Some energy exchange traded funds (ETFs) are down more than 4% in midday trading after Exxon Mobil (XOM) reported a first-quarter profit jump that was less than what Wall Street was expecting.
You can’t blame Wall Street for expecting more, considering the price of a barrel of oil these days. Even though Exxon’s 17% profit jump to $10.9 billion was the second largest U.S. quarterly profit ever, it still wasn’t enough.
Analysts were expecting $2.13 per share, but instead got $2.03 a share, reports John Porretto for the Associated Press. Exxon posted the largest quarterly profit in history for a U.S. company at the end of 2007.
Exxon’s shares were down nearly 5% midday, weighing down some of the energy ETFs that count the company as a major component:
- iShares Dow Jones US Energy (IYE): Exxon is 23.1%; up 4.4% year-to-date
- Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE): Exxon is 18.5%; up 3.3% year-to-date
- iShares S&P Global Energy (IXC): Exxon is 15.8%; up 2.9% year-to-date
Also, if you were thinking of moving out of the country in order to escape those high gas prices – not so fast. Of 155 countries surveyed, it turns out the United States is the 45th cheapest, says Steve Hargreaves for CNN Money.