Early action saw the Amex Oil Index ($XOI :1,290.34, +5.89, +0.5% ) rise as much as 0.5% after Eni (E :66.89, +0.12, +0.2% ) announced it would pay $4.76 billion to Dominion Resources Inc. (D :92.05, +0.50, +0.5% ) for a stake in Gulf of Mexico production properties expected to nearly triple Eni's output in the region to 110,000 barrels a day. See full story.
Eni made the purchase to replenish reserves while the deal for Dominion is part of an ongoing process to ease out of petroleum production and concentrate on its core power generation business. Dominion's shares rose up as much as 2.3% on the deal, hitting a 52-week high of $93.63, while U.S.-traded shares of Eni were little-changed at $66.81.
A big Gulf of Mexico oil field acquisition by Italy's Eni Group brought some excitement to the energy market Monday, bumping up oil stocks in the face of a slight pullback by crude prices.The deal added some upward sentiment to a market otherwise getting little input from the underlying commodities. Crude-oil for June delivery, though still high, was off 55 cents at $65.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Reformulated gasoline was up slightly, however, touching a new contract high of $2.415 a gallon. See Futures Movers.
Action in the other energy indexes was more muted, with the Amex Natural Gas Index ($XNG :496.90, +0.31, +0.1% ) and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index ($OSX :237.98, -0.17, -0.1% ) both up 0.1%.
Among the top movers early Monday, Valero Energy Corp. (VLO :72.39, +1.18, +1.7% ) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY :51.59, +0.42, +0.8% ) were leading gainers on the Amex Oil Index, up 1% each at $71.91 and $51.67 a share, respectively.
Chevron Corp. (CVX :78.80, +0.72, +0.9% ) , after reporting on Friday an 18% higher first-quarter profit, was up 0.7% while Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM : 80.61, +0.25, +0.3% ) was up 0.2%. Exxon posted a 10% higher quarterly profit Thursday.
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV : 87.00, +0.35, +0.4% ) , which reported Friday a doubling of its first-quarter earnings, was visited Monday by profit-takers. The stock was down 1.2%, among the biggest percentage decliners on the oil service index, after posting a 4.6% gain in the previous session.
