What’s next for Nvidia and how to grab opportunities from a possible oil pipeline bottleneck. Plus, TSX stock price target hikes. The Financial Post explores those stories and more in The Week in Stocks.

Stock of the week: Alphabet Inc.

Google parent

Alphabet Inc.

(Nasdaq:GOOG) defied the selloff mood stalking markets this week, which are partly based on fears the

artificial intelligence

trade is overdone. The tech giant gained nearly nine per cent on news its AI offering could be gaining on ChatGPT after Google launched Gemini 3, a new version of its large language model, in mid-November. “We expect the updates to drive higher engagement of GOOG’s AI offerings, extending trends from our October ’25 U.S. consumer survey which suggest steadily rising Gemini and AI Mode MAU (monthly active user) penetration since July ’25 versus more stable user trends at ChatGPT,” John Blackledge, an analyst at TD Cowen, said in a note. Shares of Alphabet also got a boost on news that legendary investor

Warren Buffett

, known to be tech-wary, took a position in the stock, Bloomberg said. Analysts appear to have mostly stuck with price targets, hiked when Alphabet reported earnings at the end of October. The company has a 12-month price target of US$322.68. Shares traded Friday at the the US$302 level.

Keeping score

More ways to play Round 2 of projects of national interest

Analysts at the Bank of Nova Scotia dug further into the second set of major infrastructure projects announced last week and beefed up their initial list of 12 stock recommendations. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced six new projects of national interest, adding to the initial five proposals set out in mid-September. The new projects include the construction of an electricity transmission corridor and the completion of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in northern British Columbia, as well as a critical mineral mine in New Brunswick, a nickel mine in Ontario, a graphite mine in Quebec and a hydro line to the Arctic. Yukon-based Snowline Gold Corp. (TSX:SGD) could benefit from a lower energy supplied by the from B.C. electricity project, Scotiabank analysts said. Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) could be a player in the LNG terminal, possibly helping build a pipeline to supply the project, they said. Benefits from the terminal could also spill over to Alberta gas companies, including AltaGas Ltd. (TSX:ALA), Keyera Corp. (TSX:KEY) and Pembina Pipeline Corp. (TSX: PPL), while TC Energy Corp. (TSX:TCL) could get pulled in on “further large-scale pipeline investments in the region,” Scotiabank’s analyst team said. The analysts also singled out several engineering and construction stocks, such as AtkinsRealis Group Inc. (TSX:ATRL), Stantec Inc. (TSX:STN), WSP Global Inc. (TSX:WSP), and equipment dealers including Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT) and Toromont Industries Ltd. (TSX:TIH). There could be upside for transportation companies, such as Canadian National Railway Co. (TSX:CNR) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (TSX:CP), they said.

Click

here

to review the list of companies from Scotiabank’s initial note on the projects of national interest.

What’s next for Nvidia?

Nvidia Corp.

(Nasdaq:NVDA) was the black sheep of the

Magnificent Seven megacap tech companies

for a spell this week, falling the most of the group of stocks after it gave up gains from better than expected earnings. Fears of a market bubble in artificial intelligence returned quickly and investors worried that further rate cuts by the United States Federal Reserve might be on hold. Shares of Nivdia soared five per cent after it released earnings that showed it was on track to beat sales estimates by more than US$3 billion. However, those gains evaporated and the stock was down just over four per cent on the week and nearly 14 per cent from its October high. Despite market jitters, 26 analysts raised their price targets for Nvidia by an average of 11 per cent, Bloomberg said. The average 12-month price target for the world’s most valuable company is US$250.26 versus US$240.76 prior to the release of the earnings. Shares of Nvidia traded Friday at the US$180 level.

Opportunities may flow from a looming oil pipeline bottleneck

Canada could face an oil pipeline bottleneck as early as the third quarter of 2028. That is the base case scenario laid out by a team of analysts at TD Cowen. “Expedited pipeline expansions could push this into the mid-2030s, but timelines already feel tight and visibility remains low,” analysts said in a research paper that also looked at three other scenarios for oil transportation. These included a “plausible” 820,000 million barrels per day (b/d) pipeline and a blue-sky scenario for a new one million b/d conduit.  For the moment, TD analysts are sticking with their baseline scenario for a late-decade bottleneck and ranked Athabasca Oil Corp. (TSX:ATH), Strathcona Resources Ltd. (TSX:SCR) and Imperial Oil Ltd. (TSX:IMO), in that order, as being the most positively free-cash flow sensitive as long as the price differential between Western Canada Select (WCS) and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) remains around the US$14 per barrel level until the third quarter of 2028. However, if either upside scenario comes to pass, TD envisions a pricing “tailwind” that will shrink the differential and lift the boats “for all western Canadian producers well into the next decade.” In that case, TD’s top three picks are Cenovus Energy Inc. (TSX:CVE), Canadian Natural Resources Inc. (TSX:CNQ) and Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). TD also downgraded some stocks, including South Bow Corp. (TSX:SOBO) and Gibson Energy Inc. (TSX:GEI) on the idea that oil storage companies benefit more from wider differentials between WCS and WTI.

Analyst upgrades

  • CIBC Capital Markets upgraded the price targets for all of Canada’s major banks excluding their own, which they can’t cover, in the lead-up to earnings reports by the Big Six financial institutions in a few weeks. The price target for Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) rose to $220 from $208 with shares currently trading at the $210 level. Meanwhile, Bank of Montreal’s (TSX:BMO) target went from $180 to $192; BMO was trading Friday at the $170 level. Toronto-Dominion Bank’s (TSX:TD) price target jumped to $122 from $112 and shares were trading Friday at $115. Bank of Nova Scotia’s (TSX:BNS) price target rose to $100 from $93 and shares were trading Friday at nearly $94. CIBC hiked the price target for National Bank of Canada (TSX:NA) to $166 from $154; National was trading Friday near the $162 level.
  • BMO Capital Markets analyst Jeremy McCrea hiked his price target for oil and natural gas explorer Tamarack Valley Energy (TSX:TVE) to $11 from $9 on the premise that “Tamarack has been one of the better performing names as investors embrace the high-return nature of the Clearwater.”  Clearwater is an oil project in Alberta. Tamarack shares traded Friday near the $8 level.
  • National Bank of Canada Capital Markets hiked its price target for CES Energy Solutions Corp. (TSX:CEU) to $13.00 from $10.50 on “deleveraging and return of capital,” analyst Dan Payne said in a note. CES traded Friday at the $11.50 level.
  • BMO raised its price target for Metro Inc. (TSX:MRU) to $115 from $110 on the grocer’s strength in the discount sector. Shares of Metro traded Friday around the $100 level. The latest earnings from Metro and Loblaw Cos. Ltd. indicated that shoppers continue to hunt for deals in the grocery aisles.
  • These are the TSX stocks analysts say are poised to gain from Carney’s Round 2 of nation-building projects
  • Here are 6 TSX winners and losers as earnings bonanza keeps rolling out

Every week, the Financial Post breaks down the most interesting developments in the week’s world of investing, from top performers to surprising analyst calls and stocks to have on your radar.

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