Good Saturday evening! A rare weekend post...i had some time on my hands so i thought i blog about a few things.

First off a very informative post by "Factoids" on the ETP message boards about the relative performance of MLPS in q2. And it bears out that the distribution growers far out performed the weaker or non growers. And there is no reason to believe this trend won't continue.

From the Atlas Pipeline Partners message board we have this post from "Athenathetrader" who opines that the fed may not be done and that MLPS may have gotten ahead of themselves. A worthy question as we approach the fed meeting plus all the global problems. One thing i've noticed by watching the tape is that the market's perception now would be that any further rate hikes will spell recession down the road and that could cause a selloff in the overall market. Certainly a possibility. But i will venture to say that the 10 year rate behavior since the beginning of July leads me to think that long rates may have peaked. And if a recession does loom from another fed tightening it will drive long rates lower...perhaps back to 4.75 or even 4.50%. I would argue that this would cause the entire group to continue to rally...counter to the overall market trend. The AMZ MLP index has risen 15 points in the last 6 weeks and i think we will challenge the old high between 270 and 275 in the next 2 months. To me we have been in a bear market in MLPS since last August and it may have ended in late June whent the 10 year peaked at 5.25%. If i am right you should be invested in the MLPS that have raised distributions the most and avoid those that have been flat.

I am also a believer in watching market reactions to events to determine whether something is a buying opportunity or not. Crosstex Energy (XTXI) was downgraded to neutral friday by Goldman Sachs. I am guessing that once it hit 100 Goldman decided it was time to take some money off the table. I did not see anything saying what their reason was for the downgrade...so i'm thinking is simply based on price and the recent price appreciation. Notice the stock opened flat...dropped 4 points intraday and rallied back to a 1 point loss. I'll wait a day or two to confirm this but the stock action tells me that longer term...Goldman is going to be wrong.

Monday after the close we have earnings from Copano Energy (CPNO) and the way that stock is behaving the numbers should be impressive. They just raised their distribution 7 cents to 67 cents for the recent quarter or 2.68 annual. Earnings could propel this stock price even higher...mid 50s not out of the question short term.

Weather in NYC much better as we've had a beautiful Saturday of sunshine and low humidity. No tropical storms around as Chris has fallen apart. But the hurricane season is still very young. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and please feel free to post comments on anything i've written. I've noticed that the Oneok LP board is not working. Cactus Jack (CJ) please feel free to blog your usual weekend news posts and ideas in the comments section or email them to me and i will gladly post them on the blog to be open for all general reactions and opinions.