I hate saying it.

But oil prices could get worse.

All thanks to concerns Russia could attack Ukraine, and a severe supply-demand issue.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Demand for oil has outpaced production growth as economies slowly rebound from the worst of the pandemic, leaving the market with a small buffer to mitigate an oil-supply shock. Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, and if a conflict in Ukraine leads to a substantial decrease in the flow of Russian barrels to market, it would be perilous for the tight balance between supply and demand.”

So, how can we profit from potentially higher oil prices?

One way is to invest in dividend-paying oil stocks, like Exxon Mobil (XOM), which carries a dividend yield of 4.39%.  In addition, the company declared a cash dividend of $0.88 per share, payable on March 10, 2022 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 10.

XOM also just initiated a $10 billion share buyback program.  

Valero Energy (VLO) carries a dividend yield of 4.26%.  The company just declared a regular quarterly cash dividend on common stock of $0.98 per share. The dividend is payable on March 3, 2022 to holders of record at the close of business on February 3, 2022.

Phillips 66 (PSX) carries a dividend yield of 3.95%.  Most recently, the company declared a quarterly dividend of 92 cents per share, payable on March 1, 2022, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Feb. 22, 2022.

Markets

The Dow is up 28 points to 34,645

The S&P 500 is up about six points to 4,415

The NASDAQ is up about 16 point to 14,256.75

Gold prices are down about $3.65 to $1,855.03

Bitcoin is up slightly to $42,553.40

Oil prices are down about 92 cents to $92.18

The VIX is currently up by 5.43 to 29.34