Stocks of several U.S. energy companies are taking a beating Wednesday morning following the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly report on petroleum inventories. The hardest hit is refiner Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), no doubt a result of the EIA’s report that gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.4 million barrels last week.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded down about 1.3%, Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was down about the same amount and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) traded down just less than 1%.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for October delivery closed at $92.75 and touched a low of $91.30 Wednesday, a decline of about 1.5%. Brent crude for November delivery was down 1.2% at $98.78.
The EIA inventory report followed on the agency’s updated demand growth report issued Tuesday and Wednesday morning’s release of OPEC’s report on the oil market. Both see lower demand growth this year and next, and that got these energy stocks off to a bad start Wednesday.
Exxon, Chevron and Conoco were trading down between 1% and 1.5% before the announcement and slipped to 1.5% to 1.75%. Valero shares were trading down about 3% before the EIA report and fell to more than 4% below the previous close. Shares of all four companies picked again to approximately where they stood before the EIA report was released.
Exxon traded at $96.44, down about 1%, just before noon Wednesday. The stock’s 52-week range is $84.79 to $104.76.
Chevron stock was down about 1.3%, at $123.58 in a 52-week range of $109.27 to $135.10. Chevron stock was downgraded to Underperform Tuesday at Merrill Lynch.
Conoco traded down about 0.8%, at $78.40 in a 52-week range of $62.74 to $87.09. Conoco received an upgrade to Neutral from Merrill Lynch Tuesday.
Valero slumped about 3.1% to $51.06, in a 52-week range of $33.20 to $59.69.
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