Third-quarter earnings in the oil and gas industry have begun to trickle in at a time when investors have the lowest confidence and interest in U.S. shale stocks in years. After years of frustration with the lack of meaningful returns from shale firms and amid persistently low oil and gas prices, investors have turned their backs on energy stocks. Banks have too, restricting lending to shale firms who have grown production so far, mostly by taking on more debt. U.S. shale drillers are not optimistic about the near future, either, admitting that Wall Street has turned off the tap on funding and that low oil and gas prices will continue to depress margins and earnings. Analysts expect the Q3 earnings of large and small shale companies to be much lower than the profits they booked in Q3 2018, when oil prices were on the rise, just before concerns about […]