MW 'Even better than tech.' A scramble into this sector is coming, warns veteran wealth manager.
By Barbara Kollmeyer
Ted Oakley says 'own the whole gamut'
Oxbow Advisor's Ted Oakley says investors are woefully underinvested in energy names.
It's a pinnacle day for earnings, with all eyes on the tech sector as Nvidia earnings come after the close.
Are investors too blinded by AI that they're ignoring opportunity elsewhere? Our call of the day from veteran wealth manager Ted Oakley sees Wall Street and many investors woefully exposed to the energy sector.
The founder and managing partner of Oxbow Advisors, which has about $2.4 billion in assets under management, got his start in the financial industry in the mid-1970s. Among his past savvy calls was an early push into gold for clients - in 2022 he talked about how that commodity was a big part of their investment strategies.
Oakley discussed how Oxbow's concentration in energy has been higher than elsewhere on Wall Street, in an interview with Kitco News that was published Tuesday.
"And I think what people miss about that is these companies were so cheap relative to what you could make out of them that it didn't make any difference what oil did," he said. "Oil could stay at $70 or it could be at $80 and you would be OK. But then all of a sudden you start to realize that, we're using a lot of this stuff and we're kind of getting down to the point where it's probably going to get sticky."
The author of several wealth-management books said he predicted oil would go to $150 a year and a half ago when it was $60, which some found "completely crazy."
"The point I was making [is] that oil, like any commodity, comes and goes and I think people are missing the point here. No matter what happens, we've been 80 days down over there in the Straits [of Hormuz]," he said.
"People that don't have a fairly high allocation to energy are going to miss something here because right now if you look at energy, it's the best of the pack this year, even better than tech," said Oakley.
Oakley said the lengthy time needed to normalize the energy market after the Iran war is still going unrecognized on Wall Street. "And once they realize that in the next three or six months, you get another leg up on oil because they'll finally figure out that hey, maybe the Straits will never go back like they were."
As for where Oxbow is investing, he likes "the whole gamut" - oil and natural gas producers, midstream pipelines and some drillers that they've added in the past couple of months. "You've blown up a lot of things that have to be redrilled. They've shut in wells, different things," he said, referring to fallout from the Iran war.
"We think that whole group, all the way from drilling it, to selling it to the pipelines, the whole thing will work for you if you do it as a group. And we own everything up and down the group."
Among the stocks they own are oil and natural gas group Antero $(AR)$ - a "cheap company relative to what they're going to make in the next two years. We like the way they're set up and what they do," he said.
Oxbow also owns Exxon (XOM) and Chevron $(CVX)$, along with Matador $(MTDR)$, "a great small oil-and-gas company that we think has a lot of potential," he said. Pipeline stocks they like include Enterprise Products $(EPD)$, Energy Transfer $(ET)$, and MPLX $(MPLX)$ - "those are great and pay a lot of money."
Driller picks include Transocean $(RIG)$ and Noble $(NE)$, which "pays a nice little 4% dividend," he said.
"We invest in the whole package really at the same time, and they've all done well for us," he added.
Read: Crude oil is going the long way around the world as countries scramble to plug Hormuz supply hole
The markets
U.S. stock futures (ES00) (YM00) (NQ00) are moving higher, led by tech, while Treasury yields are staying elevated, the 10-year BX:TMUBMUSD10Y is hovering at 4.64%.
Key asset performance Last 5d 1m YTD 1y S&P 500 7403.05 -0.13% 4.13% 8.14% 24.14% Nasdaq Composite 26,090.73 -0.70% 6.91% 12.26% 35.78% 10-year Treasury 4.612 15.50 31.30 44.00 12.10 Gold 4537.2 -3.93% -4.25% 4.73% 37.80% Oil 103.52 1.44% 14.74% 80.32% 66.30% Data: MarketWatch. Treasury yields change expressed in basis points
The buzz
West Texas Intermediate crude (CL.1) and Brent (BRN00) are both sinking 3%, after President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that he expects a quick end to the conflict with Iran.
Nvidia (NVDA) will report earnings after the market close, with focus falling on its cash-spending plans.
Lowe's $(LOW)$ reported forecast-beating results, but share are down. Target (TGT) shares are higher after doubling its annual revenue growth forecasts.
Nearly 48,000 workers at memory chip maker Samsung (KR:005930) are set to strike for 18 days starting Thursday.
Fed Governor Michael Barr will speak at 9:15 a.m., and the minutes of the Fed's May policy meeting are due at 2 p.m. (See preview).
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May 20, 2026 07:01 ET (11:01 GMT)
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