Sector Snap: Oil and gas shares slide

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $4.89 to $126.15, though earlier the contract dropped as low as $125.63. Prices had flirted with the $150 mark earlier this month.

And natural gas prices fell to $10.032 per 1,000 cubic feet, down 47.8 cents. Earlier in the day prices dipped below the $10 mark.

Tropical Storm Dolly, which some had feared would wreak havoc on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, appeared increasingly unlikely to threaten extracting operations on Tuesday. That knocked out one more reason traders had to prop up prices.

XTO Energy Inc. reported second-quarter profit above Wall Street's expectations, yet its shares shed $56, or 10.4 percent, to $51.98. The company also announced several recent acquisitions, boosting its production base for natural gas.

Shares of Halliburton Co. slipped $2.93, or 6 percent, to $45.90, even after the company posted record revenue and said its prospects for the rest of the year look good. The Houston-based company did report a steep drop in profit due to a nearly $1 billion gain in the year-ago period.

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has large natural gas holdings, fell $4.47, or 8 percent, to $51.37.

Shares of Hess Corp. slipped $5.45, or 5.2 percent, to $98.53, and shares of Nabors Industries Ltd., which runs drills for energy companies, lost $1.89, or 4.3 percent, to $41.82.

Bucking the trend, shares of BJ Services Co. rose $1.73, or 5.8 percent, to $31.74. The company posted a drop in fiscal third-quarter profit--but results still beat Wall Street's expectations--and it also issued guidance above current Wall Street predictions.