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Canadian Pacific Kansas City (TSX:CP.TO) (NYSE:CP) (CPKC) today announced its third-quarter results, including revenues of $3.3 billion, diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) of $0.84 and core adjusted combined diluted EPS^{1, 2} of $0.92.

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Teck Resources Ltd. raised the cost estimates for its QB2 copper project in Chile as it reported its latest quarterly results and lowered its production guidance for copper, molybdenum and steelmaking coal for the year.

The mining company says it now expects the QB2 project to cost between US$8.6 billion and $8.8 billion, up from earlier guidance for between US$8.0 billion and US$8.2 billion.

The update came as Teck says it earned a profit attributable to shareholders of C$276 million or 52 cents per diluted share for the quarter end Sept. 30 compared with a loss of C$195 million or 37 cents per share a year earlier.

Revenue totalled C$3.60 billion, down from C$4.26 billion in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Teck says it earned 76 cents per diluted share, down from an adjusted profit of C$1.74 per diluted share a year earlier.

In its guidance, Teck lowered its annual copper production forecast to 320,000 to 365,000 tonnes from 330,000 to 375,000 tonnes for this year and cut its annual molybdenum production guidance to 3.0 million to 3.8 million pounds from 4.5 million to 6.8 million pounds. It also said it expects steelmaking coal production this year to be between 23.0 million and 23.5 million tonnes, down from earlier expectations for 24.0 million to 26.0 million tonnes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. reported US$325 million in net earnings attributable to shareholders for the third quarter, up from US$113 million a year earlier.

Sales revenues totalled US$2.0 billion, up from US$1.7 billion.

Diluted earnings per share for the Toronto-based company were 47 cents US, up from 37 cents US a year earlier.

CEO Tristan Pascall says production continued to improve during the third quarter at each of the company’s three main copper operations.

Earlier in the year, First Quantum’s production took a hit amid a dispute with the Panama government over its Cobre Panamá copper mine.

On Monday, the company announced that the bill enacting its mining concession contract for the mine became law, after reaching a deal with the government in March.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2023.

Canadian National Railway Co. is reporting a nearly one-quarter drop in profits for the three months ended Sept. 30.

Canada’s largest railway says falling consumer demand and fallout from the B.C. port workers’ strike dented its cargo volumes and revenue last quarter, alongside lower fuel surcharges.

The Montreal-based company says net income in its third quarter fell 24 per cent to $1.11 billion from $1.46 billion in the same period a year earlier.

CN says revenues decreased 12 per cent to $3.99 billion from $4.51 billion the year before.

On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings were down 21 per cent at $1.69 per share from $2.13 per share last year, slightly below analyst expectations of $1.72 per share, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

CN says it continues to expect flat to slightly negative adjusted earnings this year, adding that it forecasts growth of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent between 2024 and 2026.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 202

Rep. Mike Johnson was elected by the House to become the next speaker as Republicans rallied behind their fourth nominee to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson could afford only a handful of defections from his fellow Republicans in the chamber-wide vote, but unlike prior candidates, there were no defections to his candidacy from his party.

He won 220 votes, needing around 217 to become speaker.

Democrats meanwhile continued to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He picked up 209 votes from his fellow Democrats.

Johnson scored his party’s nomination late Tuesday, with several members absent and three voting present. In just the hours from Tuesday, though, Johnson has shored up support from the three Republicans who voted present in Tuesday’s late nomination vote.

Johnson also got support from former President Trump, who gave his support for the GOP nominee, urging Republicans to “get it done, fast” ahead of a potential House speaker vote.

House of Representatives elects Johnson as speaker | Live Updates from Fox News Digital

Hurricane Otis unleashed a “nightmare scenario” on Acapulco in southern Mexico Wednesday morning after the storm rapidly intensified into a Category 5 just before landfall and gave officials and residents little time to prepare.

Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane in just 12 hours before it slammed ashore near Acapulco as the strongest storm on record to hit this area and the Pacific coast of Mexico.

The sudden burst of power gave people little time to prepare and get to safety as Otis bore down on Acapulco, a popular tourist destination that’s also a permanent home to roughly 800,000 people.

Hurricane Otis strikes Acapulco: A ‘nightmare scenario’ Category 5 strike | CNN

Chevron Corp CVX-N -3.61%decrease agreed to buy Hess HES-N -0.91%decrease for $53 billion in stock to gain a bigger U.S. oil footprint and a large stake in rival Exxon Mobil Corp’s XOM-N -1.92%decrease massive Guyana discoveries, the latest in a series of blockbuster U.S. oil combinations.

The top two U.S. oil producers in weeks have struck more than $110 billion in deals that will add years of oil output, much of it from U.S. shale. The deals will leave European rivals that had shifted their focus to renewable energy further behind in fossil fuels.

“This is great for energy security: It brings together two great American companies,” said Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth, who has bulked up its shale oil and gas holdings by acquiring U.S. rivals PDC Energy and Noble Energy.

The combination of Hess, PDC and Noble will bring Chevron’s total oil and gas output to about 3.7 million barrels per day (bpd). It will expand Chevron’s shale output by 40%, and put it neck and neck with Exxon’s projected 1.3 million bpd shale output following its Pioneer Natural Resource acquisition.

The deal gives Chevron a huge stake in Guyana, where it will become a 30% owner of an Exxon-operated field expected to produce more than 1.2 million bpd by 2027. Chevron operates in Guyana neighbours Venezuela and Suriname.

Shares sold off in midday trading on Monday with Chevron down 2.6% at $162.46 and Hess falling a fraction, to $162.45.

“This deal is all about the world-class Guyana asset, which is by far the crown jewel in the Hess portfolio, wrote Capital One Securities analysts in a note.

Chevron said it would sell between $15 billion to $20 billion in assets following the latest acquisition and plans to spend between $19 billion and $21 billion on major projects.

Chevron said that following completion of the deal it intends for share repurchases to reach the top of its $20 billion annual range if oil prices remain high, and will increase its shareholder dividend by 8%.

The recent deals are a financial flex by U.S. oil and gas companies that kept investing in fossil fuels as European rivals turned their attention to renewable fuels. Chevron and Exxon accumulated huge profits from strong energy prices and demand since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chevron offered 1.025 of its shares for each Hess share, or about $171 per share, implying a premium of about 4.9% to the stock’s last close. The total deal value is $60 billion, including debt.

RBC analysts said they were surprised by the deal timing, and had expected Chevron to bide its time after Exxon’s mega deal for Pioneer.

Guyana has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing oil province following more than 11 billion barrels of oil and gas discoveries since 2015. Hess holds a 30% stake in an Exxon-led consortium now pumping 380,000 barrels per day.

The deal faces regulatory reviews, but Wirth said he is not expecting anti-trust concerns.

“We’ve got too many CEOs per BOE (barrels of oil equivalent), so consolidation is natural,” said Wirth, adding the world could expect to see other oil deals.

Hess CEO John Hess will join Chevron’s board of directors once the deal closes around the first half of 2024. He said the government of Guyana and Exxon would welcome Chevron’s entry into the country’s oil fields.

The deal reflects about a 5% premium to Hess’s trading price. The combined companies expect to generate about $1 billion in cost synergies within a year of its closing, said Wirth.

The combined company will expand Chevron’s oil production in less risky regions by adding to its output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, bringing it into the Bakken shale in North Dakota, and make it a partner in the rapidly-expanding Exxon and CNOOC Stabroek oil block in Guyana.

The deal follows Exxon’s rapid-fire deals since July for top U.S. shale producer Pioneer Natural Resources and Denbury. Those two, nearly $64-billion combined transactions put Exxon atop U.S. shale and cemented the firm’s nascent carbon storage business.

Goldman Sachs was the lead adviser to Hess while Morgan Stanley was the lead adviser to Chevron.

Oil prices slipped on Monday as investors continued to focus on the situation in the Middle East, where diplomatic efforts are intensifying in an attempt to contain the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Brent crude futures fell 63 cents, or 0.7%, to $91.53 a barrel, as of 9:41 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 76 cents, or 0.8%, at $87.31 a barrel.

Both benchmarks traded over $1 a barrel lower than their previous settlement price at their nadir in Monday’s session.

The intensification of diplomatic efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from further escalation could have calmed oil prices on Monday.

“Recent diplomatic developments helped ease tensions, bringing some hope of a de-escalation in the war,” said ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista.

European Union leaders will call for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict this week so that aid can reach Palestinians in Gaza, with the leaders of France and the Netherlands set to visit Israel this week.

Aid convoys started to arrive in the Gaza Strip from Egypt over the weekend.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who visited Israel last week, had calls on Sunday with the leaders of Canada, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

“There is some relief in the oil market that Israel is holding off on a planned ground incursion of northern Gaza to negotiate a release of hostages, which opens up a window for diplomacy,” added Vandana Hari of Vanda Insights.

But Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza on Monday after launching air strikes over southern Lebanon overnight.

Both oil benchmarks notched 1% week-on-week gains for the last two weeks, on fears of potential supply disruption in the Middle East — the world’s biggest oil-supplying region — if the conflict were to spread.

“Escalating wrath in the region will strengthen economic headwinds, potentially rising oil prices will push global inflation higher, monetary tightening could resume, and global oil demand growth will be dented,” said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.

Elsewhere, Norway’s crude production fell to 1.64 million barrels per day (bpd) in September according to Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) data released on Monday, down from 1.79 million bpd in August and below forecasts of 1.73 million bpd.

The Bank of Canada is widely expected to hold the line on interest rates this week after inflation fell unexpectedly in September while economic growth continues to flounder.

Until a week ago, the jury was out on whether Governor Tiff Macklem and his team would increase borrowing costs again on Oct. 25. Inflation had been ticking higher over the summer, and Canada’s top central bankers were sending hawkish signals that more tightening might be needed to get rising prices under control.

A string of data releases published last week appear to have settled the case in favour of keeping the policy rate at five per cent on Wednesday, according to analysts and bond traders.

Soft retail-sales data from August showed that Canadians are feeling the pinch of higher interest rates and cutting back on spending. Meanwhile, the central bank’s quarterly business survey found that companies are gloomy about future sales, and plan to curb hiring and investment. These are positives from the Bank of Canada’s perspective, as it tries to slow the economy to reduce upward pressure on prices.

Most importantly, the inflation rate fell to 3.8 per cent in September from four per cent in August, Statistics Canada said last week. That’s still nearly twice the central bank’s two-per-cent Consumer Price Index inflation target. But it came in below Bay Street forecasts and marked a reversal after two months of accelerating price growth.

“Inflation has surprised on the upside relative to the central bank’s last forecasts in July. But most of that was driven by rising energy inflation more recently as global oil prices edged higher,” Royal Bank of Canada economists Nathan Janzen and Claire Fan wrote in a note to clients.

“The latest CPI data for September also looked decidedly better, with slower growth in the BoC’s preferred ‘core’ measures breaking a string of upside surprises.”

Interest-rate swaps, which capture market expectations about monetary policy, are pricing in a roughly 15-per-cent chance that the Bank of Canada raises interest rates this week, according to Refinitiv data. That’s down from around 40 per cent before the CPI report. Of 32 economists polled by Reuters, 29 expect the central bank to stand pat this week.

A sharp rise in global bond yields in recent months has already pushed up borrowing costs for households, businesses and governments.

Mr. Macklem told reporters two weeks ago that higher bond yields don’t necessarily preclude further rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. But other central bankers, including top officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve, have argued in recent weeks that higher long-term rates may be a proxy for more central bank moves.

“Make no mistake, the recent rise in bond yields is indeed a substitute for a rate hike,” Royce Mendes, head of macro strategy at Desjardins, wrote in a note to clients. “So while data on businesses and households has been mixed, there’s little question that financial conditions have tightened enough to offset any unanticipated strength in the economy.”

The Bank of Canada has raised interest rates 10 times since March, 2022, in the most aggressive campaign of monetary-policy tightening in decades. After two rate hikes over the summer, it held its policy rate steady in September but left the door open to additional rate hikes if inflation remains high and the economy doesn’t slow as much as expected.

Economists have been surprised by how resilient the Canadian economy has been to the interest-rate shocks over the past year and a half. However, the evidence is increasingly clear that higher borrowing and debt-service costs are taking a toll.

Gross domestic product contracted slightly in the second quarter and appears to have flatlined through the summer. The housing market has entered another slump, and the unemployment rate has moved up since the spring – albeit from a low starting point – while job vacancies have fallen.

“In contrast to the clouds of uncertainty hanging over the inflation outlook, we see considerably less ambiguity around the near-term path for GDP growth,” a group of Toronto-Dominion Bank rate strategists, led by Robert Both and Andrew Kelvin, wrote in a note to clients.

“The growth outlook has weakened substantially since the [central] bank published its July Monetary Policy Report, and while our base case remains a soft(ish) landing, there is very little to cushion against further growth shocks,” they said.

The Bank of Canada will publish a new economic forecast alongside its rate decision on Wednesday. Mr. Macklem said two weeks ago that the bank was “not going to be forecasting a serious recession.”

The bank’s most recent forecast from July shows economic growth stalling through the remainder of 2023 and the first half of next year. It projects inflation won’t return to two per cent until the middle of 2025.

While the economy appears to be shifting into a lower gear, analysts expect Mr. Macklem to maintain a hawkish tone on Wednesday, keeping the possibility of further rate hikes on the table. That’s because several key indicators the central bank is watching to determine future inflation aren’t co-operating.

Average hourly wages are growing at around five per cent annually, a pace that Mr. Macklem says is “not consistent” with price stability. Meanwhile, Canadian businesses continue to increase prices more frequently and by larger amounts than is normal. And both consumers and companies expect inflation will remain well above the bank’s two-per-cent target for some time – a belief that can feed into inflation itself.