STAIR-STEP PATTERN AGAIN. A TOP?

Mon day morning and we have another weekly adventure ahead of us. We finished last week down as the last of the ex-distribtions worked their way through (barring the one or two still pending) . We have hit a wall at 250 on the index and we could still venture down to the moving averages below. We've done that before in this rally phase so it would be no surprise if that were to happen. Those support lines are not that far below us so it would not be that painful if we went there. Those points have been buy areas this year and there are no indications that has changed.


Some news drivers this morning as earnings are out from Regency Partners (RGNC) and we also have numbers from Atlas Energy Resources (ATN) which is increasing its reserve estimates from Marcellus shale. Wachovia is downgrading DCP Midstream to market perform from outpeform in upgrade downgrade land. So there are some individual drivers that will impact these mlps. The moves have been to buy the rumour sell the news on many mlps in this quarterly cycle. No premarket moves at this time.

Stock futures are a little lower this morning. Oil is also a little lower and natgas is a little higher. We have the tropics being watched as activitiy is beginning to develope, although it is far away from the Gulf of Mexico. Also computer models are showing increasing tropical activity over the next few weeks although who knows about the specifics. Nat gas will hopefully have something to trade higher on since nothing else seems to work.