eNergy Stocks: Amex Oil Index advances to all-time high


Oil stocks pushed into record territory Friday, carried by a surge in crude-oil prices back above the $65 mark and a raft of positive economic data that continued to stir investors' appetite for the energy industry.

Shoring up the gains was a 40-point jump by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI : 13,668.11, +40.47, +0.3% ) . Concerns over a possible move to jack up interest rates eased Friday after the government reported core consumer prices are now running at 2% annually, within the Federal Reserve's comfort zone. See Economic Report.

Oil stocks clinch gains on $65 crude, economic data
Oil stocks got a couple more shots in the arm from data showing accelerating growth last month in the U.S. manufacturing sector, signaling continued robust energy demand, and a positive jobs report for May from the Labor Department. See Market Snapshot.

At the close, the Amex Oil Index (XOI : 1,388.08, +20.22, +1.5% ) was up 1.5% at 1,388.1 points, hitting an all-time high of 1,391 earlier in the session. The index advanced 2.1% for the holiday-shortened week, outpacing a 1.2% gain by the Dow and a 1.4% gain by the S&P 500 (SPX :1,536.34, +5.72, +0.4% ) .

The Amex Natural Gas Index (XNG : 516.48, +1.36, +0.3% ) rose 0.3% to close at 516.5 points, leaving it ahead 1.8% for the week, while the Philadelphia Oil Service Index ($OSX : 0.00, 0.00, 0.0% ) advanced 0.5% to 252.3 points, good for a 1.5% gain for the week.

Refiners Valero Energy Corp. (VLO : 75.88, +1.26, +1.7% ) and Sunoco Inc. (SUN : 81.11, +1.40, +1.8% ) and independents Hess Corp. (HES : 60.26, +1.04, +1.8% ) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY :56.33, +1.36, +2.5% ) led the rally in the oil group, with Occidental hitting a fresh 52-week high of $56.76 a share. But ConocoPhillips (COP :78.86, +1.43, +1.8% ) was also in the game, up 1.9% to close at $78.86 -- a record high. Index heavyweight and Dow Jones Industrials component Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM84.22, +1.05, +1.3% ) rose 1.3% to finish at $84.22 a share, just 10 cents off its record intraday high.

The July crude oil contract added $1.07 to end the session at $65.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, extending an upswing begun late Thursday on bullish weekly inventory reports.

Behind the jump in crude was an even swifter spike in gasoline futures, with the July contract up 1.8%, or 4.14 cents, to $2.2446 a gallon. The move was triggered in part by outages at several key refineries at a time when U.S. gasoline inventories are still more than 6% behind the five-year average for this time of year. See Futures Movers.
by Jim Jelte



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