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Stephen Prior

Publisher, Monument Traders Alliance

SLB Ltd. (SLB) does not produce a single barrel of oil.

What they do is provide the technology, equipment, and services that make oil production possible in the first place.

When energy companies need to find reservoirs, drill wells, and optimize production, they call SLB. They are the largest oilfield services company on earth, with 109,000 employees operating in every major producing region globally.

Why This Stock Is Up 42% This Year

The easy answer for why the stock is up is the Iran war.

WTI crude averaged around $60-$65 per barrel in January and February. When U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February, and the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, crude prices in March averaged $91 per barrel.

Higher oil prices mean producers drill more. More drilling means more work for SLB. That tailwind is real and direct.

But oil alone does not explain a 42% move year to date.

The deeper story is that the market has been repricing SLB as an energy technology company, not just an oilfield services business. SLB launched an AI tool, Tela, in 2025 that automates oilfield processes and workflows.

They have an active partnership with Nvidia, applying AI to energy operations.

Their digital annual recurring revenue just crossed $1 billion. Their Data Center Solutions business is on track to exit 2026 with an annualized run rate of $1 billion. Analysts who cover the AI infrastructure buildout have started calling SLB a hidden beneficiary. The logic is straightforward.

AI data centers need enormous amounts of power. Power demand requires more energy production. More energy production requires more drilling. More drilling means more SLB.

On top of that, Venezuela has opened as a potential new market.

The Trump administration’s moves on Venezuelan oil resources have created the possibility that SLB could help get that country’s deteriorated production infrastructure back online. And international upstream spending is expected to increase in the second half of 2026, with Middle East capital expenditure projected to increase roughly 6% year over year.

This stock is running because multiple tailwinds hit simultaneously. War-driven oil prices. AI infrastructure demand. Venezuela. International recovery. The market repriced it for all of them at once.

The TPS Setup

My system runs three checks before I look at any trade. Trend, Pattern, Squeeze. In that order.

The trend check starts with the moving averages.

An exponential moving average, or EMA, weights recent prices more heavily than older ones. On SLB’s daily chart, price is above the 8-day EMA. The 8-day is above the 20-day EMA. The 20-day is well above the 200-day simple moving average, which is a straight average of the last 200 closing prices.

That is a fully stacked structure. Every layer is in the right order with price sitting on top. The same stacked structure confirms on the weekly chart. When both timeframes agree, the trend has real institutional weight.

The pattern is a squeeze. A squeeze forms when Bollinger Bands, which track how far price has strayed from its average, compress inside the Keltner Channels, which measure volatility based on average daily price range.

When the bands contract within the channels, momentum coils before a release. SLB is currently in an active daily squeeze. The RSI is at 64.67, building momentum without being stretched into overbought territory above 70.

Trend confirmed on a daily and weekly. Pattern identified. Squeeze active.

Your Action Plan

SLB reports Friday, April 24, before the market opens. That changes everything about timing.

My rule does not bend for a good-looking setup.

Taking a position before earnings means accepting a binary outcome that has nothing to do with the technical picture.

The squeeze can be perfect, and the print can blow it up before the market opens Friday morning.

What I watch after earnings is the reaction relative to what the options market priced in as an expected move.

If SLB opens Friday and trades convincingly beyond that implied range on strong volume, the market is telling you the institutional buyers are not done.

A move that exceeds what options are priced in is meaningful. A move that stays inside the range tells you less.

If we do get that outside move, I will be trading a specific earnings strategy. One that is responsible for over seven figures in profits throughout my career.

And one I’m focused on this earnings season.

To learn more, click here.