Shares of energy companies were mostly lower Thursday, after crude futures dropped below $50 a barrel for the first time in 2017. The April contract slid $1.41, or 2.8%, to $48.88 a barrel, while May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange slid $1.42, or 2.7%, to $51.69 a barrel. Traders in London said the drop came as traders stopped betting oil prices will go higher and sold out of their long positions. The selling intensified in premarket trade, but eased after the market open as crude prices pared their losses.Halliburton Co. fell 1.4%, Occidental Petroleum Corp. fell 1.1% Devon Energy Corp. was down 1.4%. Cimarex Energy Co. was down 0.1%. Among oil majors, Exxon Mobil Corp. fell 0.1%, Chevron flat. The U.S. Oil Fund exchange-traded fund was down 1.4%. The S&P 500 gained 0.1%. Marathon Oil outperformed, gaining 4.2%, after it announced it is selling its Canadian subsidiary for $2.5 billion in cash, and buying about 70,000 net surface acres in the U.S.’s Permian Basin from BC Operating Inc. and other entities for $1.1 billion in cash.
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