EL PASO OFFERS SHARES

Thats the big move this morning as El Paso Partners (EPB) is selling units to finance the purchase of assets it announced yesterday. The stock is down 1.30 in the premarket. The company has the currency so it might as well take advantage of it. Otherwise its a quiet morning on options expiration day. MLPS closed up over 305 on the index as a last minute rally pushed prices up into the close. So now its all about the weekend. No upgrades or downgrades this morning. Markets overall are flat into the open and usually expiration day tends to be relative quiet from the standpoint of moves. Still there are end of quarter pressures that are going to show up soon and i would think there will be a rush to own mlps as they have done so well. But that is just a very short term distortion.

Crude is down and nat gas is up and the nat gas rally appears to be something that might last for awhile. 5 dollar nat gas is probably much more supportive to mlps unhedged to energy prices. Its sure better than 3 dollar gas.

Speaking of gas..heading out to buy a new grill...back right after the open.