Week Thoughts: Market Down Bad

MLPs marginally outperform

Wild swings in trade and actual war headlines led to wild swings in stock market performance this week. OPEC+ headlines struck another blow on oil prices. German cement manufacturers and European satellite companies were the big winners, while in the U.S. market there were not many winners (U.S. water utilities did well), even fewer winners among energy stocks with oil prices weaker. In midstream, fast money was seen leaving corporations more than MLPs, continuing the trend that has favored MLPs this year.

U.S. midstream corporations have virtually no exposure to the proposed tariffs that may or may not be implemented. If the tariff headlines pressured the broad market, I believe weakness in midstream had more to do with institutional investors reducing exposure to energy related stocks. Midstream management teams at the conference I attended in NYC this week were confident in the outlooks recently discussed at earnings.