MW: Energy stocks weaken as oil, natural gas futures fall
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Energy stocks fell for the second straight day on Tuesday, as weaker commodity prices pressured shares of oil and gas producers and the broad market fell on a negative surprise on the latest consumer confidence data.
Oil futures dropped below $80 a barrel and natural gas futures traded under $5 per million British thermal units. See Futures Movers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU 10,308, -75.57, -0.73%) fell 44 points after consumer confidence fell to the lowest level since April of last year. Shares of Dow components Exxon Mobil (XOM 64.99, -0.41, -0.63%) and Chevron (CVX 72.17, -0.79, -1.08%) dropped 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively.
The NYSE Arca Oil Index (XOI 1,020, -14.88, -1.44%) fell 1.3% to 1,022. The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index (XNG 528.37, -8.88, -1.65%) dropped 1.3% to 530. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index (OSX 202.51, -2.27, -1.11%) retreated by 1.2% to 202.
Dragging on the sector, Petrohawk Energy Corp. (HK 21.35, -0.81, -3.66%) shares fell 4% to $21.27. Analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt said the company's fourth-quarter earnings of 12 cents a share missed the Wall Street estimate of 15 cent a share, despite higher production.
Denbury Resources (DNR 13.69, -0.62, -4.34%) shares fell 3% to $13.90 after it said its fourth-quarter net income fell 92% to $3.5 million, or a penny a share, from $43.8 million, or 18 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
The Dallas-based oil and natural gas producer's adjusted net income rose to 18 cents a share from 14 cents a share, after breaking out non-cash fair value commodity derivative gains and a full cost ceiling test write-down.
Revenue rose 20% to $270.8 million. Wall Street analysts expected earnings of 18 cents a share and revenue of $260 million, according to a survey by FactSet Research.
Denbury's fourth-quarter production averaged 45,012 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up 11%. Denbury plans to boost its capital spending to $1 billion from $650 million after it closes its acquisition of Encore Acquisition Corp. (EAC 48.42, -0.79, -1.61%) .
