WHAT THE MARKET OFFERS

 
t. man hatter
So what are they giving us?

In our recent post, So?, we mentioned energy. Well, today, September crude futures closed up 22 cents or 0.2%, with futures up four of the last five trading sessions. Some say this in part is owing to investor concerns about international trouble spots.

So far for August futures are still down 0.6%. One of the problems with crude is it has to travel someway. So geopolitical is not the only threat.

In their zeal to purify the globe, those nutty Al Gore-like environmental purists dislike pipelines, rail road cars and oil tankers. But it's a two-way thoroughfare. Cheap U.S. domestic crude oil versus heavier, higher sulpur content, more expensive imported crude.

According to Houston-based RBC Energy LLC, refineries in Texas, the home of big refinery Valero, companies are scrambling to build pipelines to connect Texas oil fields to Gulf Coast refineries. Current pipeline capacity of 1.4 mbd is projected to hit 2.9 mbd by the end of next year.

Oil tanker deliveries to the Gulf dropped from 1.5 million barrels in 2011 and to less than 1.0 million to date.

Kinder Morgan, the big pipeline energy company, has been much in the news of late, not all of it favorable, given this recent protest in Boston.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement she opposed the current Kinder Morgan proposal, saying the state must upgrade its energy infrastructure in ways that are “consistent with Massachusetts’ commitment to environmental conservation, clean energy, and energy efficiency.”

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey also opposed the pipeline as proposed because it raises “serious questions,” including whether it is too large for the state’s energy needs and could result in the natural gas being exported rather than used locally. And Congressman James McGovern, a Worcester Democrat, said the proposed pipeline route was “irresponsible” because it cuts through environmentally-sensitive lands and local farms.

Warren's description is of particular note: "clean energy and energy efficiency" sounds like a fair and accurate one of natural gas. That's how even most environmentalists who promote natural gas describe it, clean and efficient. Apparently, she thinks they do something special in Massachusetts.  

A possible future presidential candidate, Warren is no friend of the energy business. Markey's comment is even more ludicrous, too big for the state's needs and could be exported rather than used locally. One of the Kinder Morgan proposals was to increase natural gas for the entire Northeast. Maybe the rest of the northeast needs to find out what Markey really thinks of them.

 All lands, Mr. Markey, are environmentally-sensitive. Otherwise, climate change, global warming or however one chooses to define it has no real purpose for being implemented
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/07/31/boston-protesters-rally-against-kinder-morgan-gas-pipeline/

On another note directly related to our what-are-they-giving-us theme, this chart from Richard Bernstein Advisers pretty much says it all.

.... mom and pop stink it up on a pretty steady basis and have lagged gains in every asset class, with the exceptions of Asian emerging markets and Japanese equities, over the last 20 years. The average investor has even managed to underperform cash – represented in the chart by 3-month T-bills.

“They could have improved performance by simply buying and holding any asset class other than Asian emerging market or Japanese equities,” wrote Bernstein, the former Merrill Lynch strategist who now heads his own eponymously named shop. (Read the note here.)

The chronic underperformance “suggests investors’ timing of asset allocation decisions must have been particularly poor, i.e., investors consistently bought assets that were overvalued and sold assets that were undervalued. They bought high and sold low,” he said.

As the chart suggests to us at least average retail investors almost never take what the market is giving.And one of the many reasons is what the market gives is often perceived as unwanted or damaged goods.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/08/13/1-chart-shows-just-how-badly-average-investor-lags-even-cash/