More losses for Exxon, surprise profit at Chevron

Nearly $2.4 billion.

That's how much money ExxonMobil has lost so far this year.

The largest U.S. oil producer posted its third straight quarterly loss on Friday.

Like all of its peers ExxonMobil is getting slammed by a double whammy - energy demand is being dampened by the global health crisis and prices for its main product - oil - is in the dumps.

Oil prices have tumbled 41 percent so far this year and have declined for two straight months.

A sharp drop this week puts U.S prices at a four-month low.

Exxon Mobil is slashing costs left and right in order to offset those low energy prices.

Capital spending will be slashed by up to 30 percent, the company said on Friday...

It already announced a plan to get rid of 15 percent of its workforce, which works out to about 14,000 global jobs.

One thing not on the chopping block? A rich shareholder dividend payout.

That, however, wasn't enough to save the stock Friday, which fell along with the broader market sell-off.

It was a different story, though, for Chevron.

The second largest U.S. oil producer posted a surprise $201 million profit in the third quarter.

Chevron is benefitting from a head-start in cost cutting and is near the end of a year-long restructuring.

But it too is looking to reduce its workforce. Chevron plans to let go of 15 percent of its employees, which works out to a loss of about 6,700 jobs.

Shares of Chevron were little changed on Friday.