EnCana sheds assets

EnCana sheds assets
The chase by Noah Zivitz:

EnCana's efforts to navigate languishing natural prices top our agenda this morning. Mitsubishi has signed up as a 40% joint-venture partner in EnCana's Cutbank Ridge assets in the Montney for the tidy sum of $2.9 billion. But let's not mistake that as a sign EnCana is plowing full-steam ahead to develop projects. CEO Randy Eresman says it is "abundantly clear that a continued reduction of drilling activity will be required to restore market balance." So EnCana is slashing capital spending to 37 percent below last year's levels.

We'll need to hear what a move like this could mean for gas prices, if others will follow, and explore whether EnCana has other JVs lined up. Oh yes, it looks like earnings came in a little shy of expectations. Paul Bagnell has the early file. We've got reaction from portfolio managers at 10:30 and 11:40.
Price pressures are intensifying in Canada. The loonie added to its gains after Statistics Canada reported the consumer price index advanced 0.5 percent in January. The Bank of Canada's closely-watched core index was a tick above the BoC's target. In a note to clients, BMO says today's CPI is "payback time" after prices were surprisingly low in late 2011. All told, it doesn't look like this will prompt a shift in strategy for the central bank. But we need to consider how Canadians will cope when facing rising prices.

As the world turns in Greece, we await meetings taking place Sunday and Money when eurozone finance ministers meet to determine Athens' fate. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says he'll be in close contact with his German and Greek counterparts over the weekend. I'd like to hear if the sudden resignation of Germany's president will distract Chancellor Merkel from crisis talks. We're hoping to get Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's perspective on the situation just before 11am ET.

While macro talk dominates, we're not losing sight of today's compelling stock stories. Fairfax Financial logged a $771 million loss late yesterday on investment and underwriting losses. CEO Prem Watsa says Fairfax won't back off its equity hedges because the company is "very
concerned" about the economy.

When Watsa talks, investors listen. And there'll be a whole lot of listening to do at 8:30 when Watsa presides over Fairfax's conference call. We'll track it closely.

We're also waiting for earnings from Brookfield Asset Management, Enbridge and Cott. Enbridge boss Pat Daniel joins us at 3:20 to talk numbers and Northern Gateway.
We've got a jam-packed data docket. We're also looking at U.S. CPI data. And we'll get Canadian and U.S. leading indicators this morning, too.

The BNN Source