WES Drops 1.62% as Oil & Gas Sector Lags S&P 500 by 4.09% in a Month

For climate-conscious investors, Western Midstream’s 1.62% plunge is more than a market movement—it’s a distress signal for fossil fuel transport assets in a decarbonizing world. Even as WES projects a 20% EPS increase and 18% revenue growth, the Oils-Energy sector’s 4.09% monthly loss underscores a growing belief that the era of oil and gas infrastructure supremacy may be waning. This decline, coupled with a 0.2% downward analyst revision, suggests that the energy transition is beginning to erode the market’s faith in traditional midstream models.

On July 1, 2026, the U.S. equity market closed with broad-based declines, but two stocks stood out for their underperformance: Western Midstream (WES) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI). Western Midstream, a leading oil and gas transportation and storage company, ended the session at $38.80, losing 1.62%—more than double the S&P 500’s 0.76% decline. Rigetti Computing, a quantum computing pioneer, fared even worse, dropping 4.47% to $11.33 against the S&P’s 0.11% slip. These moves were not isolated; rather, they reflect sectoral headwinds that are reshaping market sentiment in mid-2026.

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Upcoming quarterly results are expected to show a 20% year-over-year EPS jump to $0.84 and an 18.13% revenue surge to $916.7 million.

For WES, the deeper context is a tug-of-war between robust financial fundamentals and a skeptical energy market. Over the past month, the stock lost only 0.88%, outperforming the Oils-Energy sector’s steep 4.09% loss but seriously lagging the S&P 500’s 4.31% gain. This divergence suggests that while WES benefits from its fee-based midstream model with stable cash flows, the entire fossil-fuel value chain is under a cloud. Upcoming quarterly results are expected to show a 20% year-over-year EPS jump to $0.84 and an 18.13% revenue surge to $916.7 million. Full-year estimates are even brighter: earnings per share of $4.15, a 59.62% leap, on $3.69 billion in revenue. Yet these numbers have not prevented a 0.2% downward revision in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate over the past month, indicating that analysts are trimming their near-term outlook despite the growth narrative. The absence of a Zacks Rank for WES in the report hints at a neutral or unrated stance, but the estimate cut aligns with broader investor unease.

Rigetti’s story is starkly different. The company is deep in pre-commercial territory, with a projected quarterly loss of $0.06 per share—an improvement from the prior year’s deeper loss—and revenue of only $1.91 million, down 38.19% year-over-year. The full-year outlook of -$0.05 per share and $8.78 million in revenue (down 18.63%) underscores the uphill battle in monetizing quantum computing. The stock’s 3.26% monthly decline is a stark contrast to the Computer and Technology sector’s 8.76% gain, suggesting investors are rotating away from speculative names even within high-growth tech. A Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) reinforces that negative sentiment, with no upward estimate revisions to offset the sell signal.

The juxtaposition of a profitable midstream energy company and a loss-making quantum startup both falling harder than the market reveals a common thread: market participants are increasingly selective, penalizing sectors vulnerable to long-term secular risks. For WES, that risk is the energy transition away from hydrocarbons; for RGTI, it is the uncertainty of commercializing frontier technology. With the S&P 500 still near highs, such underperformance underscores that not all growth stories are equally rewarded in 2026.