Oil-price swoon hits energy firms

The share-price boom at US energy firms has gone bust, due to slumping global growth and tumbling crude prices. Companies that drill for oil and natural gas and provide services at the wells were among the most popular investor bets earlier this year, riding the coattails of a decadelong renaissance in US oil and natural-gas production. The S&P oil-and-gas equipment-and-services subsector surged 23% in 2014 through June 20, the day US-traded crude-oil futures hit their 2014 high at $107.26 a barrel. Among services firms, Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR -0.62% surged 68% in that period, Halliburton Co. HAL -1.31% rose 38% and National Oilwell Varco Inc. NOV +0.33% rose 11%. But crude prices since then have gone into free fall, following a series of dour reports on economic growth in China, Japan and Europe. Nymex crude futures closed Wednesday at $87.31, putting them 21% below their 2013 high, crossing the 20% threshold for a bear market, according to wsj.com