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By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Stronger-than-expected financial results reported by Halliburton Co. did little to stop a slide in energy stocks Monday, as the sector fell back from big gains scored in the previous session.

Putting pressure on energy stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -1.33% dropped 158 points. Crude oil futures declined by 2% to $95.21, setting up energy stocks for losses.

Energy stocks cooled off after a buying frenzy surrounding Friday’s deal announced by BHP Billiton Ltd. BHP -1.86%   UK:BLT -2.24%   AU:BHP -0.09%   to acquire Petrohawk Energy Corp. HK +0.03%  for $12 billion.

Among sector benchmarks, the NYSE Arca Oil Index XX:XOI -1.04% fell 0.9% to 1,300 and the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index XX:XNG -1.18%  shed 1.4% to 677.

The Philadelphia Oil Service IndexOSX -0.97%  dropped 0.9% to 268, after a big jump of 2.6% in the previous session.

Shares of Halliburton HAL -0.74%  fell 0.6%, after rising earlier in the session.

The company’s second-quarter results were boosted by better-than-expected activity in North America. It’s a theme that analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt said in a note to clients should play out throughout the oil-service sector.

Halliburton’s domestic results were “good all the way around,” while its international business improved.

“Thematically, HAL’s actual earnings were how we (and most) expect oil-service earnings season to play out — U.S. very strong and beating expectations while international showing some seasonal improvement but nothing yet to write home about,” the analysts said.

S&P Equity Research on Monday upgraded Halliburton to buy from hold.

Analyst Stewart Glickman said Halliburton’s second-quarter profit of 81 cents a share beat his estimate by 13 cents a share.

“We had expected strong results in North America but results were still significantly better than we had projected, led mainly by liquids-rich shale play activity,” Glickman said in a note to clients.

“While international margins continue to be weighed down by Middle East project start-up delays and sluggish activity in the U.K., we think international margins will recover in 2012.”