Again, oil challenged six-year lows and is at the risk of seeing those recessionary lows. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude closed out the week at $43.11, after having been above $45.00 briefly on Monday and Tuesday. The price trajectory almost seemed as though WTI’s oil price chart has taken a life of its own, with the sole goal of seeing if it can test $40.00. Additional analyst calls and data for the oil and gas sector from this week are included below.

Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FANG) was started as Overweight with a $91 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets. This was versus a prior $71.67 close, but Diamondback shares closed up 3.1% at $73.90 on Friday.

Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) was given a very positive call from Argus at the start of the week. The firm sees solid value as is, but also sees upside to its target in a buyout analysis as well.

We have a very mixed picture in MLPs. The sector is very weak, but some MLPs saw a bounce of 10% or so from lows this past week. Bottom-fishers and value investors are hoping yet again for a bottom. 24/7 Wall St. also just featured four MLPs still raising their distributions (dividends) to holders.

ALSO READ: Why Warren Buffett Continues to Dump His Exposure to Oil

We also saw a key ratings agency warn that many MLPs could face serious funding risks ahead, but they also see that leading to more M&A as well, with strong outfits buying strong assets that may have weaker financial positions.

Another observation was that short sellers have increased their bets against big oil. If you want another round of a reminder about pain or mixed views in the oil patch, just take a look at what Argus has to say about Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and its limited upside view for the world’s largest player.