The price of oil will be finishing 2010 in the vicinity of $90 a barrel. The last time oil finished the year that strong was 2007 when the price was close to $96 a barrel. By July 2008 crude had skyrocketed to $145.16 a barrel.
But the stock prices of the big oil companies barely budged in 2008. Why? Analysts were concerned that demand for energy would fall if the economy hit the skids. “Back then the rising price of oil was not priced into the stocks of the producers,” says Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in Boston.
Mr. Kleintop doesn’t see that happening again this year, since the perception is the economy is getting stronger, not weaker. That should give oil-company stocks a boost.
