AND THE RALLY GOES ON!

MLP MARKET LEADERSHIP

AND WILL WE SEE SPLITS?

Good Tuesday morning on this the most evil of days...tax day! My fed and state (NY) were 165 pages thick and cost 4 dollars each to mail. I've seen thinner novels published. Anyway better to make money and pay taxes than not to make money and not pay taxes. MLPS this morning start today 2 points higher than yesterday and at the usual morning perch at new all time highs. I think its clear that MLPS are among the market leaders in this rally phase that broadly began last October. Even the 500 pt down day in Feburary did nothing but produce a tiny blip for our group that you can barely find on the chart. So now we are beginning to see the distribution announcements for Q1 so we'll be watching for how the stocks react to earnings and distribution increases and whether those increases are priced in...or not. Also i think its time we see some stock splits..Hiland LP (HLND) looks like a candidate for a 2-1 split which would take it out of the appointment only trading list. Maybe its time for Oneok LP (OKS) which has gone from 40 to near 70. Natural Resource Partners (NRP) and Calumet (CLMT) also may be candidates. I am just putting the idea out there not that they really make any difference in the long run but it is something to trade on.

CPI will be dictating the pace this morning in the overall market which is a little softer pre-open. Tortoise Energy Infrastructure is getting its target upped by Stiefel Nicholas from 43 to 43.50 (why bother...50 cents? ). Otherwise the upgrade downgrade list is MLP free.

Please note that last night we got distribution announcements from Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) and Duncan Partners (DEP). Duncan is a new issue and the amount was pro-rated for the quarter. I posted about it along with a correction so scroll down or read it here.