morgan brennan takes a look. >> conoco philips slashed its quarterly give vend by two-thirds. yeo ryan lance called a "gut-wrenching decision." the largest u.s. independent producer conoco is the first major oil company to cult. while the yield had soared to 8% the move came faster than many on the street anticipated. the reason stocks sank in today's traiting. at a time when oil majors like exxonmobil, chevron, bp, and royal dutch shell continued to defend dividends conoco's move could be seen as harbinger of more cuts to come if crude stays this low and credit markets tighten. it comes down to the cash pile, whether a company can pay shareholders bout borrowing to do so. >> it goes to the point, cash is king in this market. anything you can do to conserve cash and ride this out, the better position you're going to be. >> conoco had dramatically cut capital spending, something it did again today as well. but with crude at $30 a barrel, management felt that wasn't enough to address the shortfall. some analysts worry royal dutch shell could be next, despite company comments to