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5 Top Oil and Gas Stocks To Watch This Week

With rising oil prices, could these oil and gas stocks continue to build on their momentum?
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Are These The Best Oil and Gas Stocks To Buy This Week?

For a variety of reasons, oil and gas stocks have been heating up in the stock market lately. These range from the reopening of economies following the pandemic, to sanctions on Russian oil. In fact, there may be doubts that a higher output target by OPEC+ producers would ease the current tight supply. Thus, it is no surprise that many investors are paying close attention to the industry’s movement right now. 

Soaring oil prices aside, oil and gas companies are constantly on the move to make their mark within the industry. We saw Shell (NYSE: SHEL) acquiring nearly 200 gas stations in Texas under the Timewise brand earlier this month. The deal will likely bring the company closer to its customers. It goes without saying, the acquisition will also open more opportunities to sell vehicle fueling options such as electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, biofuels, and lower-carbon premium fuels at its new gas stations. With all the developments in the industry, here are five of the top oil and gas stocks in the stock market today. 

Oil & Gas Stocks To Watch Right Now

Chevron

Chevron is a company that engages in integrated energy and chemical operations. In detail, it operates through two business segments, Upstream and Downstream. On one hand, its Upstream segment is responsible for exploring, developing, and producing crude oil and natural gas. On the other hand, the Downstream segment refines crude oil into petroleum products, markets crude oil, and manufactures renewable fuels. 

During the company’s annual stockholder meeting in May, CEO Michael Wirth provided an overview of the company’s plans. He stated, “Our strategy is clear: leverage our strengths to deliver lower carbon intensity energy to a growing world. Our capabilities, assets, and customers are distinct advantages. We’re building on these strengths as we aim to lead in lower carbon intensity oil, products, and natural gas, and to advance new products and solutions that reduce the carbon emissions of major industries.” With that in mind, would you consider adding CVX stock to your portfolio?

CVX stock chart
Source: TD Ameritrade TOS

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BP

Another top oil and gas company to note today is BP. Essentially, the company runs a global energy business with operations in Europe, Australasia, Asia, Africa, and both North and South America. Not to mention, BP is working towards becoming a net-zero company by 2050. Much like its peers, BP continues to gain traction among investors as oil prices continue to gain momentum. BP stock has risen more than 20% since the start of the year. 

Last month, the company and Linde announced plans to advance a major carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Texas. The project aims to enable low carbon hydrogen production at Linde’s existing facilities. Also, it will support the storage of carbon dioxide captured from other industrial facilities. Hence, paving the way for large-scale decarbonization of the Texas Gulf Coast industrial corridor. Overall, this is another step that the company is taking toward its goals of a low carbon business. So, do you think BP stock will have more room to grow?

BP stock chart
Source: TD Ameritrade TOS

Marathon Oil

Unlike the previous two entries, Marathon Oil is an oil and gas company that focuses on downstream activities. It engages in petroleum product refining, marketing, retail, and several midstream businesses in the U.S. Besides that, the company also boasts a world-class integrated gas business in Equatorial Guinea. Its portfolio is oil-weighted but well balanced with an approximate 50% oil and 50% gas/NGL production mix. Impressively, MRO stock has more than doubled its value over the past year.

Well, Marathon Oil has also been firing on all cylinders to start fiscal 2022. During its first quarter, the company’s total revenues and other income amounted to $1.75 billion, representing an increase of 63.5% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the company reported a net income of $1.3 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. Moving forward, Marathon expects over $4.5 billion of adjusted free cash flow this year. This would put the company in a prime position to continue delivering encouraging financial results and return on capital. Thus, would you consider jumping on the MRO stock bandwagon?

MRO stock chart
Source: TD Ameritrade TOS

[Read More] 5 Consumer Staples Stocks To Watch In June 2022

ConocoPhillips

Following that, we will be looking at the independent exploration and production company, ConocoPhillips. For the uninitiated, this is a company that explores, produces, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and natural gas liquids. With operations in 14 countries around the world, while boasting $87 billion of total assets, ConocoPhillips is a force to be reckoned with in the oil and gas industry. Similar to most oil and gas companies now, COP stock has been on a strong bullish trend. An investor who jumped in a year ago would have seen gains of over 90% by now. 

In May, ConocoPhillips reported its first-quarter 2022 earnings. The company’s earnings for the quarter were $5.8 billion, or $4.39 per share. This is a huge leap compared to its prior year’s quarter of $1.0 billion, or $0.75 per share. Investors should also note that the company announced a $2 billion increase in expected 2022 returns of capital to $10 billion. All things considered, is COP stock a buy right now?

COP stock chart
Source: TD Ameritrade TOS

Petróleo Brasileiro 

To sum up the list, we have the Brazil-based oil and gas company, Petróleo Brasileiro, better known as Petrobras. Its technology that is meant for deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications has gained worldwide recognition with its American offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, the company also has an extensive background in oil refining. Its Research Center is by far the biggest in Latin America and still growing. PBR stock has climbed more than 20% since the start of the year. 

Earlier this month, the company signed a deal to buy the remaining stake in electric company Ibiritermo. This will allow Petrobras to take full control of the firm’s power plant. On top of that, the company also said that it is kicking off a new effort to sell a fertilizer project in Mato Grosso do Sul state. According to a securities filing, the company claims that the “teaser” process was aimed to promote the sales of nitrogen fertilizer industrial units. Given all this, would you invest in PBR stock today?

PBR stock chart
Source: TD Ameritrade TOS

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The post 5 Top Oil and Gas Stocks To Watch This Week appeared first on Stock Market News, Quotes, Charts and Financial Information | StockMarket.com.

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Fighting the Surveillance State Begins with the Individual

It’s a well-known fact at this point that in the United States and most of the so-called free countries that there is a robust surveillance state in…

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It’s a well-known fact at this point that in the United States and most of the so-called free countries that there is a robust surveillance state in place, collecting data on the entire populace. This has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by people like Edward Snowden, a National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who exposed that the NSA was conducting mass surveillance on US citizens and the world as a whole. The NSA used applications like those from Prism Systems to piggyback on corporations and the data collection their users had agreed to in the terms of service. Google would scan all emails sent to a Gmail address to use for personalized advertising. The government then went to these companies and demanded the data, and this is what makes the surveillance state so interesting. Neo-Marxists like Shoshana Zuboff have dubbed this “surveillance capitalism.” In China, the mass surveillance is conducted at a loss. Setting up closed-circuit television cameras and hiring government workers to be a mandatory editorial staff for blogs and social media can get quite expensive. But if you parasitically leech off a profitable business practice it means that the surveillance state will turn a profit, which is a great asset and an even greater weakness for the system. You see, when that is what your surveillance state is predicated on you’ve effectively given your subjects an opt-out button. They stop using services that spy on them. There is software and online services that are called “open source,” which refers to software whose code is publicly available and can be viewed by anyone so that you can see exactly what that software does. The opposite of this, and what you’re likely already familiar with, is proprietary software. Open-source software generally markets itself as privacy respecting and doesn’t participate in data collection. Services like that can really undo the tricky situation we’ve found ourselves in. It’s a simple fact of life that when the government is given a power—whether that be to regulate, surveil, tax, or plunder—it is nigh impossible to wrestle it away from the state outside somehow disposing of the state entirely. This is why the issue of undoing mass surveillance is of the utmost importance. If the government has the power to spy on its populace, it will. There are people, like the creators of The Social Dilemma, who think that the solution to these privacy invasions isn’t less government but more government, arguing that data collection should be taxed to dissuade the practice or that regulation needs to be put into place to actively prevent abuses. This is silly to anyone who understands the effect regulations have and how the internet really works. You see, data collection is necessary. You can’t have email without some elements of data collection because it’s simply how the protocol functions. The issue is how that data is stored and used. A tax on data collection itself will simply become another cost of doing business. A large company like Google can afford to pay a tax. But a company like Proton Mail, a smaller, more privacy-respecting business, likely couldn’t. Proton Mail’s business model is based on paid subscriptions. If there were additional taxes imposed on them, it’s possible that they would not be able to afford the cost and would be forced out of the market. To reiterate, if one really cares about the destruction of the surveillance state, the first step is to personally make changes to how you interact with online services and to whom you choose to give your data.

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Stock Market Today: Stocks turn higher as Treasury yields retreat; big tech earnings up next

A pullback in Treasury yields has stocks moving higher Monday heading into a busy earnings week and a key 2-year bond auction later on Tuesday.

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Updated at 11:52 am EDT U.S. stocks turned higher Monday, heading into the busiest earnings week of the year on Wall Street, amid a pullback in Treasury bond yields that followed the first breach of 5% for 10-year notes since 2007. Investors, however, continue to track developments in Israel's war with Hamas, which launched its deadly attack from Gaza three weeks ago, as leaders around the region, and the wider world, work to contain the fighting and broker at least a form of cease-fire. Humanitarian aid is also making its way into Gaza, through the territory's border with Egypt, as officials continue to work for the release of more than 200 Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack. Those diplomatic efforts eased some of the market's concern in overnight trading, but the lingering risk that regional adversaries such as Iran, or even Saudi Arabia, could be drawn into the conflict continues to blunt risk appetite. Still, the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies and acts as the safe-haven benchmark in times of market turmoil, fell 0.37% in early New York trading 105.773, suggesting some modest moves into riskier assets. The Japanese yen, however, eased past the 150 mark in overnight dealing, a level that has some traders awaiting intervention from the Bank of Japan and which may have triggered small amounts of dollar sales and yen purchases. In the bond market, benchmark 10-year note yields breached the 5% mark in overnight trading, after briefly surpassing that level late last week for the first time since 2007, but were last seen trading at 4.867% ahead of $141 billion in 2-year, 5-year and 7-year note auctions later this week. Global oil prices were also lower, following two consecutive weekly gains that has take Brent crude, the global pricing benchmark, firmly past $90 a barrel amid supply disruption concerns tied to the middle east conflict. Brent contracts for December delivery were last seen $1.06 lower on the session at $91.07 per barrel while WTI futures contract for the same month fell $1.36 to $86.72 per barrel. Market volatility gauges were also active, with the CBOE Group's VIX index hitting a fresh seven-month high of $23.08 before easing to $20.18 later in the session. That level suggests traders are expecting ranges on the S&P 500 of around 1.26%, or 53 points, over the next month. A busy earnings week also indicates the likelihood of elevated trading volatility, with 158 S&P 500 companies reporting third quarter earnings over the next five days, including mega cap tech names such as Google parent Alphabet  (GOOGL) - Get Free Report, Microsoft  (MSFT) - Get Free Report, retail and cloud computing giant Amazon  (AMZN) - Get Free Report and Facebook owner Meta Platforms  (META) - Get Free Report. "It’s shaping up to be a big week for the market and it comes as the S&P 500 is testing a key level—the four-month low it set earlier this month," said Chris Larkin, managing director for trading and investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. "How the market responds to that test may hinge on sentiment, which often plays a larger-than-average role around this time of year," he added. "And right now, concerns about rising interest rates and geopolitical turmoil have the potential to exacerbate the market’s swings." Heading into the middle of the trading day on Wall Street, the S&P 500, which is down 8% from its early July peak, the highest of the year, was up 10 points, or 0.25%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slumped into negative territory for the year last week, was marked 10 points lower while the Nasdaq, which fell 4.31% last week, was up 66 points, or 0.51%. In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 was marked 0.11% lower by the close of Frankfurt trading, with markets largely tracking U.S. stocks as well as the broader conflict in Israel. In Asia, a  slump in China stocks took the benchmark CSI 300 to a fresh 2019 low and pulled the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan 0.72% lower into the close of trading.
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iPhone Maker Foxconn Investigated By Chinese Authorities

Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that manufactures iPhones on behalf of Apple (AAPL), is being investigated by Chinese authorities, according to multiple…

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Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that manufactures iPhones on behalf of Apple (AAPL), is being investigated by Chinese authorities, according to multiple media reports. Foxconn’s business has been searched by Chinese authorities and China’s main tax authority has conducted inspections of Foxconn’s manufacturing operations in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu. At the same time, China’s natural-resources department has begun onsite investigations into Foxconn’s land use in Henan and Hubei provinces within China. Foxconn has manufacturing facilities focused on Apple products in three of the Chinese provinces where authorities are carrying out searches. While headquartered in Taiwan, Foxconn has a huge manufacturing presence in China and is a large employer in the nation of 1.4 billion people. The investigations suggest that China is ramping up pressure on the company as Foxconn considers major investments in India, and as presidential elections approach in Taiwan. Foxconn founder Terry Gou said in August of this year that he intends to run for the Taiwanese presidency. He has resigned from the company’s board of directors but continues to hold a 12.5% stake in the company. Gou is currently in fourth place in the polls ahead of the election that is scheduled to be held in January 2024. The potential impact on Apple and its iPhone manufacturing comes amid rising political tensions between politicians in Washington, D.C. and Beijing. Apple’s stock has risen 16% over the last 12 months and currently trades at $172.88 U.S. per share.  

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