Friday, August 21, 2009

Natural gas shares rise despite low commodity prices

A trend we first noticed a few days ago in "Natural gas stocks defy gravity (APC; DVN; CHK; SWN; XTO)". Because they are leveraged to the underlying commodity the spec money will often (NOT always) be attracted to the equities before the product.
From MarketWatch:

Shares of natural gas producers rose Friday with the broad market, as bullish sentiment over the economy lifted energy stocks despite a seven-year low for natural gas prices.

Energy stocks took their cue from oil prices, which topped $74 a barrel to their highest point in a year, as bullish supply data and optimism about the economy continued to take hold.

Natural gas prices, however, held below $3 per million British thermal units, a seven-year low.

The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index /quotes/comstock/10t!xng.x (XNG 471.68, +11.05, +2.40%) rose 0.8% to 464. Components Chesapeake Energy (CHK 23.83, +0.81, +3.52%) , Apache Corp. (APA 88.60, +2.74, +3.20%) , Questar(STR 34.63, +0.89, +2.64%) Ulta Petroleum (UPL 47.89, +1.12, +2.40%) and Anadarko (APC 53.76, +2.01, +3.88%) all rose 1.5% or more....

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