What happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after easing fears of a wider war with Iran continued to push oil prices lower.
The pullback continued the previous session's selloff after U.S. midterm election results lowered the perceived chances of new military strikes. For months, supply fears tied to the conflict had lifted crude above $104 a barrel and helped energy stocks gain 45% this year. But oil plunged 15% over three days, and a minor 2% bounce back to $90 did not convince stock investors to jump back in.
Much of the extra price cushion tied to war threats has now left the market. Lower prices also reflect plenty of available oil: JPMorgan estimated that returning Middle East barrels pushed the world into a supply surplus of 1.4 million barrels a day in October, CNBC reported.
Oil companies earn their highest profits when fuel stays scarce and expensive. When war threats ease and global supplies catch up with demand, a small daily uptick in crude is not enough to keep investors from trimming what they expect drillers to make.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Mixed or offshore upstream E&P company Core Natural Resources (NYSE: CNR) fell 5.8%. Is now the time to buy Core Natural Resources? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Oilfield services company Bristow Group (NYSE: VTOL) fell 5.6%. Is now the time to buy Bristow Group? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Downstream refining & marketing company CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI) fell 5.9%.
- Oilfield services company Baker Hughes (NASDAQ: BKR) fell 6.1%. Is now the time to buy Baker Hughes? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Oilfield services company Oceaneering (NYSE: OII) fell 5.7%. Is now the time to buy Oceaneering? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming in on Baker Hughes (BKR)
Baker Hughes’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 11 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 29 days ago when the stock dropped 3.3% on the news that surging long-term Treasury yields reached multi-decade highs and energy market tightness prompted global emergency reserve actions. CNBC reported that longer-dated Treasury yields hit their highest levels in more than two decades on Monday. The 10-year yield touched 5.349%, its highest since April 2002, and the 30-year yield reached 5.703%, a level last seen in May 2002. Jay Hatfield, chief executive of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, called it a momentum selloff. The jump came as a services-sector price gauge stayed elevated, keeping inflation pressure in focus ahead of the Federal Reserve’s September meeting minutes.
Morningstar, citing Dow Jones, reported that the Group of Seven plans to release 100 million barrels from diesel and crude stockpiles over the next four months to combat record-high fuel prices. The group also urged countries with significant refining capacity to raise output and to stagger refinery maintenance so plants are not shut at the same time. The release follows criticism that Europe had not tapped reserves fast enough to ease fuel costs during the Iran war.
Baker Hughes is down 1.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $46.56 per share, it is trading 33.2% below its 52-week high of $69.67 from April 2026. Despite the year-to-date decline, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Baker Hughes’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,878.
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