Feature Article

News flow related to our Focus List picks has been limited in recent weeks, though third-quarter earnings season is just around the corner.

The recent rally in upstream oil and gas stocks has bolstered our Focus List.

We highlight two energy companies that offer exposure to secular growth stories outside the oil and gas market.

The challenging energy market has taken its toll on our Focus List, with our poorly timed picks from the upstream segment and oil-field services absorbing the hardest hits.

Our lesson from these missteps: We need to remain disciplined and adhere to our own advice about trading these cyclical industries more adeptly, buying when oversold and paring exposure when valuations and sentiment reach the top of their range. These tactical errors are inexcusable and particularly grating when our skepticism toward oil prices at the outset of the year was spot-on.

We review our investment strategy and second-quarter results from the names on our Focus List.

With the ethylene and polyethylene up-cycle winding down, investors should shift their attention further down the petrochemical value chain.

Technical factors suggest that energy stocks could fare better in the back of the year.

Stepped-up drilling activity and declining break-even costs, coupled with weather-adjusted inventory trends, suggest that natural-gas prices will struggle to remain above $3 per million British thermal units for a prolonged period.