While many office workers were remote this week, the market had its worst week since 2008. This led to another week of staggering losses in midstream and oil prices. MLPs actually outperformed utilities and the DJIA this week and were roughly inline with the S&P 500 decline.
The selling, whether forced or not, gave way to some bounces late in the week for midstream stocks, but it wasn’t enough to avoid another double-digit decline week for the indexes.
Decisive action by TRGP on its dividend, after years of inaction, was met with a positive market reaction. Expect others to announce distribution cuts in the coming weeks to help stabilize balance sheets as we limp along in these uncertain times.
With oil prices at their lowest levels in more than 18 years, it seems like we all know the outlook for production and volume growth directionally, but specifics remain dependent on the duration of the economic shutdown and the willingness of OPEC and Russia to step back in to support oil prices. Bank revolvers will be redetermined in the coming month and we have a good sense of the direction that will go, but it’s uncertain how willing banks will be to offer time to cure deficiency payments.
In the absence of clarity, selling has been relentless. There is a floor to valuation, especially for the country’s large irreplaceable pipeline systems. But that system includes upstream-oriented assets that will see declines in capacity, and discerning quality within midstream is not a priority for the market at the moment.
More Records
This week, the AMZ added 3 more top 10 worst days to the list, followed by 2 top 10 best days ever. Summing it all up made for the 4th worst week ever, even after bouncing 27% since Wednesday’s close.
The AMNA added 3 more top 10 worst days to its list, followed by 2 top 10 best days ever. The end result was the second worst week ever for the AMNA, even after bouncing 20% since Wednesday’s close.
6 of the top 10 all time worst days for the AMZ and 5 of the 10 worst days for AMNA have happened in the last 3 weeks.
While not nearly enough to combat the losses, we have had 3 of the top 10 best days ever for AMZ and AMNA in the last 2 weeks.
4 of the 10 worst weeks ever for AMZ, all in a row. For AMNA 3 of the last 4 weeks have been the top 3 worst weeks on record for that index.
What Would Clark Griswold Do?
I had a long road trip planned for Spring Break this year. Those plans have been canceled, like little league baseball, the school play, my 20-year high school reunion, and a bunch of other stuff. There are many fun road trip movies to watch though, including the classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation” featuring Clark Griswold and his family.
Clark’s move in each film is (1) to start off with a bunch of enthusiasm about a trip or family gathering, (2) have none of it go according to plan, (3) have a mental breakdown, and (4) somehow have it turns out ok at the end, after lowering his expectations. I think we can all related to nothing going to plan after this first full week of quarantine mode, with bored kids, anxious spouses and frustrating technology.
While it’s not Christmas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has perhaps the Clark meltdown that is most applicable to how it feels to be invested in midstream (or really any equity) at the moment. Late in the film, Clark gets that wild look in his eye and snaps.
Because of movie magic, after Clark cracks up, things always sort of come together for him and he’s able to have a family moment like he’s been trying to have the whole film. I’m not saying I expect similar magic to solve the market overnight, but it does feel hard to picture things getting worse from here. Many of us probably would have said that 20% ago (or last week), too, which is the challenge in picking bottoms amidst this daily volatility. We can only try to be like Clark and soldier on.
