U.S. equities fell sharply Monday, Feb. 5, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly declining by more than 1,500 points before settling 4.60% lower at 24,345.75. Since Friday's open, the Dow has lost more than 1,700 points.
Also, for the second consecutive day, energy stocks led the selloff among S&P 500 components, dragging the index 4.10% lower to 2,648.94. The drops were the largest for the S&P 500 and Dow since August 2011. Oil prices were also down with Light Sweet Crude falling 1.99% to $64.15 per barrel and Brent Crude declining 1.40% to $67.62 per barrel.
Among oil and gas behemoths, Exxon Mobil Corp. lost 5.69% to close at $79.72, Chevron Corp. slumped 5.03% to finish at $112.62, and Phillips 66 retreated 1.86% to end at $95.21, all on heavy volume.
Hess Corp. tumbled 6.91% in brisk trading to settle at $44.49, after reporting a fourth-quarter 2017 adjusted net loss attributable to the company of $304 million, or $1.01 per share. The S&P Capital IQ consensus normalized EPS estimate for the fourth quarter was a loss of 91 cents. Management said during an earnings call that the company is making "significant progress" in returning to profitability, despite posting its 13th consecutive quarterly loss.
WPX Energy Inc. saw a drop of 2.21% in active trading to close at $14.14, after signing an agreement to sell its holdings in the San Juan Basin's Gallup oil play for $700 million to an undisclosed third party. With the Gallup sale, WPX now focuses its operations in its two core positions in the Delaware and Williston basins.
On the power side, AES Corp. fell 4.68% on strong volume to finish at $10.60, following the announcement of its restructuring to cut costs and streamline operations.
SCANA Corp. lost 4.42% on thin volume to finish at $37.44, after Moody's removed the company from the "investment grade" category. The rating agency downgraded the company and subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. following legislative action in the South Carolina General Assembly that temporarily halts recovery of investments in the abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear reactors.
Enphase Energy Inc. closed the day 11.11% higher at $2.30 on robust trading volume. The company entered into a private equity offering of 9,523,809 shares of common stock at $2.10 per share to an affiliate of Chilean entrepreneur and investor Isidoro Quiroga.
Among merchants, NRG Energy Inc. retreated 3.93% to $25.16, First Solar Inc. declined 4.43% to $63.50, and TerraForm Power Inc. ended 5.38% lower to $10.38.
March natural gas futures failed to sustain early gains amid fundamental pressures coming from weather and natural gas inventories. The contract topped out at $2.880/MMBtu in early Monday trading and finished 9.9 cents lower on the session at $2.747/MMBtu.
Market prices and index values are current as of the time of publication and are subject to change.
