STRADDLING THE TOP OF THE RANGE

I still think the path of least resistence is higher as we seem to have been in this sawtooth looking rally. 2 steps foward 1 step back seems to moving us along to higher lows. 206 is the short term ceiling we have to get through. The high yield chart is mirroring this. So let us continue along this route to see where it takes us.

Not much on the news front in MLP land this morning nor do we have any upgrades or downgrades. We should be getting the bulk of distribution announcements in the next week or so with earnings reports scattered throughout. And its only .005 but El Paso Partners (EPB) boosts the distribution.

One of the things i will be curious about will be what happens to MLPS that have cut payouts last quarter and what they will do this quarter. Also guidance from companies that have cut the payouts completely will at least give us an idea of whats coming down the road. Breitburn (BBEP) was up yesterday after cutting the payout the day before and that could be due to the company guidance being ok. Maybe the view is the payout will be gone only for a short time and that the company is doing the right thing. Could be the reason the stock didn't collapse to a one handle like Crosstex (XTEX) and a few others. Crude this morning is a little higher ahead of inventory numbers. Stock futures are lower this morning but not collapsing by any means.

This morning i will be on the phone with Charles Schwab as they screwed up my 990t filing on my ira. I hold and trade mlps in my ira and UBTI has never been an issue. They used the wrong numbers on the filing so it says i owe a nice chunk of taxes. Looks to me like they pulled the wrong number off the K-1. Isn't that just special.