With oil prices once again surging, investors are looking to some of the world’s largest oil companies to help power portfolios gains. Now that earnings season is upon us, many are looking for clues from some of these big names to see if the price of crude has helped to spur these firms to record earnings once again. By some estimates, prices of crude oil are about 20% higher this year in the first quarter than it was in 2010, putting the onus on integrated oil firms to deliver hefty profit increases in their first quarter results. Arguably the most important firm in the sector is ExxonMobil (XOM), the world’s largest integrated oil firm and investors should be able to gain further insight on the impact of higher oil on the sector when the energy giant gives its first quarter report later today. The company looks to give its earnings report [...] Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com. Related Posts: Where Insider Trading & ETFs Meet Three ETFs To Watch This Week: VDE, PPH, FXE Three Country ETFs That Could Benefit From Triple-Digit Oil Understanding The Quirks Of QQQQ Three ETFs To Watch This Week: IYE, SMH, VOO