On August 8th, Manulife Financial announced that it recorded core earnings of 1.7 billion Canadian dollars in the second quarter of 2024, an increase of 6% from the second quarter of 2023. The company continued to maintain strong growth momentum in the second quarter of 2024, with a year-on-year growth of 6%, reflecting the strong business growth that completely offset the impact of GMT. The core profit of the Asian business increased by 40%, due to the continued business growth momentum and updates of actuarial methods and assumptions in the second half of 2023. The core profit of the global wealth and asset management business increased by 23%, which was due to the bullish market impact, positive net inflows, and favorable tax adjustments. In Canada, strong growth in group insurance business and favorable net insurance experience drove a 7% increase in core earnings in the second quarter of 2024. In the United States, unfavorable net insurance experience and a decrease in the core earnings due to the long-term care reinsurance trade disclosed in December 2023 caused a 11% drop in core earnings in the second quarter of 2024. In the enterprise and other business segment, core earnings decreased by 138 million Canadian dollars, reflecting the impact of GMT, increased capital interest allocated to operating segments, and rising employee expenses. $OXY.US$ The second quarter profit announced on Wednesday exceeded Wall Street's expectations. This is the first performance report of the company since its acquisition of the Permian Basin-based producer CrownRock for $12 billion earlier this month.

According to the data, the adjusted profit of the company for the second quarter ending on June 30 was $1.03 per share, while analysts' average expectation was 77 cents per share.

The oil and gas company benefited from increased oil production in Colorado and higher crude oil prices. Its actual global crude oil price is $79.89 per barrel, a 5% increase from the same period last year.

Quarterly production increased to 1.26 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, higher than analysts' estimated 1.24 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Both the Permian Basin and the Gulf of Mexico production were at the high end of the company's guidance range.

However, due to falling prices, the pre-tax profit of its chemical sector in the second quarter decreased by 32% year-on-year to $0.296 billion.

Looking ahead, Occidental Petroleum has raised its oil and gas production target for this year from about 1.25 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to about 1.315 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, including CrownRock's assets. Output in the third quarter is expected to increase by about 0.14 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to 1.39 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The acquisition of CrownRock consolidated Occidental Petroleum's position in the Permian Basin. However, the deal also raised Occidental Petroleum's long-term debt to about $28 billion, which is a considerable amount, especially for a company that spent several years cleaning up its balance sheet after acquiring Anadarko at a high cost in 2019.

Occidental Petroleum reiterated its plan to use the cash generated from the acquisition and up to $6 billion in assets to repay debt by 2026. The company expects to sell $0.97 billion in assets this year and reiterated its plan to repay $4.5 billion in short-term debt by August 2025.

Occidental Petroleum also raised its capital expenditure guidance for 2024 by $0.4 billion to $6.9 billion.