These Energy Stocks Are on the Rise this Week

This week, crude oil (USO) prices fell almost 2.2% from last week’s close of $64.94 per barrel to $63.54 per barrel by Thursday. Even natural gas (UNG) prices are moving down this week. They decreased from last week’s close of $2.73 per MMBtu (million British thermal units) on March 29 to $2.67 per MMBtu on April 5—a fall of more than 2% so far.

Gasoline fell ~1.9% while heating oil is also down ~2.2% so far.

Despite negative performance from energy commodities, the energy sector is trading up this week. As of April 5, the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE)—which represents an index of stocks across the energy sector—increased ~1.8%.

The stocks leading the rise in XLE are Andeavor (ANDV), Baker Hughes (BHGE), and Occidental Petroleum (OXY). They’re up ~7.2%, ~7.0%, and ~4.3%, respectively, this week.

Having analyzed the performance of the broader energy sector this week, we’ll also look at the performance of energy subsectors. Specifically, we’ll look at the gainers and losers from the refining and marketing and integrated energy sectors. We’ll also discuss news and developments behind the moves.

Let’s start with the gainers in the refining and marketing sector in the next part of this series.