Oil futures end lower and Oklahoma energy firms saw drops too

 

Oil futures fell in Tuesday’s trading but analysts say the fall was limited by higher hopes for tighter U.S. supplies of oil.

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery slipped 33 cents or 0.08% to settle at $41.61 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. WTI had been as high as $42.94 a day during the mid-day while Brent saw a high of $45.79 a barrel. Overseas, the global benchmark, October Brent crude lost 49 cents or 1.1% at $44.50 a barrel in trading on ICE Futures Europe.

September natural gas settled at $2.171 per million British thermal units, up 0.8%.

“Oil could not ignore the big correction in precious metals,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. The sharp selloff in gold and silver Tuesday “led to some trickle over margin selling on oil,” he told MarketWatchGold futures suffered from their biggest daily dollar decline in more than seven years.

Traders eyed developments tied to efforts toward economic relief from the impact of the coronavirus. White House officials and top Democratic lawmakers on Monday indicated they were ready to resume talks on a coronavirus aid package after President Donald Trump over the weekend signed executive orders that would extend some elements of existing help that lapsed at the end of July, though there as little sign of movement.

Those measures, meanwhile, face legal and logistical hurdles. Trump late on Monday said the administration was considering a cut in the tax rate on capital gains, which analysts said helped fuel gains for U.S. benchmark stock indexes.

Analysts at JBC Energy, a Vienna-based consulting firm, noted that data showed U.S. rigs and frack fleets continued to fall week-over-week. Continued declines “could speak for further downside risk to U.S. supply relative to our current forecast of 10.8 million barrels a day” through the second half, they said.

On the demand side, meanwhile, the analysts said their compound road-fuel demand indicator continued to trend largely flat on an aggregated global basis as well as in major parts of Europe and North America.

Oil wasn’t alone in falling during Tuesday’s trading. So did some Oklahoma and related stocks.

Oklahoma City’s SandRidge Energy fell 5.14% or 9 cents a share before ending the day at $1.66. Devon Energy dropped 2.21% or 28 cents and settled at $12.36 a share.

Ovintiv Inc. fell 60 cents or 4.96% to settle at $11.50.  Mammoth Energy Services dropped 60 cents for a 3.55% decline and ended the day at $1.63.

NGL Energy Partners took a nosedive of 59 cents for a decline of 11.90% to settle at $4.37 a share. Continental Resources fell 30 cents or 1.62% to finish the day at $18.19.

ConocoPhillips (COP) up 0.07 at 39.71 – change 0.17%

Diamondback Energy (FANG) down 0.22 at 44.45 – change 0.50%

Energy Transfer LP (ET) down 0.02 at 6.53 – change 0.30%

EOG Resources (EOG) down 1.04 at 49.42 – change 2.07%

ExxonMobil (XOM) up 0.46 at 44.97 – change 1.03%

Kinder Morgan (KMI) down 0.12 at 14.42 – change 0.83%

Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) down 0.10 at 5.94 – change 1.66%

National Oilwell Varco (NOV) up 0.63 at 13.05 – change 5.07%

Noble Energy (NBL) down 0.04 at 10.65 – change 0.38%

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) down 1.32 at 15.16 – change 8.01%

ONEOK (OKE) down 0.19 at 30.03 – change 0.63%

Phillips 66 (PSX) down 0.76 at 64.11 – change 1.18%

Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) down 2.44 at 106.56 – change 2.23%

Valero (VLO) up 0.10 at 53.65 – change 0.18%
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CLOSING TOP UTILITY STOCKS

American Electric Power (AEP) down 2.65 at 83.29 – change 3.09%

Source: MarketWatch