What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after Trump said a US-Iran deal could come in "two or three days," pulling energy equities sharply lower as investors priced out the conflict premium.
That narrative collapsed at midday when US Central Command confirmed an American Apache helicopter had gone down near the coast of Oman, and Trump said the US "must respond" to what he described as an Iranian attack over the Strait of Hormuz. Rather than a clean reversal, the helicopter incident created deeper uncertainty for the sector.
Oil prices might have recovered some losses on re-escalation risk, but a potential US military response introduces physical infrastructure risk across the Gulf that is harder to price than a headline ceasefire. The sector's net decline reflected a day where the bullish and bearish cases cancelled each other out, leaving investors unwilling to commit either way.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Oilfield Services company Expro (NYSE: XPRO) fell 4.5%. Is now the time to buy Expro? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Oilfield Services company NESR (NASDAQ: NESR) fell 4.1%. Is now the time to buy NESR? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Oilfield Services company Nabors Industries (NYSE: NBR) fell 3.4%. Is now the time to buy Nabors Industries? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Expro (XPRO)
Expro’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 31 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 5 days ago when the stock gained 7.6% on the news that the company announced a multi-year contract extension, received an analyst upgrade from Goldman Sachs, and gained key support for its planned corporate move to the Cayman Islands.
Expro signed a contract extension for up to five years with a major operator to provide subsea services in the Gulf of America. The multi-million-dollar agreement also includes the deployment of Expro's new Solus™ Shear and Seal Valve technology.
Adding to the positive sentiment, Goldman Sachs upgraded the company's stock from Neutral to Buy. Furthermore, influential proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) reversed its earlier position and recommended that shareholders approve Expro's proposed move from the Netherlands to the Cayman Islands.
The company stated the move is expected to generate over $600,000 in annual savings and remove the Netherlands' 15% withholding tax on dividends and share repurchases, allowing for greater flexibility in returning capital to shareholders.
Expro is up 18.7% since the beginning of the year, but at $16.19 per share, it is still trading 11.9% below its 52-week high of $18.39 from March 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Expro’s shares at the IPO in October 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $777.44.
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