Category: MLPguy Post

Midstream was almost positive week over week, but had to settle for two days of positive performance in a row.

Midstream stocks were mixed across categories, with Canadian midstream outperformance offset by MLP weakness, but overall finished positive for the week, helped by broad market strength and income stock strength.

The slow bleed in midstream continued this week. MLPs again lagged broader the Midstream Index (AMNA), because of Canadian midstream and a few large U.S. corporations. Higher commodity prices and strong broader equity market trading weren’t enough to get midstream moving higher…

Midstream and MLPs were slight underperformers among energy stocks (XOP and XLE were largely flat) and underperformed general equities (as measured by S&P 500), which rallied 1.5%. Earnings, ex-dates for distributions and month-end strangeness whipped things around a bit in between a basically flat week.

Midstream basically kept pace with the broader market this week, while MLPs underperformed, again. Oil prices and broader equities were supportive, but that wasn’t enough to get MLPs moving ahead of EPD results Monday to kick off the meat of 3Q reporting season.

Quiet week in the stock market this week, which translated into a quiet week for midstream as well. The AMNA finished basically unchanged, while the MLP Index was slightly lower.

Midstream was negative across the board this week, and the MLP Index lost more ground to the other midstream indexes that include corporations. Lower oil prices, higher interest rates and general aversion to energy stocks were likely reasons for continued weakness for the sector.

After 5 straight negative days last week, midstream had three positive days this week, including an intra-day reversal Thursday and a positive Friday.

Given the end of the month and quarter fell on a Monday, I wanted to get a quick post out with updated month and quarter end numbers. I hope you’ll understand if the upcoming weekly post is a bit shorter as a result.

Risk was definitively off this week across energy stocks, commodities and the broader stock market. Naturally, utilities and REITs caught a bid, and midstream did not. Within midstream, Canada held up well and helped AMNA outperform the AMZ and AMUS.