Cheaper oil is leading to the lowest summer gasoline prices in years, and it is causing heartburn for oil companies and their shareholders. Exxon’s USA oil and natural gas wells lost an average of $5.6 million a day during the quarter.
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Shares of Exxon (XOM) dropped 6% for the month of July as a result of tumbling oil prices and disappointing second-quarter earnings, CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera reported on “Power Lunch” Friday.
Baidu dropped 3.64 percent after the Chinese Internet search engine posted its biggest quarterly profit decline since going public.
Exxon reported second quarter earnings at $1.7 billion, compared with $4.2 billion during the same quarter for 2015. Chevron later reported a $1.47 billion loss, its third straight.
In the downstream division, earnings tumbled from $1.5 billion to $825 million.
Liquids production in the quarter increased by 39,000 barrels a day to 2.33 million barrels a day.
Moore also pointed out the July jobs report, released August 5, will give investors direction since the June and May jobs reports showed two clashing directions for the US economy. Production declined 3 percent. USA natural gas production fell by 56 million cubic feet per day to 3.1 billion cubic feet.
Total revenues and other income declined 27 percent to $29.28 billion from $40.36 billion in the same quarter past year, but topped analysts’ consensus estimate of $28.54 billion.
California-based Chevron said it was reining in costs, cutting $6 billion from its capital budget and operating expenses during the first six months of the year.
Crude and natural gas prices dropped during the quarter compared to the same period previous year in markets overburdened with supplies. “Oil prices, natural gas, refining, it all looks very bad right now”. The California company said its adjusted profit was 35 cents per share, 3 cents better than analysts predicted.
“While our financial results reflect a volatile industry environment, Exxon Mobil remains focused on business fundamentals, cost discipline and advancing selective new investments across the value chain to extend our competitive advantage”, CEO and Chairman of Exxon Rex W. Tillerson said in the wake of profit losses. Shell reported its weakest quarterly result in 11 years and missed analysts’ estimates by more than $1 billion. For the full year, analysts are looking for EPS of $2.79 on revenues of $240.75 billion.
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The consensus third-quarter estimates are nearly surely out the window. Now prices are losing altitude again, with crude nearing $40 a barrel. Torch Wealth Management LLC now owns 37,462 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,920,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. HSBC set a $88.50 price target on shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 13th.
