For Investors Only -- Midday Trading -- I Didn't See This One Coming -- COP Trading At New 52-Week High

Updates

Later, 4:40 p.m. Central Time: the market is closed. It was a good day for those who like to see a rising market; not so good for those looking for bargains.

PSX, a refiner, surges almost 2% and also at a new high. This might be the reason.

EOG traded at a new 52-week high, up over 1%: almost $104.

SRE was down a bit today; will sell 50% stake in its Mexican wind farm:

The sale of a 50 percent stake in the 155-megawatt Energia Sierra Juarez project in Tecate, Baja California, from IEnova is subject to regulatory approval, InterGen said today in a statement. It is the first cross-border wind-generation project between Mexico and the U.S.

EPD on a roller coaster, up over 1%, trading at a new 52-week high.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

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Fallout From Keystone Decision

ENB: closed down slightly today; trading near 52-week highs.

America "hesitates" (I would have said "dithers"), Canada moves on:

Enbridge (TSX: ENB)(NYSE: ENB), the company responsible for exporting over two-thirds of Western Canada’s crude oil to the United States, has been silently expanding its pipeline network. Some of the firm’s major initiatives include eliminating bottlenecks in the Chicago area, reversing its Line 9 to begin shipping bitumen to refineries in Quebec, and twinning the Seaway and Spearhead pipelines to increase volumes to the Gulf coast. These efforts are expected to add one million barrels per day, or bpd, of takeaway capacity by the end of 2015.

Bitumen pipelines to Canada’s west coast are slowly gaining momentum. Last December, a panel of federal regulators granted conditional approval to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal, opening the door for the Federal government to give the final say on the project. If given the green light, the pipeline would deliver an additional 525,000 bpd of Alberta oil to Kitimat by around 2017.

This month the National Energy Board scheduled public hearings on Kinder  Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. If approved, the amount of crude oil shipped between Edmonton and Burnaby would triple to 590,000 bpd by 2017.

TransCanada is also optimistic on the prospects for its Energy East project. The company has proposed converting its cross-country gas mainline to start delivering 1.1 million bpd of Alberta oil to refineries in Montreal and Saint John by 2018. If approved by regulators, it would single handedly replace Keystone.

Yes, it will be hard to fill Keystone’s void, especially in the short-term. However, the build-up of crude-by-rail should hold the industry over until new pipeline routes are secured. According to a recent report by investment dealer Peters & Co., crude-by-rail capacity in Western Canada is expected to nearly triple from 550,000 bpd today to 1.5 million bpd by 2015.

All of these factors are already starting to alleviate the bitumen glut. Over the past year the discount for Canadian Western Select versus West Texas Intermediate has been cut in half to less than $19 per barrel. Additional transit capacity could reduce this gap further.

Three risks oil sands investors should be worried about. Two of the three are already baked in by long-term investors.

Original Post

Trading at new 52-week highs: AXAS, BHI, BRK.B, COP, ERF, HAL, PSX, SLB, STO, WLL.

COP is trading at a new 52-week high and so is its spin-off, PSX.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Some companies reporting earnings tomorrow:

• ATT (T): expectations, 70 cents; after market close;
• McDonald's: expectations, $1.24; before market open;
• Nabors Industries (NBR): 15 cents; after market close

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Trivia Question For The Day

Just how thick is that layer of clay -- the iridium later, the K-T boundary -- between the white limestone that represents the end of the Age of Dinosaurs and the pink limestone that represents the start of the Age of Mammals?

A: Three-eighths of an inch (1 cm) thick.