EARNINGS ROUNDUP / CONOCOPHILLIPS

Signaling that Big Oil’s heyday is over for now, ConocoPhillips posted an enormous fourth-quarter loss, driven by $34 billion in asset write-downs and plunging crude prices. It also gave a dire forecast for the next couple of years.

Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Mulva said the nation’s third-largest oil company was preparing for a “significant, multiyear recession.”

The Houston-based company’s net income for the October-December period amounted to a loss of $21.37 a share, compared with a profit of $4.4 billion, or $2.71 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 18% to $44.5 billion.

Excluding the write-downs and other one-time items, however, adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter were $1.9 billion, or $1.28 a share -- 6 cents better than the consensus Wall Street estimate of Thomson Reuters.

ConocoPhillips shares rose 65 cents to $50.16.