Oil stocks, desperate for direction at the open, finally latched onto a pop in commodities prices Friday, edging higher on firmer crude oil and gasoline prices.
After barely budging at the open, Amex Oil Index ($XOI : 1,135.23, -9.11, -0.8% ) was ahead 0.2%, the Amex Natural Gas Index ($XNG : 449.22, -3.98, -0.9% ) was up 0.2%, and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index ($OSX : 202.63, -0.70, -0.3% ) was ahead 0.6%. Behind the sector's move to the plus side was a 70-cent rise in April crude-oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange to $58.25 a barrel.
Crude was joined by nearly a 3% jump in the April gasoline contract, trading at $1.93 a gallon as traders turn their attention away from heating oil toward the summer driving season. See Futures Movers.
In the oil group, Total S.A. (TOT : 65.18, +0.08, +0.1% ) was the standout stock, leading percentage gainers with a 1% advance to $65.76 for its U.S.-traded shares. The French-based oil company won an upgrade from Morgan Stanley to overweight from equal-weight. The brokerage said that among Europe's major oil companies, Total offers a compelling combination of growth and free cash flow generation, which should separate it from peers over the next three years.
"Total is at an inflection point and is about to enter the most rapid period of growth since it was formed in its current state," Morgan Stanley said in a research note. "Not only should the next three years be the best for Total versus its history since merging with Elf, but also its growth should surpass BP (BP : 59.64, -0.09, -0.2% ) , Shell (RDSA : 63.51, -0.39, -0.6% ) and Eni (E :61.06, +0.16, +0.3% ) by more than any time since 2000."
Among the biggest U.S. companies in the group, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM : 69.95, -0.74, -1.0% ) was down 0.1%, Chevron Corp. (CVX :68.08, -0.79, -1.1% ) was ahead 0.6%, and ConocoPhillips (COP : 65.34, -1.18, -1.8% ) was off 0.1%, still smarting from a Goldman Sachs note on Thursday that downgraded Conoco in favor of Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO :93.30, -0.60, -0.6% ) .
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