mid day energy report Sector Update: Energy Stocks Adding to Narrow Wednesday Gains Despite Afternoon Slide for WTI Crude Oil
01:24 PM EDT, 06/09/2021 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were moderately higher this afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index climbing 0.3% while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF was up 0.3%.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil was sinking $0.31 to $69.71 per barrel despite the Energy Information Administration Wednesday reporting a bullish 5.2 million-barrel decline in commercial inventories last week. The global benchmark Brent crude contract also was declining $0.15 to $72.07 per barrel while Henry Hub natural gas futures were $0.01 higher at $3.14 per 1 million BTU.
Among energy-related ETFs, the United States Oil Fund was dropping 0.8% while the United States Natural Gas Fund was adding 0.2%. The Philadelphia Oil-Service Sector index was sliding 0.3% lower and the Dow Jones US Utilities Index was advancing 0.7%.
In company news, Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) rose over 32% after disclosing the sale of nearly 10.5 million common shares through its at-the-market equity offering program, generating $100 million in gross proceeds.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) was about 2% higher after the energy major announced a new discovery from its Mako-2 evaluation well in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, encountering newly identified, high quality hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs across the 230 feet of net pay.
Enerplus (ERF) declined fractionally after Scotiabank cut its stock rating for the Canadian oil and natural gas producer to sector perform from sector outperform and also lowered its price target by CA$0.75 to CA$9.25.