As the U.S. went back to work following a 3-day July 4th holiday weekend, oil prices notched a slight gain and came to rest at nearly $41 a barrel. Observers say there are continued worries about the lack of demand as COVID-19 still has people backing off wide-spread travel.
West Texas Intermediate August futures rose only 2 cents and finished the day at $40.63. Brent benchmark in London’s ICE future’s Europe was up 33 cents or less than 1% to settle at $43.13.
Natural gas prices were up 5.5% or 10 cents to finish the day at $1.83 per MMBtu.
“Everything is pretty well priced in at this stage and unless we see a significant change on the economic outlook or these new waves of coronavirus,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda. “We may have to wait to see what’s agreed on the output side before we see any further big moves,” he told Market Watch.
Local stocks experienced losses including ONEOK where its shares plunged 12% or $3.86, dropping to a day’s end price of $28.29.
Marathon Oil fell 26 cents or 4.25% to settle at $5.86 a share. SandRidge energy shares were unchanged at $1.30 while ConocoPhillips dropped 15 cents to finish the day at $41.63.
Devon Energy shares were down 8 cents to $11.16. EOG Resources dropped 11 cents and ended the day at $50.41 a share.
Phillips 66 fell 33 cents to $68.09.
In the Utilities Sector, American Electric Power was down 40 cents at $82.12.
