What a difference a couple of hours can make! Earlier today oil was selling off about a dollar a barrel but by the end of the day we got a nice pop pushing prices up over $58.This week's inventory report showed greater than anticipated rises in the precious crude but that was not enough to get the bulls from coming back into the market and pushing prices higher. There was a pretty hefty price swing today with a low of $55.76 but by the day's end oil prices jumped by $1.07 to close out at $58.04.
I have been posing the question lately of whether or not we were heading back into a bull market for oil, and so far it looks like that is exactly what is happening. Cold weather and potential cuts in production from Saudi Arabia have provided the fuel for the recent oil recovery.
Earlier this month the market tested the $50 barrier but the last couple of weeks we have seen a nice jump of about 16%. Not too bad. Oil is still down for the month, but things are definitely looking more on the bright side. All in all prices fell around $2 a barrel in the month of January for a 3.2% decline but at this rate don't expect prices to stay under $60 for much longer.
This chart illustrates just how strong of a comeback oil has been having over the last few weeks:
All eyes are going to be on Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) as it announces its fourth quarter 2006 earnings in the morning. Analysts are expecting to see the company post earnings per share of $1.51. BloggingStocks readers were asked to chime in with their guess as to whether or not XOM would be able to hit its number and the results show that 45% of readers are betting the company will meet its number, 43% think it will beat estimates with only 12% thinking it will come up short.
Shares of XOM posted a small loss today with the stock falling 0.4% to $74.10 down $0.29. For the month of January, shares in Exxon Mobil posted a modest decline with a 2.9% fall. Not too bad considering the turbulent market we have been dealt recently.
Exxon Mobil will have a conference call tomorrow at 11:00 am ET and BloggingStocks will be live blogging it here so make sure to stop by and check on the action.
Below is a 6 month chart for the stock.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know what you're expecting.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-01-2007 @ 7:15AM
Bruce E Warnock said...
We are XOM shareholders, recalling that this is one of the world's most profitable companies. Why then did they maintain the $.32 dividend for the fifth straight quarter? They have one of the strongest balance sheets in corporate America and can well afford to increase the dividend. To retired folks like us, this is a much needed part of our income.