Oil Giants in Peril

craigshieldsPosted on May 1, 2017 Posted in Renewables - Business

Forbes Magazine has dubbed two of the oil giants that are part of the 30 stocks that compose the Dow Jones Industrial Average “Dogs of the Dow,” pointing out “Chevron, Verizon and Exxon Mobil are also the biggest 2017 losers among the Dow 30, down 9.3%, 14% and 9.5% year-to-date, respectively.”

Will investors jump in and bail them out?  Obviously, I’m the wrong guy to ask about short-term issues that inform the stock market.  Long-term, however, it seems extremely improbable.  What we’re seeing now, with institutional divestment from fossil fuels and criminal probes into fraud associated with hiding the truth and very well understood impact of climate change, is ultimately going to make this a very tough sell.

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Tagged with: Chevron, Divestment, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Exxon Mobil, Forbes Magazine, impact of climate change

One comment on “Oil Giants in Peril”

1. marcopolo says:

   May 1, 2017 at 11:22 pm

   Craig,

   You’re absolutely right ! You are indeed “the wrong guy to ask about issues that inform the stock market ” !

   Chevron and Exxon are immensely successful and solid corporations with resources grater than many nations. Like all corporations from time to time they suffer from temporary adverse trading conditions.

   While there has been much publicity given to “divestment” in oil company shares for ethical considerations by some institutions, these funds were minuscule and rapidly replaced by other investors.

   The ill-conceived ‘program’ by the overly excited NY Attorney-general is slowly dying as it becomes increasingly obvious it was always a waste of time. (Support by other states has disappeared)

   Coal mining is making a comeback, but has suffered severely from abundant Natural Gas as a competitor at a time when coal mining has been suffering from stagnant growth, increased regulatory burdens, lack of modernization,low profitability and lack of capital for restructure and to invest in “Clean(er) Coal” technology.

   In the US, Coal is beginning a resurgence, partly due to more confidence as a result of a change in attitude by the new administration, and partly due to the success of emerging new “Clean Coal” technology.