Ladies and gentlemen, 2016 has been canceled. Thanks for coming. Schlumberger, the oilfield services giant, sure knows how to kill the mood — which wasn’t great in the oil patch anyway. Its third-quarter results, reported late on Thursday, were broadly unremarkable. The company beat earnings estimates slightly, largely at the tax line, and displayed the resilience that investors have come to expect, with margins holding up and $1.7 billion of free cash flow. Good for them. But the commentary that followed on Friday morning’s analyst call will take what little air there was out of the oil industry’s sails. Schlumberger effectively wrote off the idea of things getting better next year. It will take more charges in the current quarter as it cranks up efforts to cut costs again, and that will hit earnings. It expects first-quarter earnings next year to be lower still. It hopes that will mark […]