energy Stocks: slip as oil and gas prices fall

Energy stocks slipped early Monday as commodity prices backtracked from last week's sharp gains on reports that Saudi Arabia's oil minister downplayed prospects of a future production cut.

The Amex Oil Index (XOI :1,149.81, -13.55, -1.2% ) was off 0.7% to 1,155.25 points as crude for March delivery fell $1.19 to $58.70 a barrel. The Amex Natural Gas Index (XNG : 455.61, -4.10, -0.9% ) slipped 0.5% to 457.21 points as natural gas dropped 5.1% to $7.43 per million British thermal units. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index ($OSX :196.71, -2.52, -1.3% ) fell 0.8% to 197.63 points.

In the news, Hydril (HYDL : 94.72, +11.68, +14.1% ) shares surged 14.3% after the manufacturer of pressure control products for oil and gas production agreed to be acquired by Tenaris S.A. (TS : 46.49, -0.44, -0.9% ) for $97 a share in cash. The offer represents a premium of roughly 17% to Hydril's closing share price last Friday. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

Otherwise, the rest of the energy sector was covered in red. On the oil index, Sunoco (SUN : 60.36, -1.09, -1.8% ) paced the decline, falling 1.5%, followed by Hess Corp. (HES : 54.28, -0.66, -1.2% ) and BP (BP :74.76, -0.46, -0.6% ) fell 0.3% to $74.96 and Chevron Corp. (CVX :72.78, -0.54, -0.7% ) fell 0.6% to $72.93.

No comments: