Oil giant Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) has been moving higher since hitting a multi-year low in April. The trend higher has been well-defined by an upwardly-sloped trend channel and the stock just hit the lower rail of the channel.
You can see that the 10-day RSI and the daily stochastic readings hit oversold territory in this recent pullback, but the stock has reversed higher in the last four days. This led to a bullish crossover from the stochastic readings.
Exxon will announce earnings on November 2, so there is only about 10 days for this bounce to play out before the earnings report will affect the stock.
The company’s sales and earnings have been declining over the last three years, but the company did report earnings growth of 18% in its last quarterly report and sales were up 27% from the previous year in that report.
The sentiment toward Exxon is interesting, especially the analysts’ ratings. There are seven “buy” ratings on the stock, seven “sell” ratings, and 11 “hold” ratings. It is rare to see a corporate giant like Exxon with more hold and sell ratings than buy ratings.
Analysts expect Exxon to earn $1.23 for the third quarter and that estimate has been ratcheted down from $1.27 only 30 days ago. This tells me that the bar is being lowered and a decent earnings report from the company could send shares higher.