What happened Shares of Baker Hughes (NYSE: BKR) lost a massive 40% of their value through the first six months of 2020, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That number, however, is actually an improvement. At one point in the span, the oil services company's stock had lost roughly two-thirds of its value. So what The big issue is oil demand. When COVID-19 started to work its way around the globe, countries effectively shut their economies to slow its spread. Demand for oil, logically, plummeted. The supply/demand dynamic was already tilted a little too far toward supply when 2020 began. So when demand fell off a cliff, energy markets were suddenly massively oversupplied and oil prices fell sharply. In fact, oil prices briefly fell below zero -- effectively meaning that oil drillers were paying customers to take their oil. Image source: Getty Images. When oil prices are low, the energy sector reacts in a fairly predictable way -- drillers pull back on capital spending. That means less business for companies like Baker Hughes. To provide an idea of how bad the situation was, one-time charges pushed the company to a loss of $15.64 per share in the first quarter. And Baker Hughes' highly watched monthly rig count tally shows that the number of rigs operating globally was off by more than 50% year over year in June. The industry downturn is bad, and energy services companies like Baker Hughes are taking a big hit. Now what Excess oil has been piling up in storage and needs to be worked off before oil prices can mount a sustained recovery. Meanwhile, the economic reopening process will dictate how much oil is needed. That, in turn, will depend at least partially on the path COVID-19 takes. There are a lot of moving parts, and Baker Hughes doesn't have much control over what's going on. This is not an appropriate stock for conservative investors today, since COVID-19 cases are increasing again in key energy markets like China and the United States. 10 stocks we like better than Baker Hughes CompanyWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Baker Hughes Company wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2020 Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source