by Jasmina Kelemen
Oil and gas shares got caught in Wall Street's maelstrom registering sharp losses at the close Friday despite bullish commodity signals that kept oil prices aloft for most of the week.
The Amex Oil Index (XOI :1,122.03, -19.71, -1.7% ) fell 1.7% to 1,122 points, down 4.9% from last Friday's finish. In the meantime, crude prices clocked a slight gain as traders remained encouraged by strong demand and falling U.S. supplies of oil products. See full story.
The Amex Natural Gas Index (XNG :446.43, -7.55, -1.7% ) fell 1.7% to 446.43 points, losing 3.5% for the week. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index ($OSX : 0.00, 0.00, 0.0% ) lopped off 1.6% to 195.16 points, losing 3.1% over the week.
U.S. stocks endured a brutal week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average took its largest weekly percentage decline since March 2003, with the Japanese yen's rally against the dollar and more bad news for mortgage lenders fueling investor anxiety. See full story.
This week's sell-off was triggered by a one-day 9% decline in China's Shanghai stock market. The sharp decline fueled concerns that expectations of surging Asian economic growth and commodity demand were overdone, knocking the wind out of many of the energy sector's biggest names.
The major oil companies continued to act as a drag on the oil index, taking a beating for their greater international exposure. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM : 70.01, -0.98, -1.4% ) fell 1.4% to $70.01, dropping 6.9% over the week and erasing any gains this year.
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