Shares of Permian peers of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. PXD were getting a boost in premarket trading Friday, in the wake of The Wall Street Journal’s report that Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM was near a deal to buy shale-drilling company for a premium of about 20%. Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s stock OXY rose 0.8% ahead of the open, Devon Energy Corp. shares DVN gained 0.9% and Diamondback Energy Inc.’s stock FANG climbed 1.4%. TD Cowen analyst David Deckelbaum said the idea of a potential Exxon-Pioneer merger is “commonly brought up by investors,” and was subject of media speculation most recently in April. “We expect the repeated nature of the reports to be treated with legitimacy and anticipate scarcity value emerging for large scale Permian peers such as [Diamondback], [Occidental], and [Devon],” Deckelbaum wrote in a note to clients. Pioneer’s stock shot up 10.4% ahead of the open and Exxon shares shed 1.6%, while futures ES00 for the S&P 500 SPX edged up 0.2%.
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