Why Traders Are Closely Watching McDonald’s, Salesforce, Chesapeake, and More

Seadrill Ltd (NYSE:SDRL), ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV), and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) are each up by around 6%-to-7% in late-morning trading on the back of surging crude prices. As of 11:44 EST, WTI futures have rallied by 2.26% to within a hair’s breadth of the $50 per barrel mark. Traders will be keenly watching WTI futures over the course of the next few days as previous rallies in WTI have eventually sputtered out around that level.

Today’s advance is courtesy of a solid EIA report today, which showed U.S. commercial crude oil inventories falling by 3 million barrels from the previous week. Due to the drawdown, U.S. crude oil inventories have now fallen below the 500 million-barrel mark, to 499.7 million barrels. Meanwhile, distillates inventories retreated by 2.4 million barrels, while gasoline inventories inched up by 0.2 million barrels. All three forms of energy outperformed analysts’ expectations. If crude can continue rallying, there will be more hope for the offshore drilling sector and for Chesapeake.

Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 17 were long Seadrill Ltd (NYSE:SDRL) at the end of June, while 30 were long ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV) and 31 were shareholders of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK).

Disclosure: None