, Columnist
Oil Companies Are Unpopular Because They're Introverts
The sector’s refusal to weigh itself against the wider world warps its incentives and chases investors away.
Oil companies spend a little too much time doing this.
Photographer: George Marks/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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It is said that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Measuring the wrong thing can be just as bad, though. Especially if, as in the case of the oil business, what’s being measured is each other.
Without wishing to harass the afflicted, I wrote the other day about how desperately unpopular the energy sector is among investors. Remarkably, its pariah status has been cemented further in the brief interlude since. As of Thursday morning, its weighting in the S&P 500 index stood at just 5%, the lowest since at least 1990.