Oil Alert: Crude Falling Near $77

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Oil futures were taking a break on Friday morning and paring gains after a soaring rally found the price topping $78 earlier in the session.

Front-month crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was sliding in the morning, down 55 cents at $77.03 per barrel. Just before, a report was released showing consumer confidence went lower in September. On Thursday, the November delivery contract surged $2.40 to settle at $77.58 following new weekly government inventory figures.

According to the Energy Department, gasoline stockpiles edged lower by a more-than-expected 5.2 million barrels last week, while oil inventories grew by a smaller-than-forecast 400,000 barrels.

This morning, oil servicer Halliburton(HAL Quote) reported a 61% drop in its third-quarter earnings, though its top and bottom-lines still beat Wall Street estimates. After the opening bell, Halliburton shares were rising 92 cents at $30.77.

Other servicers weren't fairing as well in the early going, as Baker Hughes(BHI Quote), National-Oilwell Varco(NOV Quote) and BJ Services(BJS Quote) were slipping 2.4%, 1.4% and 2.4%, respectively.

Among the oil majors, shares of Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote) were sliding 30 cents at $72.64, while Chevron(CVX Quote) shares were off by 32 cents at $76.37.

ConocoPhillips(COP Quote) shares, though, were bidding higher, up 44 cents at $52.21.

--Written by Sung Moss in New York

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