The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: BP, HollyFrontier, ConocoPhillips, Statoil And CNOOC

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – December 15, 2017 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include BP plc (LON:BP) (NYSE:BP) , HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE:HFC) , ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) , Statoil (OL:STL) ASA (NYSE:STO) and CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE:CEO) .

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

5 Energy Stocks that Escaped the Sector Shortfall in 2017

U.S. stock markets are now hitting all-time highs on a daily basis. Stocks have mostly rallied since last year’s election, with a booming U.S. economy, supportive monetary policy and robust corporate earnings being the key triggers. Expectations that the Trump administration’s proposed tax and regulatory reforms will help companies’ and consumers, have given investors further reasons to put their money in stocks.

As a matter of fact, the S&P 500 crept further into record territory Tuesday. The index eked out a gain of 0.2%, to an all-time closing high of 2,664.11.

What’s Driving the S&P 500 Higher?

What's Sending the Index to a String of Records?

It’s fairly simple: investors have driven up equities on evidence of economic growth.

As per the Commerce Department’s second estimate, the U.S. economy expanded at a 3.3% pace in the third quarter. This represents an improvement from the annualized growth rate of 3.1% in the April to June period and the strongest performance since the third quarter of 2014. Moreover, the latest figure represents the best back-to-back quarters of at least 3% growth since 2014.

Further, the November payroll report showed that the domestic labor market continued its recovery from the effects of hurricanes, while jobless rate ticked stayed at a 17-year low of 4.1%.

The central bank’s lifting of short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point can also be interpreted as a by-product of rising economic growth and optimism. The expected 'policy normalization' simply indicates that the economy is ready for the ‘quantitative easing’ tap to be turned off. Though higher interest rates raise the cost of debt capital, an expanding economy supersedes low-borrowing costs in the grand scheme of things.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s proposals to overhaul the tax law and make it business friendly, added to the positive sentiment and powered stocks higher.

Finally, strong earnings reports from corporate biggies, which has helped support high valuations, boosted sentiments. Following two successful quarters of earnings numbers, U.S. companies posted all-time record earnings in the third quarter. Total earnings for S&P 500 companies were up 6.9% from the same period last year on 6% higher revenues.

Energy: The Only S&P 500 Laggard

While the S&P 500 equity index has been on a tear, it has been a wild ride for the energy market in 2017, setting pulses racing of even the steadiest investors. In fact, energy is the only sector to give negative returns to investors this year.

A strong third quarter notwithstanding, energy – which was the best S&P sector performer in 2016, with a market-thumping 24% return – has not exactly had a great year. The Zacks Investment Research

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research