It's been a fairly awful day of trading for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far this Wednesday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has lost a nasty 1.4% and is back below 6,730 points. Ouch.
But it's even worse for the Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) share price.
Woodside shares have copped a drilling today, no way around it. At present, the ASX 200 energy giant has lost a painful 3% and is back down to $34 a share.
So what's going on here that could explain such a decisive underperformance of the broader market?
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Why is the Woodside share price tanking on Wednesday?
Well, there's been no news or announcements out of the company itself, so we can rule that out. We can also rule out an ex-dividend date, seeing as Woodside is scheduled to trade ex-div for its upcoming final dividend tomorrow.
So let's look at what is happening with the oil markets. As an ASX oil share, the oil price itself is often the most consequential driver of the Woodside share price.
Well, lo and behold, oil has been under the pump recently. As my Fool colleague James covered this morning, last night saw the WTI crude oil price fall by 0.2% to US$86.69 a barrel. The Brent crude oil price also dropped 3.3% to US$92.61 a barrel.
This is probably the most likely explanation for why Woodside shares are having such a shocker today. Further supporting this theory, we are also seeing other ASX energy shares take hits today as well.
Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) shares have lost 1.76% to $7.80 so far today. While Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) is down by an even more painful 4.2% at $1.69 a share.
So it looks as though the entire ASX oil sector is feeling the pain this Wednesday.
No doubt, investors will be hoping for a brighter end to the trading week.
At the current Woodside share price, this ASX 200 oil share has a market capitalisation of $64.7 billion, with a dividend yield of 9.17%.
