What's going on?

Big Oil�s only getting bigger: Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported staggering results on Friday.

What does this mean?

Exxon and Chevron are the latest big energy firms to report piled-up profit this year. Exxon, for starters, boasted its strongest quarter in its 152-year history. The oil and gas behemoth�s earnings nearly tripled from the same time last year to hit a more-than-expected $20 billion, pumped up by extra production and bumper natural gas prices. Chevron�s results weren�t too shabby either: it almost doubled its profit to hit the $11-billion mark, just shy of the record earnings it made the quarter before. Investors celebrated by sending the two companies� shares higher on Friday, meaning both stocks have now outperformed the wider market by over 70% this year.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Mo money, mo problems.
Exxon�s shareholders will be seeing green, despite their tolerance for dirty fuel: the firm�s increasing its dividend by 3%, which ��when layered on top of its $15 billion-a-year share buyback program ��means shareholders should see an immense $30 billion cash back this year. But the US president might have something to say about that: he recently accused Exxon of making �more money than God�, and wants the firm (and its heavy-hitting rivals) to invest more in production, which should lower prices at the pump. He might have a point: Exxon�s long-term spending is locked just short of $23 billion a year, 30% below its pre-Covid levels.

For markets: Big Tech�s old news.
Big Tech will be watching Big Oil with envy: tech giants have held the S&P 500�s top spots for the past decade, but their worse-than-impressive earnings have shaken up the seating chart. Exxon, for one, has overtaken Meta�s market value and is back in the index�s top ten stocks for the first time since 2019. After all, Exxon�s predicted to make over $50 billion in profit this year, more than Amazon and Meta combined (tweet this).