NEW YORK, NY, December 13, 2023 – US equities closed mostly higher on Tuesday as the S&P set a fresh year-to-date high, finishing the day at its highest level since January 2022, just 3.2% below its all-time high. Energy stocks underperformed while gasoline prices were down (6%) for the month, playing a key role in cooling inflation numbers for November.
The S&P 500 Energy Index was down (1.35%) versus the S&P 500 which rose +0.14%. The XLE settled down (1.39%), the XOP fell (2.25%) to a new five-month low. WTI fell (4.1%) to $68.39, Brent declined (4.0%) to $73.01, and Natural Gas fell (4.4%) following a (5.8%) drop yesterday.
The day’s decliners were SilverBow Resources ($SBOW) which dropped (8.6%) after announcing a 2.2 million share secondary, up from 1.7 million, for holder Strategic Value Partners, Kinetik Holdings ($KNTK) which lost (3.7%) and Gulfport Energy ($GPOR) which fell (2.5%). Occidental Petroleum ($OXY) fell by (2.7%) after announcing it would acquire CrownRock. Truist Securities noted that while they consider the acreage some of the very best on the market, valuation and total locations will be the key questions around the purchase.
Top performers in the PRISM Oil & Gas Index were Imperial Petroleum ($IMPP) which soared +10.87% during the day, PEDEVCO Corp ($PED) which rose +7.54% and Alvopetro Energy ($ALVOF) which was up +4.10% to $5.11. Trio Petroleum Corp ($TPET) gained +3.08%. The PRISM Oil & Gas index value is $146.50 and performance is up by +46.50% since inception.
Trader’s Lens
$XOM is coming closer to an important support point on its longer term chart. About $95 has been a price that $XOM has tested a couple times in the last year.
$IMPP, an international shipping transportation company out of Greece, is the leader of the Prism MarketView Oil & Gas index today. $IMPP is well off of its highs, but in the last month the company has announced the buyback of $1.9 million worth of stock as well as the repurchase of $3.2 million in warrants.
Argentinian state-run oil company $YPF has held up well after the boost it got from the election of Javier Milei, who has made his intentions known that he’s open to having state-run companies become private.
Tuesday’s Top Headlines
Occidental Petroleum to acquire CrownRock for $12 billion
Occidental Petroleum ($OXY) has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire shale oil producer CrownRock for cash and stock in a transaction valued at $12.0 billion. Occidental will also assume CrownRock’s debt. Occidental intends to finance the purchase with the incurrence of $9.1 billion of new debt, the issuance of $1.7 billion of common equity and the assumption of CrownRock’s $1.2 billion of existing debt. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 of 2024.
Analyst commentary on the deal was largely positive. Capital One Securities said the deal makes sense as there is contiguous overlap between the two companies acreage and CrownRock has a deep inventory of high-quality drilling locations in the Midland Basin. Jefferies said it liked the industrial logic as well as the quality of the assets, while Roth MKM said it sees the deal as expensive at about $83,000 per undeveloped acre and $4.4 million per primary location.
US Strategic Petroleum Reserve Unchanged
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve stood at 351.9M barrels on December 8, roughly unchanged compared to the prior week, as a sour crude draw of (1.5 million) was offset by a +1.6 million barrel build of sweet crude.
About PRISM MarketView:
Established in 2020, PRISM MarketView is dedicated to the monitoring and analysis of small cap stocks in burgeoning sectors. We deliver up-to-the-minute financial market news, provide comprehensive investor tools and foster a dynamic investor community. Central to our offerings are proprietary indexes that observe emerging sectors, including biotech, clean energy, next-generation tech, medical devices and beyond. Visit us at prismmarketview.com and follow us on Twitter.
PRISM MarketView does not provide investment advice.
Media Contact
Company Name: Prism MarketView
Email: info@prismmarketview.com
Phone: 646-863-6341
Country: United States
Website: https://prismmarketview.com
Source: PRISM MarketView
