million shares traded Friday - about ten times the 30-day average.
Meanwhile, it's a pretty regular day for the rest of the market, although the small rally took the S&P 500 back above 2,000 and to the highest level since early January.
Here's a chart showing the jump in Seadrill shares:
