Month: December 2018

It was a brutal week for stocks, and midstream stocks were trampled underfoot in the stampede for the exit.  Despite underperforming this week, midstream and MLPs (each down 10%) are beating the S&P 500 (-12.5%) for the month so far, which is of little comfort.

In a frustrating week for stocks in general, MLPs finished positive and midstream outperformed again.  Over the last two weeks, MLPs are down 1.1% and midstream is down 2.5%, compared with a 5.8% decline in the S&P 500.  Utilities are up 1.7% over those same two weeks.

It was a short, wild week to start December, with tons of macro action, sparked by tweets, arrests in Canada and OPEC hallway chatter.  Amidst all the volatility and noise, midstream outperformed the S&P 500 and energy stocks broadly.  Oil finished up for a second straight week and appears to have stabilized after OPEC and Russia delivered the goods.  With the OPEC uncertainty put to rest for now, sentiment on midstream appears to be firming.

Midstream traded up this week, but underperformed the best week for the S&P 500 in years. Of the three main buckets of North American midstream, U.S. midstream corporations performed best, MLPs worst. Midstream also underperformed utilities.  Midstream didn’t outperform much of anything, outside of oil and NGL prices.  Powell’s not hawkish comments on Wednesday sparked a broad market rally and a decline in interest rates.