OH THE NOISE!!!!

We're hearing (and seeing in some cases) sound and fury about the S&P possible downgrade of US soverign debt but whether it signifies nothing or something remains to be seen. On fist glance yesterday interest rates sky rocketed and markets drop nearly 250 on the dow. Then as the day wore on bonds rallied and stocks came off the lows on the notion that the threat of a downgrade was a good thing because it give politicans politcal cover to actually do something in Washington. Its hard to see how S&P has any credibility given the fact that they (and Moody's) stood by while banks sold mortgage debt with AAA ratings that turned out to be worthless. The Atlantic pretty much sums it up in their piece yesterday. And then of course we have those who believe everything is somehow the fault of Republicans. In the end the US can print money as long as they own a printing press. Now the cost of that money is a different issue and Bill Gross of Pimco addressed that yesterday. In the meantime maybe S&P can use their anal-ysis to tell me who is going to win the Kentucky Derby in 2 1/2 weeks.


In the end the cost of money will go higher one way or the other. If the US doesn't raise the debt ceiling, those rates will move up rather quickly. Meantime markets this morning are focusing away from that and looking at earnigns which for the most part are very good. MLPS are quiet this morning so far with no news so far on the tape. Yesterday Transmontaigne (TLP) announced its payout and we will have a symbol change for Atlas LP which was formerly Atlas Holdings (AHD). The new symbol is ATLS which was the old symbol for Atlas Energy which was bought by Chevron. Re-read it if i lost you. Copano (CPNO) announces an expansion of its processing facilities as this MLP continues to perform well. No other headlines so far this morning.

Stock futures are up. Crude is down, nat gas is up, bond yields are higher and Euro markets are higher. Missed this on CNBC last week on what Ray Jimmy thinks about MLPS. The mlp index closed down 2 and change but off the lows. The index remains within a days trade striking distance of new all time highs and the recent trading range just gets tighter and tighter.
350 still holds on the downside and 382-383 is the upside wall. So we march on to the open. Sorry about no posts yesterday. Holy Week, Easter, and a wedding to prepare for!!!