CBRE Global Investors, combined with CBRE Clarion Securities and CBRE Caledon, is one of the world’s leading real asset investment managers providing real estate and infrastructure investment solutions to over 500 clients worldwide.
CBRE Global Investors is the investment management division of CBRE Group, Inc. the world’s premier commercial real estate services and investment firm. The company’s shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CBRE.”
November 17, 2012
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Most of the time, MLPs get batted around by price movements outside of themselves, such as price action in the broader energy sector, the stock market, commodity prices, Europe, etc. But this week, MLPs drove the bus, and the price action of the sector attracted attention from the financial media. Also, traffic to my website from search terms like “why are MLPs going down” spiked. I was even quoted by both the WSJ.com and Barrons Online by different reporters.
I would like to think that at some point all of the re-assuring research analyst notes, Seeking Alpha articles, CNBC guests, and even blog posts like mine served as fissures in the dam of fear around MLP fund flows. But I don’t know. Whatever the reason, around 11:45 Friday, the dam broke and buyers flooded MLPs.
By the time the market closed, the Index was up 3.3% on the day, and the MLP Index, which looked like a lock yesterday to finish down 5%+ for the week, finished the week down just 2.3%, which was less than last week’s 2.6% drop. So, all of that talk about 5% weeks I wrote about yesterday is no longer relevant, which is fine with me.
+3% days like Friday are very rare, occurring on just 29 of the 4,252 trading days since the beginning of 1996, just 0.66% of the time. In fact, since April 2009, there have been only 2 days with more than 3% returns on the Alerian MLP Index: May 10, 2010 (+3.3) and August 9, 2011 (+8.4%). So, for whatever the reason, a 3% Friday is worth celebrating, especially because the trading pattern of the last few weeks is much more akin to the swoons in May 2010 and August 2011 than late 2008. MLPs are still a long way from their highs for the year, but MLP investors are happier today than they were yesterday.
Quietly amidst all of the MLP noise, natural gas futures rose 8.3% to end the week at $3.79, just 5.5% away from $4.00, which is quite a reversal from below $2.00 earlier this year. Oil was higher on escalating hostilities in the Middle East. Pretty much everything else was down this week.
Winners & Losers
HCLP was cut down on news of a lost contract just 3 months after its IPO, it didn’t just dip below its IPO price, it plummeted. That’s too bad, and will likely add some headwinds to future hopeful MLPs with oilfield services assets. Targa was down sharply this week after issuing equity at the bottom of our two week MLP slide. Other bright spots for the week were small caps like NKA, which dropped big last week.
For the year, the 3 worst MLPs to have owned at the beginning of the year are all coal MLPs. NS returned to the bottom 5 this week after a 4.5% decline week over week. NKA’s big week propelled it back into the top five.
I think I’ve reached my word limit for the week. News wrap below, but that will be all for me for the next several days.
News of the (MLP) World
Debt
M&A / Growth Projects
Corporate Actions