For quite some time, I published a series over at Seeking Alpha in which I tracked the performance of six selected large oil and gas stocks so that followers of this industry could get a quick idea of how the industry as a whole performed as well as be aware of any significant developments in the industry during that period. Admittedly, I allowed this series to fall to the wayside as I worked on several other projects and the industry lost favor with investors. I have since decided to revive this series given the recent global developments that have injected significant volatility into this market.
ExxonMobil (XOM)
ExxonMobil opened the week of September 5 (September 4 was Labor Day and a market holiday) at $76.64 per share and closed the week at $78.82 per share. This gives the stock a return of 2.84% over the week. The stock had a negative return last week, so clearly it improved somewhat. The majority of this gain appears to have been due to the price of oil as ExxonMobil had no significant news events over the past week, with the exception of the company reactivating its Baytown refinery in Texas on September 2. This refinery, capable of processing 560,000 barrels of oil per day was shut down due to Hurricane Harvey hitting the state. Although 560,000 barrels sounds like a lot, it only represents a small fraction of the oil consumed in the United States alone so it is unlikely that this alone was able to cause the stock to surge 2.84% in a week.
Source: Fidelity Investments
Chevron (CVX)
Much like ExxonMobil, Chevron also delivered relatively solid gains to its investors over the past week. The stock opened the week at $109.36 per share and closed the week at $110.78 per share. This gives the stock a return of 1.30% over the week. Unlike ExxonMobil, Chevron’s stock actually gained last week although the gain was nowhere near as dramatic as what the stock saw during the week of September 5 – September 8.
