Exxon Mobil guides to huge drop in earnings; just one example of revenue and earnings problems across the sector

Exxon Mobil guides to huge drop in earnings; just one example of revenue and earnings problems across the sector

On Wednesday, July 5, Exxon Mobil (XOM) told investors that second quarter earnings could drop by 50% from earnings in the second quarter of 2022. On Thursday, July 6, shares of Exxon Mobil closed down 3.73%. Remember, we’re talking about Exxon Mobil here, one gigantic oil company. So while earnings could fall by half in the quarter, the company is still looking at quarterly earnings of $6.2 billion. Exxon’s news has implications across the energy sector.

Sunday’s surprise OPEC+ sends oil and oil stocks higher Monday (with slight retreat today)

Sunday’s surprise OPEC+ sends oil and oil stocks higher Monday (with slight retreat today)

Today the prices of oil and oil stocks have soared. At 11:20 a.m. New York time U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 5.37% to $79.73 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude was higher by 5.24% to $84.08 a barrel. Among oil stocks, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) was up 3.53%; ExxonMobil (XOM ) was up 5.48%; Chevron (CVX) was up 3.73%; Equinor (EQNR) was up 5.91%; and ConocoPhillips (COP) was up 7.79% The U.S. Oil Fund (USO) was higher by 5.40%.

Oil rallies, finally

Oil rallies, finally

Oil rallied today, Monday, March 27, for the first time in, well, quite a while. Oil is likely to finish with a loss in March, for a fifth monthly drop. So today’s move, which saw West Texas Intermediate jump by almost 55, marked quite a shift in direction.

Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Trend of the Week Oil is Back for 2023

Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Trend of the Week Oil is Back for 2023

Today I posted my two-hundred-and-twenty-first YouTube video; Trend of the Week Oil is Back for 2023. This week’s Trend of the Week: Oil is Back for 2023. We’re looking at a great set-up for oil going forward into 2023. Oil performed well in 2022, so it’s going into 2023 with strong recommendations from Wall Street strategists to “Keep it up.” We also may be hitting “peak oil” in Saudi Arabia, (like we talked about—for those who are old enough to remember- back in the 80s.) So Saudi Arabia and Russia, two big players in the commodity, are both constrained on oil production capacity. Additionally, we’re seeing a shift in the United States to becoming a net oil exporter. Oil has sold off, as United States Oil Fund (USO) shows, with the price n December 26 at $69.32. But it now looks to be in recovery and this looks like a good entry point. There is some resistance with the 50-day moving average at $69.64, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem to get back up to the November peak of 76. So what do you buy? USO gives you an overall market exposure in oil, but if you’re looking at an oil producer for more leverage, look to someone with a lot of oil exposure in the oil shales in the US, like ConocoPhilips (COP).

Sunday’s surprise OPEC+ sends oil and oil stocks higher Monday (with slight retreat today)

Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead expect…

On Friday, the European Union agreed to impose a $ 60-a-barrel cap on all purchases of Russian oil. Pay more than that and sanctions kick in that include a ban on shipping and insurance on any oil shipments when the oil has been purchased above the $60 a barrel price. That would have produced enough chaos on its own since the announcement of the cap came before oil, insurance, and shipping companies saw the full details of the sanctions. That effect is that nobody will be quite sure what purchases will trigger what sanctions when trading begins on Monday morning. One possibility is that conservative company lawyers will decide not to do a deal when they can’t figure out the consequences. At the least, that problem will slow the market on Monday. And then today, Russia announced that it will not accept the $60 per barrel price cap for its crude oil Nobody has any idea what that means (but I’ll give you my read below) Suffice it to say, that oil market chaos is a possibility

Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Trend of the Week U.S . Oil Production not Rising as Expected

Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Trend of the Week U.S . Oil Production not Rising as Expected

Today I posted my two-hundred-and-fifth YouTube video. This week’s Trend of the Week: U.S. Oil Production is Not Rising as Expected. Oil prices have averaged $100 per barrel over 2022–a figure that would normally lead oil companies to expand production and capital spending, but it hasn’t this time. According to the Energy Information Administration, U.S. oil production is only up about 3% from December 2021. Projections had the U.S. at 12 million barrels a day by the end of this year, but we’re currently only at 9.77 million barrels a day. Why is the production not going up? Oil shale fields deplete faster than traditional fields and we may have reached peak production in some of these oil shale basins. The best properties may have been exhausted and we’re now seeing companies move to their more inferior properties. The drilling and fracking may be happening at a steady pace, but we’re not getting as much out of the wells and properties currently being drilled. Companies that had a stock of drilled, but uncompleted have now worked through those “spare” wells and don’t have the motivation to drill new ones as Wall Street and investors would prefer high dividends instead of capital spent on a commodity that has an unclear future. The two oil companies I would look at are Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE: PXD) and ConocoPhillips (COP) because of their mix of resources.

Sunday’s surprise OPEC+ sends oil and oil stocks higher Monday (with slight retreat today)

OPEC+ “considers” cutting oil production and oil and oil stocks surge today

All it takes is a report that OPEC+, the group of oil-producing countries that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, is considering a big cut in production at its meeting this week to send oil and oil stocks off to the races. As of noon New York time on Monday, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate is up 4.21%, and international benchmark Brent crude is higher by 3.75%.

Oil falls on surprise build in U.S. inventories in spite of a shockingly small increase in production from OPEC+

Oil falls on surprise build in U.S. inventories in spite of a shockingly small increase in production from OPEC+

As of 2 p.m. New York time today, August 3, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was down 3.30% to $91.30 a barrel. International benchmark Brent fell 3.07% to $97.45 a barrel.

The drop was a result of Wednesday data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing that U.S. crude and gasoline inventories unexpectedly rose last week. U.S. crude supplies were up 4.5 million barrels in the week ended July 29, while gasoline supplies rose 200,000 barrels. This comes at a time when gasoline inventories usually fall on high seasonal demand. This report was, for the day, more than enough to offset the announcement of a smaller than expected increase in oil production by OPEC+ of just 100,000 barrels a day for September.

Remember, natural gas isn’t just for heating; air conditioning demand sends natural gas for August delivery up 10.2% today

Remember, natural gas isn’t just for heating; air conditioning demand sends natural gas for August delivery up 10.2% today

There are the base-load power plants that run all the time and meet the bulk of normal electricity demand. And then there are the power plants that are only intermittently called into service when demand spikes. In the United States the majority of the plants used to meet “spiking” demand run on natural gas. So you can imagine what something like the current heat wave now gripping much of the country does to electricity demand for air conditioning and to demand for natural gas.