NEW YORK: The Dow tumbled more than 300 points on Friday (Dec 12) as US stocks took cues from a rout in European equities following another big drop in oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 315.51 points (1.79 per cent) to 17,280.83. The broad-based S&P 500 sank 33.00 points (1.62 per cent) to 2,002.33 in its worst week since May 2012. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 54.57 points (1.16 per cent) to 4,653.60.
Losses in European markets were even deeper. Britain's FTSE 100 index fell about 2.5 per cent and equity markets in France and Germany each lost more than 2.7 per cent.
US equities were in the red all day, but the selling accelerated near the end of the session. The S&P 500 racked up more than half its losses in the final 60 minutes of trade. US oil prices fell to a fresh five-year low of US$57.81 a barrel after the International Energy Agency cut its oil-demand forecast for 2015.
Michael James, managing director of Wedbush Securities, said lower oil prices benefit consumers, but traders have been unnerved by the speed of the free-fall in crude prices. "Projects might be put on hold in the oil sector and there are questions for the companies that bring financing," he said. "That creates uncertainty and that creates selling."
But Alan Skrainka, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth Management, dismissed the worries. "Falling oil prices is an enormous stimulus to the global economy," said Skrainka, who believes this week's market carnage is due to selling by investors who had to quickly raise funds to cover bad bets on the oil market.
Most oil-related equities continued to sink, including Dow member ExxonMobil (-2.9 per cent), oil-services giant Schlumberger (-3.6 per cent) and pipeline company Williams (-3.1 per cent).
Banking stocks also suffered, including Dow members JPMorgan Chase (-1.8 per cent) and Goldman Sachs (-2.4 per cent) and Bank of America (-2.0 per cent).
But many retail stocks outperformed the broader market on expectations that lower gasoline prices will boost sales during the critical holiday shopping season.
Macy's gained 1.9 per cent and Best Buy rose 0.6 per cent. Wal-Mart Stores, Gap and TJX, which owns Marshall's and other chains, were all flat. Williams-Sonoma slipped 0.6 per cent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.10 per cent from 2.18 per cent on Thursday, while the 30-year declined to 2.77 per cent from 2.83 per cent. Bond yields and prices move inversely.
- AFP/de
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Oil fell to fresh lows not seen since May 2009 on Friday with U.S. crude prices slipping below $58 a barrel on concerns over a global supply glut and weak demand.
ReplyDeleteU.S. WTI crude settled down $2.14 at $57.81 per barrel, the lowest since May 2009. The contract has lost about 11 percent this week.
Brent crude was down nearly $2 at $62 per barrel and earlier hit a low of $61.35—the lowest since July 22, 2009.
Down 33 percent already, it is on track for its biggest quarterly drop since the fourth quarter of 2008. Brent is down more than 9 percent this week, taking its fall since a June peak above $115 to 45 percent.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said oil prices would likely come under further pressure, cutting its outlook for demand growth in 2015 and predicting that non-OPEC output gains would increase global supplies.
The IEA, which coordinates the energy policies of industrialized countries, cut its outlook for global oil demand growth for 2015 by 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 900,000 bpd on expectations of lower fuel consumption in Russia and other oil-exporting countries.
ReplyDelete"It spells out the main scenarios that are in the market and said that stockpiles will be substantially bigger in the first half of 2015," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodity analyst for SEB in Oslo.
The number of rigs drilling for oil declined to 1,546 in the week to Dec. 12, according to data from oil services firm Baker Hughes. Twenty-one of the 29 rigs that were cut were in the Permian Basin.
ReplyDeleteThe number of rigs has declined in six of the last nine weeks since hitting a record high of 1,609 in mid October.
North Dakota’s steep climb in oil production growth is hitting a lull as oil drillers retrench amid plummeting crude oil prices.
ReplyDeleteState officials said Friday that oil production in October declined by about 4,000 barrels per day to 1.18 million daily barrels compared with September, the first decline in eight months. Drilling for new wells also declined and is expected to decline even more in 2015.
Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Mineral Resources Department, said oil prices in North Dakota are down 44 percent since September, far more than ever expected.
“I honestly did not see them this soft,” Helms said in a conference call with reporters. “That is going to have a significant impact.”
Helms, whose agency regulates the oil industry, said he expects the 183 current drilling rigs to be down by 40 to 50 rigs by mid-2015. “That means it will be a month-to-month struggle to see production increases — if they come at all,” Helms said.
Oasis Petroleum, one of the large operators in North Dakota, announced Wednesday that it would drop from 16 drilling rigs to six rigs. On Friday, stock prices for the 10 largest publicly traded oil companies with North Dakota operations were down by an average of 51 percent over three months.
In North Dakota, production from the Bakken and Three Forks shale plays has risen nearly sixfold in the past five years, and the state in October had a record 11,892 oil wells. Production has declined just seven times in five years, usually in the winter when it can be tough to complete wells.
“This is a blip in the long-term scheme of things,” Helms said.
North Dakota officials’ outlook was more gloomy than the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s. The agency on Friday issued a report reiterating that it expects U.S. crude oil production to increase 700,000 barrels per day in 2015 compared with this year. That estimate is down from an earlier projection, however.
New North Dakota regulations to reduce flaring, or wasteful burning, of natural gas at wellheads contributed to the decline in output, Helms said. After drilling wells, operators increasingly are deciding not to immediately complete them.
ReplyDeleteThat step, called hydraulic fracturing, pumps water, chemicals and sand into the shale layer to release the oil. The number of wells in this uncompleted stage rose by 40, to 650 in October as many awaited construction of gas pipelines so they can avoid flaring, Helms said.
The price drop is driven by weak world demand for oil in Europe and China, whose economies have weakened, the growth in U.S. domestic shale production and decisions by Middle East and other oil producers not to reduce output.
“Everybody seems to be sharing the view that crude oil is in a free fall,” said Walt Breitinger, president of Breitinger & Sons, a commodities futures trading firm in Valparaiso, Ind. “Right now, it appears that demand is continuing to wane.”
Amid the turmoil in markets, the growth in crude oil shipping by rail hasn’t slowed. North Dakota officials said 60 percent of the state’s crude oil was shipped on trains, on par with recent levels.
The state’s Industrial Commission on Tuesday approved new crude oil conditioning regulations, a safety measure that takes effect April 1. The rules likely will require a $20 million investment by North Dakota producers, and add 10 cents per barrel in operating costs, Helms said. The investment, he said, is mainly for vapor-recovery systems to heat crude oil at the wellhead and extract gases that otherwise condense back into liquids, posing risk during transportation.
Rail safety concerns
Such volatile components have been a concern of rail safety advocates after a series of oil train disasters. On Friday, a La Crosse, Wis.-based group, Citizens Acting for Rail Safety, criticized the new regulations as insufficient to reduce the explosive risk of oil trains.
Updated rail traffic reports obtained by the Star Tribune indicate even more Bakken oil trains now cross Minnesota, with most shipments passing through the Twin Cities.
On the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Twin Cities, the average number of oil trains has risen to nine per week, compared with four in June, according to a Dec. 1 report filed by the railroad with Minnesota authorities and released under the state Data Practices Act.
Bakken oil trains, typically of 100 tank cars or more, carry at least 1 million gallons of crude oil each. Many are destined for refineries on the East Coast or eastern Canadian provinces.
BNSF Railway, an even bigger hauler of North Dakota crude, reported in November a change in traffic patterns for oil trains, running fewer trains through far southwest Minnesota. But the traffic levels — a range of 37 to 52 oil trains per week — remained unchanged, the report said. Up to 39 BNSF oil trains pass through the Twin Cities per week, the railroad reported.