Following Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that interest rates would be kept low and the $85 billion a month bond-buying program would continue for the “foreseeable future”, energy had a nice day on July 11. The S&P 500 Energy sector was up .93 percent to finish up trading at 602.11.
This gain also coincides with news that crude oil will top $105 a barrel. With it, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures have surged 14 percent this year. This has been great news for refineries like Valero Energy (VLO), which gained 2.95 percent to hit $34.54 a share, Phillips 66 (PSX), which was up 2.98 percent to hit $57.76, and big winner HollyFrontier Corp (HFC), which saw a robust 5.03 percent gain to finish up at $42.35.
ConocoPhillips (COP) gained 1.2 percent to hit $64.32 a share. Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) was up 0.5 percent to hit $93.27 a share. And Chevron Corporation (CVX), despite revealing on July 10 that production in the second quarter was off, gained 0.7 percent to hit $123.77 a share.
Some of the biggest gains on the day belonged to coal. Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU) jumped up 5.78 percent to finish up at $16.28 a share. Peabody is up 11.31 percent since July 5, and has appeared to rebound from a drop in June following comments from President Obama that painted a dim picture of coal’s future as a primary American energy source. Consol Energy Company (CNX) likewise had rebounded from a June drop, and rose 3.26 percent to hit $28.23 a share.
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