Oil stocks are the new FAANGs
CNN
Many investors, including Warren Buffett, are betting that higher crude oil prices are here to stay for a while. It's a good wager, thanks to the spike in oil prices from about $75 a barrel at the end of last year to above $100 now. Nearly all of the top performers in the S&P 500 this year are energy stocks.
Buffett-backed Occidental Petroleum (OXY) has doubled in price, making it the best performer in the index. The company will report its latest earnings after Tuesday's close. The S&P's energy sector ETF (XLE) has soared more than 40% this year. Valero (VLO), Marathon Oil (MRO), Halliburton (HAL), Hess (HES) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) are big winners too.
So who needs the so-called FAANGs of Big Tech — Facebook owner Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet — when you can own a stock that actually trades with the ticker symbol FANG? That would be oil and gas company Diamondback Energy (FANG), which has jumped nearly 25% this year while the leaders of the once-ascendant Nasdaq have plunged. (Netflix (NFLX) has plummeted more than 70%, making it the S&P 500's biggest loser this year. Meta Platforms (FB) is down more than 40%.)