A survey of North American equities heading in both directions
On the rise
Shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN-T) rose 3.3 per cent after it said on Friday that industry veteran Rod West will succeed Chris Huskilson as its new chief executive officer, effective March 7.
The Oakville, Ont.-based firm has been under pressure from Starboard Value, its biggest shareholder, and other activist firms to reduce debt and boost earnings, urging it to shed its renewable assets.
Last year, the company said it would sell its renewable energy business, excluding the hydropower operations, to a unit of U.S.-based LS Power for up to $2.5-billion and would also offload a 42.2-per-cent stake in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure to Energy Capital Partners for $2.56-billion.
Mr. Huskilson, who was interim CEO since 2023 and made permanent in May last year, will continue to be a member on the company’s board after stepping down.
Earlier this month, the utility firm said CFO Darren Myers will step down after serving through the reporting of the company’s fourth-quarter results.
On the decline
Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR-T) finished 0.3 per cent lower despite saying year-over-year profits fell by nearly half in its latest quarter amid lower volumes across virtually all freight segments.
CN’s chief executive says she’s optimistic for 2025 despite tariff threats
The country’s largest railway is reporting net income for the three months ended Dec. 31 dropped 46 per cent to $1.15-billion, down from $2.13-billion in the same period the year before.
The Montreal-based company says fourth-quarter revenue dipped three per cent to $4.36-billion from $4.47-billion a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share decreased to $1.82 from $2.02 per share, below analysts’ expectations of $1.96 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
CN is forecasting growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent for 2025 alongside $3.4 billion of capital investment. It also announced a five per cent dividend increase Thursday.
CEO Tracy Robinson says the company was quick to recover from supply chain shocks last year that ranged from wildfires to work stoppages.
**
Imperial Oil (IMO-T) declined 6.6 per cent after it posted a fall in fourth-quarter profit on Friday, as lower crude prices offset higher production and stronger refinery-capacity utilization.
Benchmark crude prices fell 3 per cent in 2024 due to economic challenges in China, a sluggish post-pandemic demand recovery and a supply glut worsened by surging oil production by the U.S. and other non-OPEC nations.
The company still raised its quarterly dividend by 20 per cent to 72 cents per share.
Imperial’s upstream production for the October-December quarter was 460,000 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with 452,000 gross boepd during the same period last year.
Total throughput volumes, or the amount of crude processed, were up nearly 1 per cent at 411,000 barrels per day (bpd). Refinery utilization stood at 95 per cent, compared with 94 per cent last year.
The Calgary-based company said its net income fell to $1.23-billion, or $2.37 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $1.37-billion, or $2.47 per share, last year.
The fall in Imperial’s earnings comes as the Canadian energy sector braces for U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian imports, expected to be issued on Feb. 1.
Canada has been the biggest source of U.S. oil imports for over two decades and supplied more than half of all crude imports into the country in 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Imperial Oil is majority owned by U.S. oil and gas major Exxon Mobil, which separately posted a fall in fourth-quarter profit earlier today.
**
Toronto-based bitcoin miner Bitfarms (BITF-T) lost 1.4 per cent after it said on Friday it has enlisted two consultants to explore how it can transform some of its facilities to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence data centres.
Bitfarms said the consultants, Appleby Strategy Group and World Wide Technology, will analyze its North American sites.
They will also advise the company on its computing and AI strategy, while marketing the sites to potential customers.
Earlier this month, Riot Platforms launched a review of the potential AI and computing uses for parts of its facility in Navarro County, Texas.
“The contracts associated with HPC/AI customers provide long-term, steady cash flows and earnings streams, while our bitcoin mining operations will continue to monetize bitcoin’s flexible upside potential,” Bitfarms CEO Ben Gagnon said
Crypto miners often own large plots of land and significant power resources — assets that are also crucial for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI data centres.
To capitalize on the AI boom, many miners have begun to repurpose parts of their operations into data centres, given they already have most of the infrastructure.
Critics of the approach, however, warn that the shift may not be successful because AI data centres are more sophisticated.
**
Apple (AAPL-Q) shares turned lower and finished down 0.7 per cent on Friday after the company forecast relatively strong sales growth, hinting at a recovery from a dip in iPhone sales as it rolls out artificial intelligence features.
“With investors highly tuned into how AI spend will represent real revenue for big tech, Apple’s results have provided...reassurance,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Unlike its technology peers such as Microsoft (MSFT-Q) who have poured billions into AI-related investments, Apple took a prudent approach, betting on AI as features meant to help sell its latest hardware.
That approach paid off earlier this week, when China’s DeepSeek unveiled free AI technology that sparked fears of price wars, sank stocks of some of Apple’s competitors and sent shares of the iPhone maker up slightly.
Despite strong overall sales and profits, the company delivered a slight drop in iPhone revenue for the holiday quarter that missed Wall Street estimates, due to a lack of AI features.
“China remains a key wildcard, but Apple Intelligence is bolstering iPhone performance in regions where available, setting up a return to iPhone growth in FY26,” Morgan Stanley analysts said.
The firm is rolling out AI features, such as drafting emails and transcribing phone calls, but has not yet secured a local partner in China to release them.
“China demand could recover as AI features get launched,” TD Cowen analysts added.
At least eight analysts raised their price targets on the stock following the company’s quarterly results, bringing the median target to US$250, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Apple’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is 31.12, compared with Microsoft’s 29.2 and Meta’s (META-Q) 26.7.
**
Intel (INTC -Q) shares declined 2.9 per cent on Friday as the chipmaker’s quarterly revenue beat low expectations and investors focused on its search for a new CEO to steer the company through one of its most difficult periods.
Former CEO Pat Gelsinger was ousted last month, well before the completion of his four-year plan to turn around the company from years of missteps in its manufacturing operation and missed opportunities around the artificial intelligence boom that have left the erstwhile American chipmaking icon far behind its rivals.
Intel also forecast current-quarter revenue below estimates on Thursday.
“At this point bad results from Intel no longer burn the way they used to as investors are likely growing numb to the company’s travails,” Bernstein strategists said in a note.
“And frankly, beats or misses on their business fundamentals likely take a back seat for now to the impending CEO transition (if we get one) and what they and the board might choose or not choose to do with the company.”
The company has named CFO David Zinsner and senior executive Michelle Johnston Holthaus as interim co-CEOs while the board conducts a search for a new leader.
Once the dominant force in the PC market, Intel has in recent years been losing share to rival Advanced Micro Devices . It also passed on an investment in ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, before the success of the chatbot revolutionized the tech industry.
Companies looking to capitalize on generative AI technology have prioritized spending on specialized AI processors that can churn huge amounts of data, crimping demand for the traditional server processors that Intel sells.
“Strategic alternatives will be the primary bull case for the foreseeable future, but we don’t see how this gets done with the Foundry business behind on technology and fully reliant on product business with no real foundry customers in sight,” Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis said.
Intel’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is 24.67, compared with Nvidia’s (NVDA-Q) 28.17, and AMD’s (AMD-Q) 23.45.
**
Exxon Mobil (XOM-N) slipped 2.5 per cent after it beat Wall Street’s estimate for fourth-quarter profit as higher oil and gas production offset lower oil prices and weaker refining margins.
Its adjusted profit was US$7.39-billion or US$1.67 per share, beating analyst estimates of US$1.56, LSEG data showed.
Exxon’s low production costs in the basin and its lucrative and prolific projects in Guyana have bolstered the company’s profits despite lower oil prices and a decline in profits on making fuel. The company became the largest oil producer in the Permian basin in 2024, the biggest U.S. oilfield, after closing its acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources in May.
The No. 1 U.S. oil producer reported earnings of US$33.46-billion for 2024, down from US$38.57-billion the year earlier.
Its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings from oil and gas production were US$6.28-billion, up from US$4.15=billion in the same quarter last year. Production reached 4.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, growing from 4.58 billion in the third quarter.
Production of crude oil and natural gas liquids in the United States grew almost 2 per cent from the previous quarter to 1.47 million barrels per day. But earnings from producing gasoline and diesel were US$323-million, a large fall from $3.2 billion a year earlier. The startup of new oil refineries by other companies in Asia and Africa led to higher global fuel supply, even as demand for gasoline and diesel lagged expectations.
The refining business remains under pressure as the additional supply enters the market, Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells said in an interview.
“That’s really what we’re watching as we look ahead to 2025,” she said.
Exxon’s results were helped by lower corporate costs and showed mixed performance across the business, said Biraj Borkhataria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, in a research note on Friday.
**
Chevron Corp. (CVX-N) reported fourth-quarter earnings below Wall Street estimates on Friday as weak margins pushed its refining business into a loss for the first time since 2020, sending its shares down 4.6 per cent.
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told Reuters the downtrend in refining margins is set to continue this year.
The second-largest U.S. oil producer posted total earnings of US$3.24-billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, up from US$2.26-billion in the same period last year.
However, its adjusted earnings per share of US$2.06 was below Wall Street’s US$2.11 estimate, hit by weak fuel sales in the United States.
Profit on fuel sales tumbled across the industry last year, as the post-pandemic demand surge faded and economic activity faltered in the United States and China, the two largest oil consumers.
Chevron’s downstream business lost US$248-million in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with a profit of US$1.15-billion in the same period a year ago.
Margins softened in both U.S. and international markets, but weak jet fuel demand aggravated troubles for the Houston-headquartered company’s domestic business. U.S. fuel sales fell 3% year-over-year, Chevron said.
Refining margins were unlikely to stay at the elevated levels seen coming out of the pandemic, CEO Wirth said in an interview.
“This trend we have seen of margins softening through 2024 is something you can expect to continue to see, to extend into 2025,” he said.
While refining struggled, Chevron’s oil production held relatively flat in the fourth quarter at 3.35 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with 3.39 million bpd a year ago.
The company expects production growth of 6 per cent through 2026 outside of its asset sales, it said in its conference call presentation, with growth weighted towards the second half of 2025 as its projects in Tengiz in Kazakhstan and the Gulf of Mexico come online.
**
Visa’s (V-N) first-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday, as easing concerns about an economic slowdown and discounts encouraged customers to splurge during the holiday shopping season.
Retailers offered deep discounts on everything from apparel to toys and luxury products to lure cost-conscious consumers while online sales remained strong thanks to a boom in mobile shopping.
Payments volume — a gauge of overall consumer and business spending on Visa’s network — jumped 9 per cent, while revenue rose 10 per cent to US$9.5-billion in the quarter.
Shares of the world’s largest payments processor closed 0.4 per cent lower in Friday trading.
Visa also benefited from strong domestic and international travel demand, driven by improved pricing and the absence of severe weather-related disruptions.
Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe, a measure of international travel demand, jumped 16%. Processed transactions rose 11 per cent in the quarter.
The San Francisco-based company posted an adjusted profit of US$2.75 per share in the three months ended Dec. 31. Analysts, on average, had expected US$2.66 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Although higher-for-longer interest rates were expected to be a dampener, consumer spending continues to be underpinned by a solid labor market and continued wage growth.
“Consumer spending in the U.S. and around the globe is quite resilient and strong,” said Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh in an interview with Reuters.