US oil sector mixed on news, data

At noon on Friday the New York markets were up on the day but seemed ready to end the week on a negative note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.8 percent higher so far for the day but was still 0.2 percent lower for the week to 11,366.98. The Nasdaq Composite had gained 0.2 percent to 2,160.29 by noon, but had dropped 1.5 percent since the beginning of the week. The S&P 500 was up 0.2 percent on the day but was 1.1 percent lower for the week to 1,296.07.

Coal miners saw substantial declines during the week. Arch Coal was 7.9 percent lower to $31.00, Consol Energy fell 9.8 percent to $33.45, and Peabody Energy dropped 11.7 percent to $39.46. Analysts revised their earnings predictions for Peabody downward after Peabody said that its coal shipments would be lower than had been estimated in the third quarter.

In the oil sector, Devon Energy was up 5.8 percent on the week to $67.90 after news that a well it drilled in conjunction with Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico had led to the discovery of a large new oil field. The rest of the sector suffered from the effect of declining oil prices. Sunoco dropped 8.7 percent to $66.30, while Valero Energy declined by 9.3 percent to $52.41.

Carmakers did well this week, however. General Motors added 4.5 percent to $31.63 after it said that it will lengthen its warranty on new cars to 100,000 miles or 5 years. Ford Motor added 5.4 percent to $8.72 on the news that it will replace its chief executive.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: US oil sector mixed on news, data