After a strong start to the week, WTI crude oil fell 0.12% to settle at $80.61 per barrel in today’s trading session. Prices have rallied roughly 6.4% over the past five sessions after OPEC+ slashed its daily output by nearly 1.16 million barrels.
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Energy major Exxon (NYSE:XOM) is expecting lower energy prices to weigh on its first-quarter numbers. The company expects lower oil prices to impact upstream earnings in the range of $600 million and $1 billion. Further, lower natural gas prices are also seen impacting earnings in the range of $400 million and $800 million.
Latest numbers from the American Petroleum Institute indicate oil inventories in the U.S. dropped by 4.3 million barrels in the week ending March 31. In addition, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly Crude Oil Inventories report, which measures the weekly change in the number of barrels of commercial crude oil held by U.S. firms.
Compared to last week, inventories fell by 3.739 million barrels. For reference, economists were expecting a decrease of 2.329 million barrels week-over-week. This means that demand was stronger than anticipated.
Meanwhile, natural gas rallied 2.33% to settle at $2.155. Furthermore, the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has gained 4.22% over the past five sessions and could be headed higher after OPEC’s latest move boosts the case for higher oil prices.
Here is a list of energy stocks that can be influenced by the latest developments in the energy markets.
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