Will Wall Street be kind to gas, oil stock?

The impact on the fishing and tourism industries is obvious and currently under way in Louisiana.

With oil in the water, fishermen are not able to get their boats out to the Gulf of Mexico like they’ve always done, and business has obviously taken a hit.

With no fishermen, that means the trickle down economic effect of less people dining at restaurants and less beds being filled in hotel rooms.

But what about the major oil companies themselves? How are they holding up financially in lieu of the spill?

According to local financial advisor, Bill Hochstetler with Edward Jones Investments, the big fish are still swimming just fine in the corporate pond.

“The biggest concern still is environmental damage at this time,” he said. “As far as the individual oil companies themselves, we really haven’t seen any major change in their statuses since this has happened … This is still mostly just an environmental concern for our fishermen, for our shrimpers and our charter boat captains and hotel/motels that are feeling the repercussions.”

Since the April 20 spill, BP stock has taken a bit of a nosedive. The day of the spill, the company’s stock sold for $60.52. It’s since fallen to about $46 per share, or a close to 25 percent decrease.

Other companies have seen decreases in the past month, none nearly as drastic as the losses sustained by BP.

Chevron stock has dropped nearly $6 a share since April 20, Exxon Mobil has seen about the same. And Conoco Phillips, about a $2 decrease per share in the past month.

But despite the fall in the price of the stocks nearly across the board, Hochstetler said the long-term stability of the company is what people should keep in mind when deciding where to place their money.

“You have to look at this as are you a trader, or are you an investor,” he said. “As an investor, we don’t let short-term issues cause knee-jerk reactions. At this point in time, we see no reason to change our long-term investment plans in our local oil companies.”

Hochstetler said the most important thing currently is for the spill to get fixed and the cleanup to get underway, so local business can get back in order.

For the time being, the investor said he urges calm among those who may be nervous about what may or may not happen to the big oil companies in the long haul.

“In my more than 40 years of experience in this field, I’ve learned that if you don’t get too excited about the highs or get too depressed about the lows, you can come out pretty well in the long-run,” he said. “We have seen nothing to suggest BP and the other companies are not still stable despite this incident.”

Personnel in the Geographic Information System lab at the Unified Incident Command work to create informational maps, graphics and charts. * U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class PATRICK KELLEY

Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick