One stock added to RBC analyst’s global energy top ideas list

Daily roundup of research and analysis from The Globe and Mail’s market strategist Scott Barlow

Energy

RBC Capital Markets head of global energy research Greg Pardy made one change to his Global Energy Best Ideas list, adding Permian Resources Corp. (PR-N),

“Our view: In November, the RBC Global Energy Best Ideas List was up 0.7 per cent compared to the iShares S&P Global Energy Sector ETF (IXC) which was up 2.9 per cent and a hybrid benchmark (75 per cent IXC, 25 per cent JXI – iShares Global Utilities ETF) that was up 2.8 per cent on a sequential basis”

The full list is now California Resources, Chord Energy Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Permian Resources, PrairieSky Royalty, Canadian Natural Resources, Woodside Energy, Enerflex Ltd., SLB, AltaGas Ltd., Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Cheniere Energy, Inc., Energy Transfer LP, Williams Companies Inc., EDP Renováveis, S.A., Northland Power and Superior Plus.

Investment themes

Citi strategist Chris Montagu monitors 93 global investment themes for performance patters. His monthly report was published Thursday,

“Minimal turnover in the top/bottom 10 themes but a reshuffling of ranks. Pension Shortfalls is now the top ranked theme. After months of being the most attractive theme, the Risky Business theme has dropped to 5th driven by a fall in Momentum rankings. The Defence theme has come back into the top 10 but in reality it hasn’t been too far out of the top 10 for most of this year. Why is it ranked so highly? The theme is attractive across nearly factors, particularly Price Momentum but where it falls down is on Valuation. Theme Model Performance — Model performance has not been stellar in the past months, and November was the first time since March that the top themes have posted a negative return. However, this shouldn’t be a surprise given that many of the longer-term secular themes – like AI – were under pressure in November. Top Performing Themes — Pharma orientated themes have been consistent outperformers recently and November saw them rise to the top. The best performing themes were Genetically-Informed Therapies and Biotech. Also as a sign of the volatility in markets, Quantum Computing which was a top performing theme in October, was off – 2.79 per cent in November but still remains one of the better performing themes of the last three months”

Markets

BofA Securities chief U.S. equity and quant strategist Savita Subramanian detailed what might be an important change in market leadership in November,

“A weakening labor market, easier Fed policy and an air pocket in AI explain some of the market trends we saw last month that suggest a change of leadership into 2026. The S&P 500 returned up 0.25 per cent vs. the equal-weighted index up 1.78 per cent, and the Nifty 50 mega caps (down 0.56 per cent) lagged the Other 450 (up 1.32 per cent). The comeback in AI was a late month story, not enough to push the Russell 1000 Growth index (down 1.81 per cent) ahead of the Russell 1000 Value index (up 2.66 per cent) in November. Gold (up 4.48 per cent) was the best-performing asset, and investment grade bonds (up 0.64 per cent), Long-Term Treasuries (up 0.42 per cent) and T-bills (up 0.28 per cent) were also ahead of the S&P 500. The VIX (down 6.25 per cent), WTI oil (down 3.38 per cent) and ex-US equities (up 0.15 per cent local currency / down 0.01 per cent in USD) lagged. Among global sectors, Health Care (up 7.7 per cent) and Media & Entertainment (up 4.6 per cent) led performance while Software (-7.3 per cent) and Semis (down 5.8 per cent) lagged . Breadth came back with a vengeance: 64 per cent of stocks outperformed the S&P 500, but year-to-date, just one of three stocks is ahead of the index. In November, amid the underperformance of Tech (down 4.36 per cent), most (8 out of 11) sectors outperformed the S&P 500, led by Health Care (up 9.14 per cent), Communication Services (up 6.34 per cent) and Materials (up 3.97 per cent). Consumer Staples (up 3.97 per cent) outperformed Consumer Discretionary (down 2.44 per cent), and we favor Staples (overweight) over Discretionary (underweight) for 2026. Communication Services and Tech still lead all other sectors year-to-date (up 33.8 per cent and up 23.7 per cent, respectively) … In a sharp reversal, Value factors, which lagged Growth factors by 9.9ppt year-to-date through October, posted a up 3.3 per cent avg. gain in Nov., outperforming all other factors groups and leading Growth factors by 2.2ppt. Four of the top five factors overall were Value factors. High Dividend Yield, which lagged the index by 5.1ppt year-to-date through Oct, also posted a strong gain up 3.5 per cent … We’re bullish on small caps into 2026”

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