Oil and gas stocks suffer broad, sharp selloff as crude futures drop

The S&P 500’s energy sector was suffering a unanimous selloff, as crude oil
CL00,
-6.61%
and natural gas futures
NG00,
-1.32%
slumped amid growing demand concerns and as the Biden administration calls for a gas-tax holiday. The SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF
XLE,
-4.58%
dropped 3.4% with all 21 equity components losing ground, as crude oil futures shed 4.4% and natural gas futures lost 1.0%. Futures
ES00,
-0.82%
for the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.70%
were down 1.4%. The energy ETF’s biggest decliners were shares of Marathon Oil Corp.
MRO,
-7.65%,
down 5.2%, and Devon Energy Corp.
DVN,
-6.32%,
down 4.5%. Among other more-active components, shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp.
OXY,
-4.96%
slid 3.4%, Exxon Mobil Corp.
XOM,
-3.60%
declined 3.0% and Kinder Morgan Inc.
KMI,
-3.03%
shed 2.6%. The best performer was Williams Companies Inc.’s stock
WMB,
-2.86%,
which fell 1.9%.