Oil stocks showed signs of life Friday, boosted by a sharp rise in crude prices. It’s an overdue move that may portend a further recovery rally. However, the energy sector still posted another weekly decline. West Texas Intermediate crude — the U.S. oil benchmark — jumped 4% to once again trade above $70 per barrel, although it’s still on track for its third-straight weekly loss. Natural gas on Friday rose nearly 2% to $2.14 per million British thermal units (BTUs). But that also wasn’t enough of an advance to avoid a weekly decline, its first in the past four weeks. Energy was the top-performing S & P 500 sector Friday, climbing around 2.6%, on pace for its best day since April 3. The energy sector entered the day down 10 of the last 14 trading sessions. CTRA YTD mountain Coterra Energy YTD performance A bright spot in Friday’s trading was Club holding Coterra Energy (CTRA), which rose as much as 9% before giving back some of those gains. The oil and natural gas exploration and production (E & P) company on Thursday evening reported better-than-expected results in the first quarter. Coterra skews higher on nat gas than many of the other E & Ps out there. On Friday’s post-earnings call, CEO Tom Jorden said he’s “highly constructive on gas” in the long run despite the commodity’s crash from more than $10 per million BTUs back in August to under $2 last month. Coterra’s guidance generally matched expectations. “This is the beginning, I think, of a real trend in oil,” Jim Cramer said Friday. PXD YTD mountain Pioneer Natural Resources YTD performance The Club took action on Jim’s bullish view early in the session, buying an additional 75 shares of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) after watching its stock fall from around $230 per share in mid-April — driven partially by a weak takeover report — to its Thursday close of around $206. In that time, the oil-and-gas firm reported solid first-quarter numbers and reinforced its strong capital return initiatives…
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