MLPS REMAIN ON THE MAT

The patient is breathing to some degree but headwinds continue. Energy continues to fall with crude down to 45 dollars and some change this morning. We will soon have to entertain the question of which mlps are going to have issues regarding the February distribtuion payouts and how safe they are. There are 2 ways to look at this. Cuts are priced in...how deep those cuts are may not be. Also i'm sure distribution cuts are priced into some issues who will not have to cut next quarter. In those instances the unit prices could offer opportunity.


Through all of this the bottoming process continues and we have just come off 2 up days from Monday's big down day. And we are looking at another down start this morning after ECB and BOE rate cuts of 75 and 100 basis points respectively. Dupont, Merck and AT&T among others coming out about how bad things are. Jobless claims are horrible. And so forth and so on. The market the last 2 days has been acting like we may be at the point of having priced all this stuff into the equation.

Back to MLP land...no corporate developments and nothing on the upgrade downgrade list. Its more of the same tail wagging the dog in here. So bring on the open and another daily adventure.