Well we finished off the lows but still down hard for the day as we closed a little over 314.
After the market closed Linn Energy announces a small purchase of 20 million.

I have been asked to address 2 issues...one regarding Oneok LP (OKS) and why it was down hard tody...at one point down over 4 points. They had earnings out yesterday and they increased guidance for this year,. For whatever reason they nailed this one to the wall but i will tell you that there were a bunch of trades well above the 4pm close...close to the 66 level in after hours.

As per the socialists in congress and the mlp tax change. Lou posted about this in the comments section earlier and i have responded there and here for those who can't find it. This is my never to be humble opinion of course.

First off the tax change as written does not effect MLPs in our group but was written specifically for the blackstones of the world. Mr Schumer is a schrewd man. He knows that wall street is against this tax change and by suggesting that all mlps be taxed this way he is effectivly killing the proposal. Changing the tax structure for MLPS in the oil and gas industry will bring every congressman from those states screaming against this proposal.
Actually the biggest losers today were Oneok LP on an earnings disappointment and Energy Transfer Partners and Energy Transfer Equity as they deal with the FERC issue. Those had a big impact on the mlp index. The other big losers were among some of the bigger winners this year like Duke Midstream (DPM) Natural Resource Partners (NRP) among others.

One other thought. If i remember correctly MLPS sold off in August of 2005 as oil made its first run to 80 dollars. In fact MLPS began their selloff around the same time 2 years ago! So perhaps high crude oil is viewed as a problem for some of these companies although i believe they are all hedged effectively. Or we could be seeing selling in a group which is up quite a bit for 2007 and ex distributions etc etc.

Hopefully the bulk of the selling is done and we can build a new base in here somewhere.