New York, February 4, 2026, 17:42 EST — Trading in after-hours.
Exxon Mobil Corp shares climbed roughly 2.7% to $147.59 in after-hours trading Wednesday, buoyed by a spike in crude prices while the broader market dipped. Chevron advanced around 1.8%, and ConocoPhillips rose about 2.6%. Vanguard’s energy ETF increased nearly 2%, contrasting with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which slipped about 0.5%.
Oil prices climbed about 3% after a report raised doubts about planned U.S.-Iran talks on Friday, fueling a geopolitical risk premium. Brent futures closed at $69.46 a barrel, while U.S. WTI settled at $65.14. Ajay Parmar, director of energy and refining at ICIS, noted, “This risk premium is still in the market.” The Energy Information Administration reported a 3.5 million barrel drop in U.S. crude inventories last week, bringing stocks to 420.3 million barrels. Still, Phil Flynn, a senior analyst at Price Futures Group, said the rally was limited because the draw was smaller than the earlier estimate from the American Petroleum Institute. Reuters
Energy shares rallied despite a choppy session for equities: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped while the Dow inched higher. Investors digested new data on the prospects for U.S. rate cuts. Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments, described the recent numbers as “not too hot, not too cold,” saying they left the Federal Reserve outlook unchanged. Reuters
SBM Offshore announced that ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd, an Exxon Mobil affiliate, has finalized the purchase of the FPSO ONE GUYANA vessel well before the lease’s August 2027 expiry. The deal involved roughly $2.32 billion in cash. SBM will keep operating and maintaining the floating production, storage, and offloading unit — the FPSO — through 2035, the company said. SBM Offshore
Analysts remain divided on Exxon. UBS bumped its price target to $171 from $145, maintaining a buy rating. Still, the firm flagged “significant maintenance-related earnings headwinds into 1Q26,” while noting chemical losses and reduced upstream volume forecasts in its report. TipRanks
BNP Paribas cut Exxon to underperform from neutral, even as it raised the price target to $125 from $114. The bank pointed to valuation concerns, noting the stock is trading at a five-year peak in price-to-earnings multiples. It also said there was “nothing wrong” with Exxon’s fourth-quarter report. TipRanks
A regulatory filing revealed Exxon Vice President Darrin L. Talley sold 5,000 shares on Feb. 2 via a revocable trust, in two separate transactions at roughly $139.75 per share. Exxon Mobil Corporation
Exxon’s short-term outlook still hinges on crude prices. Should U.S.-Iran negotiations stay on course and ease tensions, the oil risk premium might vanish fast. On the company front, the analyst also flagged maintenance schedules and chemicals as possible weak points despite higher price targets.
Traders are now turning their attention to Friday’s scheduled U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in Oman, following the Trump administration’s approval of Iran’s request to shift the meeting from Turkey, Reuters reported, citing Axios. Reuters
