3 Strong Oil Picks For A Volatile Stock Market

Stocks battled to stay in the green during Friday morning trading, with major indexes like the S&P 500 hoping to rebound after surrendering their year-to-date gains over the course of this brutal trading week. But a strong bump in oil prices helped the energy sector generate momentum on Friday morning, and if energy stocks continue to surge in this volatile market, investors need to be properly exposed to this sector.

This week’s volatility was inspired by new worries over an impending trade war with China, with President Trump on Thursday directing U.S. trade representatives to level tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese imports.

Of course, some sectors are more at risk to trade concerns than others, and the energy sector itself is more contingent on the price of key natural resources. And those commodities moved higher on Friday morning. Specifically, May contracts for Light Crude Oil surged about 1.6% on the back of renewed hopes of extended OPEC production cuts.

Overall, the S&P 500 Energy sector gained nearly 1.3% in morning trading, making it the day’s biggest winner so far. With this in mind, let’s take a look at three strong oil stocks that stand to benefit from increasing prices, even if the broader market remains volatile.

1. Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD – Free Report)

Pioneer Natural Resources is a large, Texas-based independent exploration and production company. Analyst sentiment surrounding the stock has improved significantly over the past few weeks, evidenced by 14 positive revisions for the company’s full-year EPS estimates. Our consensus mark for Pioneer’s full-year earnings per share has gained $2.29 over the past 60 days.

This positive revision activity has helped PXD earn a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Meanwhile, Pioneer is generating cash flow growth of nearly 21% right now, outpacing its industry’s average. The company is also projected to see earnings growth of 187% on the back of 22% revenue growth this year. And the stock is about $10 off its 52-week high, so investors have plenty of room to ride shares higher before it tests a new range.