Merrill Lynch is on the horn as it starts Energy Transfer Partners at a buy while Raymond James downgrades Martin Midstream to market perform from strong buy.

MLPS opened higher and the index is back at new all time high territory up nearly .70 so far. Markwest Energy (MWE) and Markwest Hydrocarbon (MWP) continue to rip the cover off the ball..the former up 1 and change ...the latter up a nice fraction. Energy Transfer also up nearly 75 cents on the Merril coverage. Fractional gains elsewhere in most issues.

On the downside Martin Midstream off 1 on the downgrade noted above...Natural Resource Partners down nearly 1...no news there. A few other minor losers but nothing out of the ordinary.