It was like clockwork. Every week since 1944, Baker Hughes Inc. would release its survey of how many rigs were out drilling for U.S oil and gas. And every week, oil and gas traders would, for the most part, overlook it. What a difference a $50-a-barrel slide in oil makes. This past Friday, traders were bent over their desks, staring at their screens, waiting for 1 p.m. New York time to see whether drillers extended their biggest-ever retreat from U.S. oil fields. (They did.) Oil futures spiked within minutes of the count, closing at the highest level in four days. “I don’t think I’ve heard ‘Baker Hughes’ more in my life than I have in the past month,” Dan Flynn, a trader at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said by phone on Feb. 13. “It’s like I’m saying it in my sleep.” The sudden interest in Houston-based […]