Energy names rebound despite crude oil’s modest decline; miners also firm

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Seattle, March 10 – A slight decline in crude oil prices did little to sway investors from pushing up distressed energy credits on Thursday.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. continued to be an active name, with its 5¾% notes due 2021 trading up 2½ points to 61½, according to a trader.

Also higher were Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s 8% second-lien notes due 2022, which rose nearly 2 points to 52, the trader said.

In California Resources Corp. paper, the 8% notes due 2022 ticked up 1½ points to 42, while Oasis Petroleum Inc.’s 6 7/8% notes due 2022 added “almost a point,” closing at 70 1/8.

And, EV Energy Partners LP’s 8% senior notes due 2019 put on almost half a point to end at 24½.

Domestic crude, for its part, dipped 27 cents to $38.02 a barrel. The modest decline was attributed in part to a rally in the dollar after the European Central Bank cut interest rates and continued its quantitative easing program.

The euro fell on the news, though it later rebounded – along with oil prices – when the ECB said more rate cuts were unlikely.

Elsewhere in the commodity space, Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s debt saw “heavy volume” for the day, a trader said.

The trader pegged the 3 7/8% notes due 2023 at 70¼, a gain of over 2 points. The 2 3/8% notes due 2018 meantime inched up over 1½ points to 88.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.