Monday 31 March 2014

ANR, BTU, CNX - another tough month for the miners

Despite the broader market seeing minor chop across March, the coal miners remained very weak. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR), Peabody Energy (BTU), and Consol Energy (CNX), saw net monthly declines of -20.9%, -6.9%, and -0.4% respectively. Outlook into the summer is bearish.


ANR, monthly



BTU, monthly



CNX, monthly


Summary

*please note, ALL upside targets for the miners remain 'On hold'.
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As ever, the weaker miners did especially poorly, not least ANR, whose monthly decline of -20.9% was an unquestionably severe fall. Only the larger CNX managed to close the month, broadly flat.
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Best guess...continuing weakness into the late spring/summer - not least if the equity market does (briefly) roll over..back to the sp'1625/1575 zone.

From there, I'd look to pick up some of the surviving coal miners..although the battle back upward will probably be a multi-year slow crawl.