Crude Oil Slipped With Broader Weakness (USO, UNG, HLX, TTI, PTEN, COP)
Crude oil fell sharply to near $102 a barrel as investors became nervous over political uncertainty in Europe, disappointing data from China and sharp rally in the dollar index.
Oil for June delivery slumped $1.47, or 1.45%, to $102.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude for delivery in May ended Friday up 78 cents, or 0.8%, to $103.05 a barrel. The contract expired at the end of trading Friday.
The dollar index was up sharply by 0.41% at 79.47, from 79.140 in late North American trading on Friday.
Late Sunday the Socialist challenger for the French presidency, François Hollande, would face off incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round.
There was also negative news out of the Netherlands. An early general election is expected there after budget talks aimed at resolving fiscal issues and keeping the country’s triple-A credit rating broke down.
The HSBC Chinese manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a two-month high of 49.1, but readings below 50 indicate a contraction rather than an expansion.
Among other energy pack, May natural gas rebounded 8 cents, or 4%, to $2.00 per million British thermal units.
May gasoline was up 1 cents, or 0.3%, at $3.15 a gallon, while May heating-oil slid cents, or 0.6%, to $3.12 per gallon.
United States Oil Fund LP (ETF)(NYSEARCA:USO) was down 1.42% to $38.83 and United States Natural Gas Fund, LP(NYSEARCA:UNG) added 3.54% to $14.91.
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc.(NYSE:HLX) shares soared 8.30% to $18.80 after the company earned $65.7 million or $0.62 a share on revenue of $407.93 million in its first-quarter, topping analysts’ estimates of a profit of $0.43 per share for the quarter on revenue of $343.89 million.
Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc.(NASDAQ:PTEN) was up 1.22% as TETRA Technologies, Inc.(NYSE:TTI) will buy Patterson-UTI Energy’s fracking services unit for $42.5M in cash to expand into the Marcellus and Utica shales. PTEN expects to record a $20M gain in its Q2 related to the deal.
ConocoPhillips(NYSE:COP) fell 0.71% to $72.36 after the company reported a lower than estimated first quarter earnings due to lower production and weaker refining margins.
The company posted profit of $2.94 billion, or $2.27 a share, down from a year ago profit of $3.03 billion, or $2.09 a share. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $2.02 a share, missing analysts’ estimates by 6 cents.
Sales and other operating revenue slid 0.7% to $56.1 billion, above analysts’ estimates of $53.6 billion.
Production fell to 1.64 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, down by 65,000 barrels per day, just above the analysts’ estimates of production of 1.59 million barrels a day.