Halliburton Slick After Antitrust Concerns Surface

Joel Elconin is the co-host of Benzinga's #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show.

Halliburton Company HAL shares were trading lower by $0.50 at $41.36 in Wednesday's session. It has been a volatile day for the issue as the company may be facing antitrust scrutiny in its deal with Baker Hughes Incorporated BHI.

Off the open, it rallied and found resistance above Tuesday's high ($42.59) reaching $42.89 before sharply reversing course. The ensuing decline took the issue to $39.31 before making a violent rebound to the $42 level. The current low coincides with its July 17 low ($39.55).

Today's price action is taking place on much higher than average daily volume. So far, 41 million shares have changed hands compared with its 20-day average of 15.4 million shares.

Baker Hughes, for its part, was halted on a circuit breaker and recently traded lower by more 4 percent.