Subject: Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?
BUY WEAKNESS?


Commodities – Exxon signalled that sharply lower oil refining profits and weakness across its
businesses would reduce its 4th quarter earnings by about USD1.75bn from the prior quarter.
Upstream asset sales would benefit results by about USD400m, but impairments would cost
USD600m. Consensus is for the company to post a profit of USD1.76 a share for Q4, down
from USD2.48 a year earlier. Exxon’s earnings snapshot signalled profits “well below
consensus”, RBC said, with “significant headwinds” in refining, which Exxon said would cut
earnings by between USD300m and USD700m from Q3 levels, with timing lopping off another
USD500m to USD900m.