BP Profit Plummets on Lower Refining Margins, Oil Trading

KEY TAKEAWAYSBP on Tuesday posted third-quarter profit that fell well short of analysts' forecasts, dragged by weaker refining margins and oil trading.It reported net profit of $206 million, a massive decline from last year's$4.86 billion and well below the $1.96 billion consensus estimate of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.BP booked an underlying replacement-cost (RC) profit of$2.27 billion, down from the $3.29 billion it reported a year ago and$2.76 billion last quarter, although it topped analysts' e ...