Offshore Drilling Stocks Popped: What You Need to Know

What: Shares of Hercules Offshore (NAS: HERO) and ATP Oil & Gas (NAS: ATPG) each rallied more than 10% during intraday trading on hopes that platforms evacuated from the Gulf of Mexico would resume drilling soon.

So what: In particular, Tropical Storm Lee took some 239 production platforms offline over the Labor Day weekend. Now reports say workers are headed back to reopen roughly 100 Gulf oil and gas platforms.

Now what: Investors must be thrilled. The scars of Hurricane Katrina and other mega-storms haven't fully left the national consciousness, and a result we tend to fear the worst when clouds go dark. Lee, thankfully, never fully faded to black. Do you agree? Disagree? Please weigh in using the comments box below.

Interested in more info on Hercules Offshore and ATP Oil & Gas?Add them to your watchlist.

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