SEPTEMBER LOOMS!

Last day of August in a month where mlps pretty much went nowhere. MLPS are down off their highs at the beginning of the month when we got to 332 on the index; we are at 322 this morning. The dow industrials were at 10,700 at the beginning of the month and we are under 10,200 this morning before the open.

Question is whether that platform we are building right now is a launching pad or a diving board? We'll find out soon enough. 9800 held and i guess the fact that everyone is talking about all these bearish patterns like black swans and Hindenberg indicators is probably a good thing. Still its never easy picking which way we're going in theses short term moves.

Last week we saw the debut of the AMZ MLP index etf which is a simplified mlp etf. However read the piece about the tradeoff of getting a 1099 vs a K-1. Being taxed like a corporation could hurt longer term performance. Frankly turbo tax makes putting in k-1s so easy. Why trade off performance just because you need to hit a few extra keys on the keyboard?

Went to bed last night with stock futures up over 7 but they sold off overnight as the dollar rallies and rates fell. Stock futures are a little lower this morning ahead of the open. Crude is down but nat gas is up. Rates are down as well. Speaking of rates 2.50 on the 10 year and 3.50 on the 30 year provided a place for rates to bounce after the unrelenting decline that began in April when the 10 year was sitting at 4%. Not going to make any predicitions about where we go from here but stocks and yields have been moving together. No corporate headlines to speak of this morning. Nothing on the upgrade downgrade list either.

Hurricane Earl is becoming a major hurricane but its headed for the east coast and not the gulf coast so there is no energy impact. The hurricane is forecast to stay offshore...at least for now although weather computer models have shifted a little further west. All the latest from the National Hurricane Center.