New York, Jan 9, 2026, 05:15 EST — Premarket
Occidental Petroleum stock was down 0.5% at $43.02 in premarket trading on Friday after a $2.24 jump in the previous session lifted it to $43.23. Premarket is trading before the main U.S. session opens. (Investing)
Brent and WTI, the two main oil benchmarks, were both up about 1.3% early Friday after jumping more than 3% on Thursday, as supply risks tied to Venezuela and Iran kept crude in play. “Escalation in geopolitical stress adds to the current momentum in oil prices,” Priyanka Sachdeva, a senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, said. (Reuters)
Occidental is also fresh off a portfolio shift. A filing showed it completed the sale of its chemicals unit OxyChem to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion in cash on Jan. 2, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. “This transaction accelerates our strategy to strengthen Occidental’s balance sheet,” Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said, while noting a subsidiary retained legacy tort claims and environmental liabilities tied to some historical operations. (Securities and Exchange Commission)
The sector backdrop has been firm. U.S. energy shares rose about 3% on Thursday while tech fell 1.5%, with markets leaning into payrolls risk and the oil headline flow. (Reuters)
The next catalyst comes quickly, with the U.S. jobs report due later Friday. Nonfarm payrolls — the government’s monthly count of jobs added outside agriculture — are expected to rise by 60,000 in December and the unemployment rate is seen easing to 4.5%, a Reuters survey showed. “Businesses are very cautious about taking on new workers,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. (Reuters)
On the chart, OXY has bounced around the low-$40s and Thursday’s session stretched from $41.03 to $43.69. The stock’s 52-week range runs from $34.79 to $53.20, leaving it about 19% below the high. (MarketWatch)
But the oil bid has a catch: supply can come back fast. Morgan Stanley analysts estimated the oil market could swing to a surplus of as much as 3 million barrels per day in the first half of 2026, and U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories rose sharply in the latest weekly data. A softer crude tape would test producer cash flows — and patience around debt paydown and buybacks. (Reuters)
What investors watch next is clear: the Employment Situation report at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, and then Occidental’s fourth-quarter results after the market close on Feb. 18 with a conference call set for Feb. 19. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
