TodayAn interesting day to say the least. Of course I refer to BIR, PPY, TOU and ARX. Both BIR and ARX opened higher based on buyer enthusiasm for their 4thQ and year end reports. Of course sellers were waiting for the buyers and both were beaten well down from their opening highs. The weakening of the Henry Hub” spot” suggested a follow through of that sell-off, but both fought their way back throughout the day and regained their lost ground. Undoubtedly the NYMEX crude futures provided a supportive background, finishing up well over $2.00 on the day, - this in response to a lot of bearish news re crude (EIA comments yesterday, etc.). A market that not only refuses to go down but reverses direction in response to bearish news is considered a significant event, -although this was the expiry date for March crude (oft’ times technical factors are related to contract expiries), -and one day doesn’t establish a trend. In this case however, today’s action “only confirmed” the recent trend in crude. There was a good flurry of selling in BIR and ARX on the close that carried them down slightly but it was the opposite case with TOU that witnessed strong buying at day’s end. PPY opened higher but late morning a 300,000 sale caused it to nosedive and it couldn’t seem to get untracked for the rest of the session. I’m not going to pin my hopes on a second day of rallying crude prices but I am looking forward to the Baker Hughes rig count figures that are released tomorrow at 1.00 o’clock.