| West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery lost 92 cents to $76.99 on the New York Merc, while Brent for July lost 24 cents to $81.62 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12.30 to WTI, down from a discount of $11.90. Natural gas for July added two cents to $2.59. The TSX energy index added 3.59 points to close at 300.13. Oil prices notched a weekly loss, and their largest monthly loss of the year so far, on weakening demand data in the United States and China. Bulls are pinning their hopes on Sunday's OPEC+ meeting. Reuters is reporting that the group will consider extending all of its current production cuts, including the ones currently set to expire on June 30, to year-end and potentially into 2025. Here in Canada, oil sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) added 22 cents to $28.41 on 12.9 million shares. Several of its insiders have been having a pleasant week engaging in some option flipping. According to new SEDI filings, executive vice-president and chief operating officer Keith Chiasson exercised options to buy a total of 476,879 shares this week at an average price of $11.47, and then promptly sold the shares at an even $28, reaping a tidy profit of $7.8-million. In a similar if smaller-scale fashion, Andrew Dahlin (executive vice-president, gas) netted himself $595,239, while Gary Molnar (senior vice-president, legal) reeled in $563,020. Jeff Lawson (senior vice-president, corporate development) set himself apart by doing some actual buying. He picked up 2,000 more shares this week, having already bought 6,000 shares earlier this month, for a total of $221,990. Meanwhile, Cenovus got a pep talk from some cheerleaders, also known as analysts. TD's Menno Hulshof, Jenna Weir and Samuel Babarinde published a research note comparing the "multiple compression potential" of Cenovus and fellow oil sands player Suncor Energy Inc. (SU), up $1.03 to $55.60 on 13.7 million shares. They chose these two because both of them recently held investor days (Cenovus in March and Suncor last week) and promoted multiyear outlooks (Cenovus to 2028 and Suncor to 2026). In the analysts' view, Cenovus's plan stacks up better because it will increase production faster, decrease spending more appreciably and see more "aggressive" share buybacks. They hailed Cenovus as a "top pick" and reiterated their price target of $32. That compares with a "hold" rating on Suncor and a price target of $57, although the analysts tried to take the sting out by praising Suncor's "solid momentum" and "strong leadership." (Their employer, TD, owns shares of both companies and has various financial ties to them, including as a market-maker.) |