Natural gas prices have declined 70% since last summer. Low prices have curtailed new production. Any uptick, at all, in usage could boost nat gas prices. Last week nat gas prices were up 1.3%. I have owned Chesapeake for a while and added to it last week.
Baker Hughes counted 1606 rigs working last September. Last week they counted 857. That kind of reduction must, ultimately, result in higher prices.
California houses that were selling for $782,000 in January, 2007 are now selling for $300,000 and they are moving! Houses east of San Francisco, in Tracy, are seeing bidding wars. Two years ago houses in that area stayed on the market for 16.6 months; in January of this year that is now 6.7 months.
Republicans, who gave zero votes to the stimulus package, are now revelling in the earmarks associated with their districts. All of a sudden Federal money is OK. The two year term for Congress must be extended.
On Monday our Secretary of Treasury will unveil his bank bail-out plan. The last time he did this the market plummeted 380 Dow points. Watch out for Monday.
The staggering news from OMB about our debt certainly causes one pause.
California will conduct a massive $10 billion muni offering next week. It looks tempting for those in the state. The ten year is thought to offer a 5% yield.
The drought in Argentina is having material impact upon their commodity based economy. Strikes (not uncommon there) against the government aren’t helping.
John Paulson made $1 billion for himself last year as he shorted mortgages and anything associated with them. Last week he bought a huge chunk of AngloGold Ashanti (AU). The $1.2 billion purchase was done at $32/share, it now trades at $37.50 after declining $1.50/share on Friday.
Utilities are moving. For example, Central Vermont Public Service (CV) was up 2.6% on Friday on almost twice the usual volume. Costs associated with severe winter weather put a crimp in earnings. The company lost money in 4Q but bested the year by a measly $0.03/share. But the stock seems to be reflecting the bad quarter; shares are down from $26 to $19-ish (although up from low of $16) and yield almost 5%. Other utilities I look at are Florida Power (FPL), Con Ed (ED) and Dominion Resources (D). FPL is the country’s largest alternative energy utility.
