Reports

There have been few surprises in domestic producers’ earnings reports for the fourth quarter and all of 2001. Despite record production in the first half– pushed during a high commodity price cycle — U.S. companies saw their fortunes fall along with commodity prices in the last half of the year, and they paid dearly for it in the fourth quarter. Apache Corp. reported Thursday that its fourth quarter earnings fell 70% compared to 2000, and leading independent Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which already had to restate its third quarter earnings to include a $1.1 billion charge, said Thursday its final quarter also saw a sharp earnings decline.

San Diego, CA-based Sempra Energy Thursday reported unaudited 2001 earnings of $518 million, or $2.52/diluted share, compared to $429 million, or $2.06/diluted share in 2000, a 22% increase, including a bigger share from its nonutility companies. Revenues were $8 billion for the full year in 2001, compared with $7 billion the previous year — a 14% rise.

Standard & Poor’s said last week that 2001 set a record for corporate defaults, with 211 companies worldwide — 162 in the United States — defaulting on $115.4 billion worth of debt. The old record was set a year earlier, when 132 companies defaulted on $42.3 billion of debt, said the credit ratings agency. S&P expects the U.S. economy to bottom out in the first quarter, with the default rate peaking near 11% by this summer and then “trailing off” by the end of 2002.

Standard & Poor’s said Monday that 2001 set a record for corporate defaults, with 211 companies worldwide — 162 in the United States — defaulting on $115.4 billion worth of debt. The old record was set a year earlier, when 132 companies defaulted on $42.3 billion of debt, said the credit ratings agency. S&P expects the U.S. economy to bottom out in the first quarter, with the default rate peaking near 11% by this summer and then “trailing off” by the end of 2002.

El Paso Corp.’s quick response to negative reports about its off-balance sheet transactions may have stopped its stock from sliding even further Tuesday, finally closing down almost 7% to $39.17. The stock had slid to almost $36 early in the day after rumors surfaced that the Houston-based company had conducted related-party deals similar to those conducted by bankrupt Enron Corp.

Following Enron Corp.’s inevitable Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Sunday, reports of exposure to possible losses due to the energy giant’s failure continue to come in from companies and financial institutions around the world, reflecting the broad reach both of the company’s business and its stock.

NiSource Inc. reported net income of $160.7 million, or $0.78 per basic share, for the nine months ended Sept. 30 versus net income of $155 million, or $1.27 per basic share for the same period last year. But the two are not comparable, NiSource said, because of its acquisition Nov. 1, 2000 of Columbia Energy Group.

Among the sea of red ink flooding the U.S. economy’s third-quarter earnings reports, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp., the merchant power plant developer/operator, Thursday stood out as a glaring exception, reporting a 102% increase in net income for the quarter ($320.8 million versus $158.5 million for the same quarter in 2000) and a 292% increase in quarterly revenues ($2.9 billion versus $744.8 million for year-earlier period). Diluted earnings/share were up 80% to 88 cents for the quarter.

Despite lower earnings due to a one-time charge tied to its abandoning a natural gas distribution project in Nova Scotia, San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s CEO on Thursday raised the bar for shorter and longer-term earnings growth — principally in the nonutility businesses. Sempra took a one-time, after-tax charge of $25 million, or 12 cents/diluted share, for giving up its natural gas distribution franchise in Nova Scotia.