EARNINGS, DISTRIBUTION INCREASES

KEEP ROLLING IN!

Monday mornning begins with news leftover from Friday night. First of Buckeye Partners (BPL) announces earnings and a distribution increase. The market ran the stock over 50 bucks ahead of this so will we see buy the rumor sell the news? Also similar news for Buckeye Holdings (BGH). Next on the list is Sunoco Logistics (SXL) which does the same thing and Magellan Midstream Partners hikes its distribution and will announce earnings on Wednesday. This morning we got earnings and a distribution hike from Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) and they also provided 2007 guidance which i am guessing is in line with what is going on in the coal industry. We'll see what the market says.


It might not be a pretty day for Eagle Rock Partners(EROC) as its has announced earnings and a distribution but it also lowered its outlook for 2007. Raymond James downgrades the stock this morning.


Earnings for Valero LP (VLI) will be out later today. Stock had pre-announced weeks ago that it would come in below estimates. The stock was at 56 then...its over 58 now. If we get a distribution hike this one breaks back over 60 for the first time since 2005.


We have pressure on Crude oil this morning and natural gas is down as well. Ten year rates have been rallying back toward 4.90% but so far it has had no impact on the MLP index which is sitting just ticks below an all time high.

I'm not sure why we're seeing the divergence here. One view could be that distribution increases are growing faster than the pace of rate rises and that 4.90 is priced in. I would have to0 trhink that if rates start to head back over 5% that this would be a problem short term. On the other hand...10 year rates have tended to move higher ahead of fed meetings and then dropping immediately afterward. We'll see if pattern repeats this week as the fed meets.

Finally i recommend this thread that was on the Kinder Morgan Partners yahoo message board. "Abter1" posts info on A.G. Edwards and MLPS and it is followed up by a post by the always diligent CHARTNY who cruches the numbers for us. I don't want to give it all away here but its really worth the readthrough!