ITS ABOUT EMPLOYMENT (AGAIN) AND 8000

Debate on the board and worry sprung up yesterday as frustration has developed over the MLP index relative underperformance over the last 2 weeks. Mr Pipes chimes in (couldn't resist)

Just a disgusting performance from the MLP sector the last few days (weeks).
Massive strength across the board and MLP's can only manage sidewyas action.

And we have Steve who is feeling a bit dire these days.

And what's worse is the fact that while the major averages gave up a 25% of their gain on the close, the AMZ lost 1/2 of its gain. My own portfolio gain was 4% at the high today, but closed up less than 2%. Most of the issues closed much closer to their lows than their highs. I agree. Disgusting.

You'd think that mark-to-market easing would help the MLPs by virtue of the fact that banks would have an easier time lending to them.

So what do we make of all of this? Well i thought we should take a step back from the day to day action and look at this on the weekely charts. The picture here is still not very pretty.




Neither chart inspires confidence really as both remain under their moving averages. However repair jobs have to start somewhere. The mlp weekly chart still looks better than the dow chart. This rally that started on the dow at 6400 and on the mlp index at 165 are both still within the context of their bottoms. At least so far its nothing more than a rally with a lot of headroom. Resistence is above us and the test will come when we get there and pull back. MLPS did well in the first quarter so we could be seeing nothing more than rotation out of the very few winners and into the sexy specs. Look at tech stocks. They have been foaming at the mouth in here. So i still say lets not read too much into this bit of relative stalling in here.

We got above 8000 on the dow yesterday which was nice to see. Futures are a little higher this morning ahead of what will be ugly employment numbers. No corporate developements and no upgrades or downgrades.

A number of mlps are pushing up against 6 month highs and some are closing in on 52 week highs. This certainly is a positive technical developement. More on this later. No corporate developements this morning and no upgrades or downgrades so far. Crude is up a few pennies this morning as that complex continues to move lock step with equities.