Midstream rallied for a 6th straight week, but this week was different than the prior 5. This week’s rally was led by larger, more integrated players in the U.S. and Canada, not by gathering & processing MLPs. This week was less about bottom fishing or short covering. Broad equity market strength and a 25% oil price gain helped.
Stocks Versus The COVID-19
A few years before “Sleepless in Seattle” and nearly a decade before “You’ve Got Mail”, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starred opposite each other in one of my favorite films of all time: Joe Versus the Volcano (1990). After 600+ posts, I’m actually not sure if I’ve talked about the film here before. It’s sort of quirky, dark comedy that features great vintage Tom Hanks personality.
Incredibly, the film was released on March 9, 1990, exactly 30 years before the worst day in energy stock history. You remember, the day AMZ dropped 27.4% and AMNA dropped 22.2%.
I thought about this movie for a few reasons this week. First, staying at home for these last few months has been challenging in a mind-numbing sort of way that reminded me of the drudgery of Joe’s workplace at the start of the film. I love my job, but I can relate to the opening scenes of the film as I combat the combination of WFH, parenting and teaching school, especially with the barrage of earnings and data points this week. The days just blend together.
The basic plot points are Joe gets diagnosed with a rare uncurable terminal disease called a “Brain Cloud”, then he gets propositioned to jump into a volcano to appease the native population of an island by a rich man seeking to exploit said island for rare minerals. After a stunning lack of due diligence, Joe agrees to do it, eventually making it to the island after nearly dying of thirst and deliriously dancing on a raft made of giant luggage.
“Nobody knows anything. We’ll take this leap, and we’ll see. We’ll jump, and we’ll see. That’s Life.”
Joe leaps into the volcano (with Meg Ryan’s character), and (spoiler alert) the volcano spits them out. Also, the terminal illness was a lie. Joe and his new girlfriend are granted a chance to start fresh, although the film ends with them floating in the middle of the ocean.
This brings me to the second reason I thought of the film this week. Midstream stocks, MLPs in particular, appear to be getting spit out by the Volcano, given yet another chance at life after being left for dead at the end of March. MLPs are up 89% since then, and lowered guidance was more than priced in based on earnings reactions.
Distribution ex-dates this week slowed MLPs down a bit, and gains from here depend heavily on the existence and pace of an economic recovery, but the market is no longer pricing in a terminal illness for the group, which is good.
MLPs
The MLP performances were all about reactions to earnings this week. The market reacted positively to CEQP’s earnings and it gained 30% to lead all MLPs. CEQP closed the week +219% from its 3/30 low, +237% counting the latest distribution. Likewise, earnings were a positive catalyst for USAC, BSM, GEL and NS. It felt like the market was relieved that results, outlook and commentary weren’t worse. The market didn’t react positively to earnings released by SRLP, SHLX, ARLP and WES. Uncertainty loomed large over the future of a few of those worst performers.
GEL repeated in the top 5 week-over-week. BSM and USAC went from bottom 5 last week to top 5 this week. PBFX went from top 5 to bottom 5. On the YTD leaderboard, the top 5 are all down less than 20% and the bottom 5 are all down more than 60%. TCP dropped out of the top 5, replaced by SUN. WES joined the bottom 5, replacing CEQP.
Midstream Corporations
TRGP led all midstream corporations this week, rallying on reduced guidance and commentary on earnings that was not as bad as feared. RTLR was also up double digits. The big three corps OKE, KMI and WMB rounded out the top 5. The downside was mostly single producer focused gathering & processing companies (AM, ENLC, ALTM, ETRN), and LNG.
TRGP and RTLR repeated in the top 5, while ENLC went from first to almost worst week over week. AM’s streak of several weeks near the top of the group ended. On the YTD leaderboard, KMI climbed into the second spot behind WMB, and ETRN climbs into 5th place at -37%. Things have improved in the bottom 5, where only one stock is down 70%+.
Canadian Midstream
Canadian midstream outperformed the U.S. this week after several weeks of MLPs trying to catch up. Gibson and ENB results were very well-received, as management teams highlighted stability and resilience of their businesses even with large expected shut-ins. TRP was the worst performer, likely the result of rotation into some of the other names.
GEI went from worst last week to first this week. TRP repeated near the bottom of the group. The YTD leaderboard is tightening up, with ENB continuing to gain on TRP and GEI down just 25%. IPL continues to lag.
Midstream had a debt issuance bonanza this week, with more than $4bn of issuance this week. While all issuers were investment grade, it was notable to see OKE’s pricing so wide of its prior issuance just a few months ago. Beyond that, SMLP had another restructuring, IPL raised its cost estimate for its large petchem project under development, and AM executive took millions in chips off the table.
Capital Markets
Growth Projects / M&A
Distributions
