Commentary
In 2020, I wrote about “The Fall of Mighty Exxon.” The “fall” referred to Exxon’s stock having been dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) after a 92-year stretch of being a mainstay of that index. In retrospect, just two-and-a-half years later, hindsight indicates that dropping Exxon from the Dow may have been premature—an overreaction to the economic weirdness and distortions of the COVID lockdown.
As I wrote in the conclusion of that article, “I wouldn’t be too hasty to write off Exxon. Various pundits have chided Exxon for not having shifted production to renewables like some other oil-producing companies have … Exxon could stage a comeback. Exxon may someday be regarded as heroic for its stubborn insistence on refusing to accept taxpayer handouts to produce wind and solar energy while continuing to produce oil. Exxon’s glory days may not be over yet.”…