Why Chevron Stock Fell as Much as 5% Today

Shares of U.S. integrated energy giant Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) were down by about 5% by noon or so on Wall Street.

The drop started shortly after the market opened, as the company held a conference call to discuss its pre-market earnings release. On the surface, the quarter wasn't so bad, but dig in a little and there was some troubling news. Worse, the next few quarters could get ugly. Investors didn't take the news well even though the dour outlook wasn't really much of a surprise.

Chevron earned $3.6 billion (roughly $1.93 per share) in the first quarter of 2020, up from $2.6 billion ($1.39 per share) in the same period of the previous year. That was the good news. The bad news is that the first quarter benefited from roughly $680 million in one-time items (an asset sale and a tax gain) and currency effects increased earnings by another $500 million or so. Thus, the first-quarter results weren't exactly representative of the company's real earning power in the current environment.

Source Fool.com