It's turning out to be a fairly pedestrian day of trading for ASX shares and the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far this Wednesday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has recovered somewhat from the steep falls suffered this morning and is down by 0.2% at around 6,985 points. But it's a different story for the Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) share price.
Woodside shares are getting a caning today. The ASX 200 oil giant has lost a meaty 3.85% so far today at $34.49 a share. Earlier this morning, the energy company dropped as low as $34.10, a drop of close to 5% at the time.
So what's with Woodside shares' wobbles this Wednesday?
Well, it's worth noting that it was only yesterday that Woodside delivered its FY22 half-year earnings. As we covered at the time, this saw the oil share report revenues of US$5.81 billion, a rise of 132% over the prior corresponding period.
Woodside also delivered a bumper 417% increase in US$1.64 billion net profit after tax (NPAT). But its dividend caused quite a stir as well. Woodside revealed a tripled interim dividend of US$1.09 per share.
Yesterday saw investors react with enthusiasm to this report, sending Woodside shares up almost 1.5%. But today, the company has given that all back and more. So what's going on?
Well, it's nothing to do with the company itself, seeing as there are no new announcements out of Woodside today.
Why is the Woodside share price plunging on Wednesday?
So we can probably surmise that Woodside's misfortune today is a byproduct of what we have seen in the oil markets overnight.
As my Fool colleague James presciently flagged this morning, oil prices had a clanger last night. WTI crude oil price fell 5% to US$92.17 a barrel. While the Brent crude oil price dropped 5.4% to US$99.44 a barrel. This could have been spurred by "concerns that rising inflation could impact fuel demand".
Since Woodside is almost a pure-play energy company, these movements have real consequences for the company, especially if they are sustained over any meaningful period of time.
As one might expect, Woodside is not the only ASX energy share getting hit by these concerns today. Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) shares have dropped 1.3% to $7.86 a share. While Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) shares have lost close to 1% at $1.73 a share.
So that probably explains the weakness in the Woodside share price, as well as the other ASX 200 oil shares, today.
At this pricing, Woodside shares have a market capitalisation of $65.5 billion, with a dividend yield of 5.43%.
