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Exxon (XOM) Falling on the Stock Market

Written by Miranda Marquit

Thursday, 01 November 2007

ExxonMobile leads the stock market bears.

Photo:William Hartz, Creative Commons, Flickr

This morning, the stock market appears to be in for a wild ride. Mostly in terms of dropping, rollercoaster-style, straight down. MarketWatch reports on this morning's bloodbath:

U.S. stocks fell sharply Thursday, with the Dow industrials sliding over 240 points, after Exxon Mobil's worse-than-expected earnings and ongoing trouble in the financial sector sobered up the market after the euphoria of the Federal Reserve's rate cut.

And ExxonMobile (XOM) is right there, heading below $90 a share. With a poor earnings report (due largely to equipment problems and margin issues -- oil prices continue to skyrocket), Exxon is leading the Dow plunge.

So, the next question is this: Is now the time to buy? Despite its blatantly unfriendly environmental practices, Exxon has always been a solid company, financially speaking. Is it likely to rebound from this? If you think so, and you aren't squeamish about buying into a company that is basically soulless, now might be the time to do it, since the stock is heading to lows unseen for quite some time.

The other question is whether or not Exxon is simply the face of the new way of energy investing. As oil prices rise, solar stocks tend to follow suit. And as gas prices follow rising oil prices, and worries about the stability of our oil supply mount, more people become concerned that perhaps we should be investing in alternative energy after all.

So, while it's true that SunPower (SPWR) is down this morning as well, it's not down as far as Exxon. And if enough people become concerned enough, maybe, just maybe, a significant shift in energy policy and consumption will follow. Alternative energy investing now, while the stock market is down, may provide you with a good bargain that will pay off big in the future.

Disclosure: I am not investing in the stocks listed above. I will never invest in XOM. I am considering SPWR and other alternative energy stocks.

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Comments (7)

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written by David Neubert , November 02, 2007

Miranda: Consider Statoil (STO (ADR)- $32.56), the Norwegian Oil Company. in my opinion the most environmental of the global oil companies. It will still let you take advantage of these high oil prices without supporting anti-science. They also try to be carbon neutral.

Disclosure: I own STO. I do not own XOM.

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written by Adam Waitt , November 02, 2007

Dave, I am new to this whole carbon neutral idea, but it seems to me that it is a futile effort. Save sitting on the couch and not moving (even then you are still breathing and releasing CO2) you are always producing carbon. If I am not mistaken our ecosystem has built in systems on converting carbon back into other elements.

Scold me if I am wrong.

Save the dollar. Reinstate the gold standard.
Ron Paul 2008!!!

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written by Miranda , November 02, 2007

Dave: I'd been looking for more info on STO, actually. Thanks for the tip!

Adam: There are processes that can help turn carbon back into other elements. However, they are overloaded by things that people do, including spewing out carbon emissions through industry, vehicle use and what-not. Our breathing isn't going to overload the system. That's natural. But humans have introduced plenty of things into the system that aren't nature-made. And nature can only do so much when we overload the system. Cutting down the rainforests that help with this, and polluting the oceans so that the algae that does this dies doesn't help the cause, either.

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written by Miranda , November 02, 2007

I guess my point earlier is that it isn't the natural things we do (like breathing - have you been watching ads put out by the oil-industry funded think tank?), but the un-natural things that we do - and could cut back on - that cause the problems.

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written by alphuris , November 02, 2007

The whole issue of Carbon footprint is still a very young and primitive science. Relying on it as a major indicator seems very akin to following a tip rather than doing good ole due diligence.

Check out the recent writings of John Christie, director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a participant in the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

We still have literally no clue about the impact of Carbon that is produced by humans. Just a very loose correlation.

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written by alphuris , November 02, 2007

I tried to include a link to it, but it didn't post.

It's on the WSJ online titled "My Nobel Moment"

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written by Thomas Chenoweth , November 02, 2007

I think oil prices and their kids are about to get evicted. Its getting bubbly Watch out i have a neutral on it i just posted at http://traderalerts.blogspot.com/search/label/OIH

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Miranda Marquit
		About the author:
		Miranda is journalistically trained freelance writer who enjoys working out of her home nestled in the beautiful Cache Valley in Utah.
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