Midstream lagged the market again this week for a number of reasons. It was another ex-distribution week, another higher interest rates week, another big drop in natural gas prices week, and another strong week for the S&P 500. Higher oil prices didn’t help, it might take a sustained rally in oil prices from here to get the market to pay attention to energy stocks, much less midstream stocks.
On the bright side, even ignored, midstream outperformed utilities this week and this year. The market is treating midstream with more of a benign neglect than the active disdain that utilities get. Also, natural gas prices are below $2.00/mmbtu and yet MLPs are positive in 2024. And earnings/guidance announcements thus far have met expectations. Maybe in the next two weeks of results, we’ll get some positive surprises and midstream will start trading better.