Thursday, April 14, 2011

Halliburton (HAL) (APC) (DVN) (WTI) Close Up as Crude Prices Rebound

Shares of oil and energy companies like Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Anadarko (NYSE:APC), Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) and W&T Offshore (NYSE:WTI) closed up Wednesday as crude oil prices rebounded after two days of trading down.

Crude-oil futures were up Wednesday, gaining strength after a period of weakness midway through the day as investors focused on a supply report and hefty gains for gasoline futures.

Crude for May delivery was up 86 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $107.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures ended a two-day losing streak that had slashed almost 6 percent from prices on Friday.

The Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories rose 1.6 million barrels for the week ended April 8.

The EIA reported a drop in gasoline inventories of 7 million barrels. Distillates supplies were down 2.7 million barrels.

Both figures showed deeper declines than projected. Analysts were looking for a decrease of 1.3 million for gasoline and unchanged stocks of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil.

Gasoline for May delivery increased 8 cents to $3.24 a gallon, also ending a two-session losing run and reaching the highest prices since Friday.

May heating oil was up 3 cents, or 1 percent, to $3.20 a gallon.

W&T Offshore closed Wednesday at $21.81, gaining $0.03, or 0.14 percent. Devon Energy closed at $87.72, up $1.74, or 2.02 percent. Anadarko closed at $78.34, rising $0.91, or 1.18 percent. Halliburton ended the day at $45.51, jumping $0.17, or 0.37 percent.

No comments: