Crude Oil Rises 2.1%
NEW YORK (
) -- Better-than-expected earnings from
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
helped lift crude oil prices and energy-related stocks on Monday. A surge in global manufacturing activity also added momentum.
Crude oil for March delivery added $1.54, or 2.1%, reversing a weeklong tumble to settle at $74.43 a barrel.
A stronger-than-expected jump in the Institute for Supply Management's
manufacturing index in January spurred a rally in equity and commodity markets, giving markets a lift after January proved to be the worst month for stocks in nearly a year.
Consumer spending ticked higher in December, albeit at a slower-than-expected pace, while personal incomes rose 0.4%.
But not every Monday morning metric was lifting sentiment. Construction spending continued to struggle in December, sliding by a sharp 1.2% despite estimates calling for a more slender 0.5% drop.
Supply concerns in Nigeria propped up prices in the morning. Reports swirled that some flow stations for
Royal Dutch Shell
( RDS) were shut down after rebel saboteurs caused a pipeline leak.
Although Dow component
Exxon Mobil recorded a loss in its refining unit and an overall profit decline of 23%, the company's fourth-quarter profit of $1.27 a share easily exceeded analysts' expectations for earnings of $1.19 a share. Shares were among the
Dow's
top performers, gaining $1.75, or 2.7%, to close the session at $66.18.
Shares were rising alongside their peers as well. The NYSE Oil Index rose 2.5%.
Chevron
(CVX) - Get Report
shares added $1.46, or 2%, to $73.58, while ConocoPhillips ended the day $1.07 higher, or up by 2.2%, at $49.07.
Marathon Oil
(MRO) - Get Report
revealed plans to cut back on capital spending by 17% to $5.1 billion in 2010. Marathon said it will focus instead on its upstream business and will reduce downstream spending by 53%. The company, which is scheduled to report its earnings before Tuesday's opening bell, saw shares close 84 cents higher, or 2.8%, at $30.65. Analysts are projecting earnings of 51 cents a share.
BP
(BP) - Get Report
, which is also slated to report early Tuesday, closed the session ahead by $1.11, or 2%, at $57.23.. Analysts expect the company to post a fourth-quarter profit of $1.51 a share.
The
U.S. Oil Fund
(USO) - Get Report
ETF added $1.08, or 3%, to $36.72 while the
PowerShares DB Oil Fund
(DBO) - Get Report
ETF moved 68 cents, or 2.7% higher, to close at $25.82.
The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly inventory report late Tuesday. Analysts polled by Platts are anticipating a crude oil drawdown of 1 million barrels and a 1.2 million-barrel decline to distillates. Gasoline inventories are projected to add 1.5 million barrels while refinery utilization is slated to increase by a fourth of a percentage point to 78.75% for the week ended Jan. 29.
As weather forecasts called for a cold snap, the March natural gas contract soared 5.9% higher, adding 30 cents to $5.43 per million British thermal units.
The
U.S. Natural Gas Fund
(UNG) - Get Report
also surged 5.3%, to close at $9.80.
Western Gas
(WES) - Get Report
announced plans to buy
Anadarko Petroleum's
(APC) - Get Report
Wyoming-based midstream natural gas assets for $254.4 million. Western Gas shares surged 3.4%, to end at $20.66.
Anadarko, which is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings of 3 cents a share after Monday's closing bell, finished the day's session up by $1.32, or 2.1%, to close at $65.10.
Elsewhere on the Nymex, March delivery heating oil futures settled ahead by 4 cents, or 2.2%, to settle at $1.95 a gallon, while the March reformulated gasoline contract added nearly 2 cents, or 1%, to $1.93 a gallon.
--Written by Sung Moss and Melinda Peer in New York
.