The great energy sector puzzle: Oil is up but oil stocks are down?

The great energy sector puzzle: Oil is up but oil stocks are down?

On Friday oil futures hit a 29-month high. That took West Texas Intermediate to a gain of 8.5% in 2017 to date. However, energy stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 are off 9.8% when the S&P 500 itself is up more than 16% for 2017. Energy stocks normally go up when the price of oil rises Sp how do we explain the decline in energy shares at the same time as oil prices are rising?

The great energy sector puzzle: Oil is up but oil stocks are down?

OPEC raises global oil demand forecast–and its projection for U.S. shale production

Good news for oil prices:  OPEC raised its forecast for global oil demand in 2021 by 2.3 million barrels a day above last year’s projection. It also raised its oil demand forecast in 2040 by 1.7 million barrels a day to about 111 million barrels.  Bad news for oil prices: OPEC also forecast that oil output from North American shale producers will hit 7.5 million barrels a day in 2021.