Wall Street shit a brick yesterday...
"ConocoPhillip (COP) slashed its coveted dividend by two-thirds on Thursday due to the dramatic crash in oil prices to $30 a barrel. The painful move makes Conoco the first big American oil producer to take a knife to its dividend."
"Up until this point, oil companies have coped with the pain of cheap oil by laying off workers, taking on more debt and selling off assets. They've long resisted dividend cuts because generous payouts lured many investors to these stocks -- even during these tough times."
"There's no such thing as a safe dividend in the energy sector right now," said Spencer Cutter, a credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. "If oil stays at $30 a barrel for another 12 months, all bets are off -- for everybody."
"Standard & Poor's also warned this week it could remove Exxon's perfect AAA rating"
One of these is not like the others...
Oil (black) with Energy sector (red)
ConocoPhillips
Exxon
We've seen this movie before
The Exxon / Energy sector ratio