Posts for Ticker ‘UNG’

US Natural Gas ETF Discloses Strategy Changes & Risks (UNG)

Nat Gas PicThe United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) is disclosing some current and future changes to its investment vehicle strategy in its attempt to manage its size and to track the price moves of natural gas.  While the aim and goal of the ETF is to still trade around the price moves of natural gas, the managers are adopting additional investments so that the fund can more easily attempt to track the price moves of natural gas.  As the fund became such a large portion of the natural gas futures market, it is deemed one of the key targets from the CFTC over all the limits in size and dominance over speculation in the energy commodities markets.  While this was easy to expect, this can create higher risks and many ETF investors in this vehicle may have a hard time grasping what the fund they are investing in is really doing on a day to day basis.
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Posted on: October 13, 2009 – 2:50 pm in Commodities, ETF, Oil & Gas,

The Return, Maybe, of New UNG Baskets (UNG)

Money Stack ImageUnited States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) has been accused of, and still appears to be, the tail that wags the dog in the world of speculative instruments and a single commodity market.  It is such a large portion of front-month contract trading that it has dominated trading on many days in the natural gas market. This ETF, actually an ETN, had effectively become a closed-end fund after it announced back in August that it would not resume offering “Creation Baskets” of its units and that it would make another filing when it planned to resume issuance.  A late-Friday SEC filing showed that UNG’s management has determined that it will resume offerings of Creation Baskets on September 28, 2009.  These offerings will be limited and will also be subject to some terms and conditions.
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Posted on: September 14, 2009 – 1:01 pm in Commodities, ETF, Oil & Gas,

Nat-Gas Inventories Keep Rising (UNG, OIH)

Nat Gas PicThe weekly data out of the Energy Information Administration for natural gas inventories is only further adding salt on top of the wound for those hoping for higher natural gas prices.  The inventories grew another 54 billion cubic feet from a week ago, and this is substantially higher than last year and substantially higher than the 5-year average.  This is hitting the United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) and the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH) exchange-traded products this morning.
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Posted on: August 27, 2009 – 10:45 am in ETF, Oil & Gas, ,

ETFs/ETNs Becoming Hybrid Closed-End Funds (USO, UNG, DBO, DXO, GAZ, GSG, GS, MS, GLD, SLV, JJC, FAS, FAZ)

Two months ago it was a carnal sin to suggest that certain exchange-traded funds or notes which track commodities would start trading more like a closed-end fund based upon supply and demand moves in shares caused by in-flows and out-flows of orders rather than solely by the direction of the prices of underlying commodities.  It has been our ongoing prediction that many commodity ETF/ETN products (and maybe some leveraged products as well) will become more like closed-end funds. Yet here under new regulations that have not even become gospel, we have seen new share issuances either denied or withdrawn from some of these ETF or ETN products.  And we are getting to see a premium in pricing to boot.  The United States Natural Gas Fund LP (NYSE: UNG) is the most classic example out there.  This ETN was at a 15% to 16% premium to the actual gas futures as investors are choosing to pay higher prices just for the ability to get exposure in the portfolio in case these prices rise.  The UNG has already confirmed that no new shares would be issued currently, and it is now so large that it controls closed to 20% of the benchmark natural gas contracts.  Limitations of this sort will drive a free-market theorist nuts, but the other reality is that this can also create large directional price moves that have nothing at all to do with fundamentals.

It turns out that the PowerShares DB Oil Fund (NYSE: DBO) traded about 0.3% higher than its actual value in crude futures late last week, and limits to shares could exaggerate premiums and discounts.  And the PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Long Exchange-Trade Note (NYSE: DXO) has also suspended issuing new shares. Barclays has also said that it would, at least temporarily, suspend new shares from being issued in its natural gas ETN called the iPath Dow Jones-AIG Natural Gas Subindex Total Return Exchange-Traded Notes (NYSE: GAZ).

Barclays also said that it would stop issuing new shares of the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Index Trust (NYSE: GSG) once the outstanding amount reached 55.9 million shares. If our data is accurate on the latest count, that looks to stand at roughly 52 million shares.  This is a semi-diversified product that tracks about 24 different commodities in energy, agriculture, industrial metals, prcious metals and livestock.  It is energy dominant, but this was a much more diversified fund that decided to limit its size.  This one also has traded at a premium to its underlying value.
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Posted on: August 24, 2009 – 11:30 am in Commodities, ETF, Metals, Oil & Gas, Regulation, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETF/ETN Conundrum: Size Limits, Roll Dates, Future Trading (UNG, USO)

Oil Well ImageWe have noted how CFTC inquiries and reviews into whether or not the size of certain speculative instruments in commodities markets, including ETF and ETN instruments, is likely to be regulated in the future.  This would potentially affect the United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) and the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) immediately.  While the market has been able to front run the USO during the major price swings, the “UNG” has been accused by many as being a manipulator of the commodity prices of natural gas.
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Posted on: July 21, 2009 – 10:51 am in Commodities, ETF, Oil & Gas, ,

ETF/ETN Investors Have To Watch CFTC Speculation/Limitation Rules (USO, UNG, GAZ, OIL, JJC, GLD)

We are witnessing a pivotal moment in investing history.  After a decade of opening up all markets to the public and to more speculators with exchange traded products, some might soon be closed to speculators and investors alike.  If these markets are not closed off to the bulk of the public and investors and speculators, the writing on the wall is as obnoxious as street punk graffiti that access might become limited.  For better or worse, speculators are likely going to have a harder time.  This week marks a review by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that could have a broad impact on exchange traded funds and exchange traded notes.  The exchange traded funds and exchange traded notes which track energy are the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) and the United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG).

iPath DJ AIG Natural Gas Total Return Sub-Index ETN (NYSE: GAZ) is one we do not cover as frequently because of its volume. It seeks the returns potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the futures contracts on physical commodities comprising the index plus the rate of interest that could be earned on cash collateral invested in specified T-Bills. The index includes the Henry Hub Natural Gas futures contract traded on the NYMEX.  iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) is another one we do not cover as much because of its volume. This ETN seeks returns that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract plus the T-Bill rate of interest that could be earned on funds committed to the trading of the underlying contracts.

iPath DJ AIG Copper TR Sub-Index ETN (NYSE: JJC) is not in energy, but it invests primarily in copper contracts and instruments that hopefully mirror the price of copper.  But do you expect that if regulation goes into curbing energy prices that the same effort would not be applied to metals and other inflationary hard goods?

The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) actually buys and sells gold bullion.  It is so large that it holds more gold than many large nations hold in reserves.  We could cover grains and other hard and soft goods as well.  The list almost feels endless.
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Posted on: July 7, 2009 – 12:46 pm in Commodities, ETF, Index, Oil & Gas, Regulation, , , , , ,

More Reverse Splits, or Just Closure, Possible or Needed in ETFs (FAS, FAZ, UYG, BAC, BHH, ARBA, IIH, AKAM, VRSN, UNG, USO, GLD, SDS, SPY, NYX, NDAQ)

Money Stack ImageWe have been large fans of exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes, and other exchange-traded instruments which are open for trade throughout the day that are allowed to be invested in just like a stock.  But with all new and growing markets, there are risks that need to be kept in check.  There are some leveraged ETF’s and their inverse counterparts which might need to see reverse share splits in the near future.  The notion of so many low-priced shares being so active may wreak havoc as the funds managing each ETF try to keep up with appropriate derivatives and in buying and selling shares of the components that are supposed to be the underlying securities.  There are even a few ETF’s which should probably just be closed down entirely and liquidated to holders.  Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) and The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ) are both prime examples of ETFs which skew total daily exchange trading volume numbers because of low share prices today and massive trading volume.  This is not meant to pick on the fund groups because they created trading vehicles which they did not expect to see some of these moves.  There are many more ETFs and ETNs to consider here.

Direxion just announced a reverse split for another ETF yesterday, but not its two financial triple-leverage ETFs.  Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) is now back down close to $8.00 per share, yet it trades 250 million shares on an average day.  The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ) is barely above $5.00 and trades more than 200 million shares on an average day.  So between the FAS and FAZ, you have an average of more than 450 million shares, and at today’s prices that is close to $3 billion worth of nominal value.

This review discusses a portion of the ETFs and ETNs and the ones under discussion today, along with underlying key companies, are Ultra Financials ProShares (NYSE: UYG), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), B2B Internet HOLDRs (AMEX: BHH), Ariba, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARBA), Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE), Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs (AMEX: IIH), VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG), United States Oil (NYSE: USO), SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), UltraShort S&P500 ProShares (NYSE: SDS), SPDRs (NYSE: SPY), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: NYX) and the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ).
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Posted on: June 23, 2009 – 12:42 pm in Banking, Commodities, ETF, Index, Oil & Gas, Trading Alert, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Italy’s ENI Grows In Texas, Via Quicksilver (E, KWK, UNG)

Italian energy giant Eni SpA (NYSE:E) has acquired a 27.5% interest in the leases of Quicksilver Resources Inc. (NYSE:KWK) in Quicksilver’s Alliance properties in the Fort Worth basin. Quicksilver will receive $280 million in cash from the transaction, which the company will be used to pay down debt.
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Posted on: May 18, 2009 – 8:01 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, , ,

The 52-Week Low Club (UNG)(AM)(BNI)(CPHD)

SunsetUnited States Natl Gas Fund (UNG) Falling gas prices. That’s all. Drops to $21.37 from 52-week high of $63.89.

American Greetings (AM) New share buy-back does not seem to be helping. Down to $5.35 from 52-week high of $21.81.

Burlington Northern (BNI) Rival CSX posts weak figures. Sell off to $66.55 from 52-week high of $114.58.

Cepheid (CPHD) Posts poor financial outlook. Moves down to $6.66 from 52-week high of $33.36.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: January 13, 2009 – 4:15 pm in HI/LOW, , , ,

ETF Winners & Losers (June 14, 2007)

DJIA                     13,553.73; +71.38 (0.53%)….DIAMONDS Trust (DIA) +0.67%
S&P500              1,522.97; +7.30 (0.48%)…SPDRs ‘Spyders’ (SPY) +0.64%
NASDAQ             2,599.41; +17.10 (0.66%)….NASDAQ 100 PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) +0.66%
10YR-Bond         5.22%; +0.02% ….close ETF iShares Lehman 20+ Year (TLT) -0.25%
NYSE Volume          2,813,638,000
NASDAQ Volume    1,996,214,000

These are not the absolute highest performing ETF’s because some such as the Ultra ETF’s use leverage, but here are the normal unleveraged ET’s that won today:

iShares MSCI Brazil Index                                         (EWZ) +2.76%
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index                     (FXI) +2.58%
PowerShares Dynamic Aggressive Growth           (PGZ) +2.47%
iPath S&P GSCI Total Return Index ETN                 (GSP) +2.37%
iShares Dow Jones US Oil Equipment Index         (IEZ) +2.28%
iShares MSCI South Korea Index                              (EWY) +2.27%
United States Natural Gas                                         (UNG)    +2.23%
iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust       (GSG)    +2.11%
Claymore/Robeco Developed World Equity            (EEW) +2.10%
Oil Services HOLDRs                                                  (OIH) +2.10%
iShares MSCI South Africa Index                               (EZA) +2.09%

As always, even on a second strong up day there were some losers.  We back out the ‘inverse fund’ ETF’s and also the leveraged versions of each.  Also, the real estate group was the least impressive and we only included a couple variations to prevent repetition.  Here are today’s losers:

DJ Wilshire REIT ETF                                                 (RWR) (-1.16%)
iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors                   (ICF) (-1.14%)
WisdomTree Japan High-Yielding Equity               (DNL) (-0.94%)
KBW Regional Banking ETF                                      (KRE) (-0.78%)
Shares S&P Global Healthcare                                 (IXJ) (0.58%)
iShares MSCI Malaysia Index                                     (EWM) (0.42%)

Jon C. Ogg
June 14, 2007

Posted on: June 14, 2007 – 4:14 pm in ETF, HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETF Winners & Losers (June 12, 2007)

DJIA                        13,295.01; -129.95 (0.97%)
S&P500                  1,493.00; -16.12 (1.07%)
NASDAQ                 2,549.77; -22.38 (0.87%)
10YR-Bond             5.248%; +0.111%
NYSE Volume          2,964,548,000
NASDAQ Volume    2,046,866,000

Obviously we have the "inverse index and UltraShort ETF’s" leading the day because of the more than 125 point drop in the DJIA today.  Regardless, there are some winners outside of the inverse funds.   And there is a whole slew of ETF losers.

WINNERS:
The top 22 ETF performers are short or ultra-short ETF’s, but here are the few and far between sectors that won on their own…..but most aren’t even real stock sectors….

United States Natural Gas                             (UNG) +1.05%
PowerShares DB G10 Currency Harvest     (DBV) +0.42%
PowerShares DB Agriculture                         (DBA) +0.41%
CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Tr  (FXB) +0.29%
PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish  (UUP) +0.20%

LOSERS:
SPDR S&P China                                             (GXC) (-2.17%)
Market Vectors Steel                                         (SLX) (-2.11%)
Market Vectors Gold Miners                             (GDX) (-2.09%)
Claymore/Zacks Yield Hog                              (CVY) (-2.08%)
WisdomTree International Financial             (DRF) (-2.05%)
iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate              (IYR)  (-2.03%)
iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index             (ILF) (-2.01%)
SPDR S&P Emerging Markets                        (GMM) (-1.97%)
WisdomTree Pacific ex-Japan Hi-Yld Eq       (DNH) (-1.94%)

Jon C. Ogg
June 12, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: June 12, 2007 – 3:22 pm in ETF, HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETF Winners & Losers (June 5, 2007)

ETF Tickers: SRS, SDP, SSG, SJH, SZK, SDD, SKK, SKF, SDS, SCC, SJL, FXI, PGJ, HRD, IIH, RWR, ICF, ITB, EZA, UNG

What’s an easy way to tell when the market had a pretty bad hair day, other than looking at the ticker tape?  Seeing that all of the ETF winners for the day are listed as the UltraShort "Whatever" ProShares……they are the inverse move of an any underlying index, so when they are up the index or the market is down.  The top 12 performers today were all in that category. Some of these are leveraged to their index, not it doesn’t mean the worst performers are the underlying index per se.

UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 3.52%   
UltraShort Utilities ProShares (SDP) 3.13%   
UltraShort Semiconductor ProShares (SSG) 2.09%
UltraShort Russell2000 Value ProShares (SJH) 1.66%
UltraShort Consumer Goods ProShares (SZK) 1.59%
UltraShort SmallCap600 ProShares (SDD) 1.49%
UltraShort Russell2000 Growth ProShares (SKK) 1.41%   
UltraShort Financials ProShares    (SKF) 1.36%
UltraShort S&P500 ProShares (SDS) 1.35%
UltraShort Consumer Services ProShares (SCC) 1.24%
UltraShort Russell MidCap Val ProShares    (SJL) 1.20%   
UltraShort Russell2000 ProShares (TWM) 1.06%

Other non-short ETF winners:
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) +1.02%
PowerShares Gldn Dragon Halter USX China (PGJ) +0.80%
HealthShares Cardiology    (HRD) +0.7%

Worse non-Ultra funds today:
Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs (IIH) -1.82%
DJ Wilshire REIT ETF (RWR) -1.76%
iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors (ICF) -1.76%   
iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB) -1.64%
iShares MSCI South Africa Index    (EZA) -1.60%
United States Natural Gas (UNG)    -1.55%

Today was more of a Bernake playing hankie with words than it was China.  Tomorrow’s another day.

DJIA                       13,595.46; -80.86 (0.59%)
NASDAQ               2,611.23; -7.06 (0.27%)
S&P500                1,530.95; -8.23 (0.53%)
10YR-Bond          4.9760%; +0.0470%
NYSE Volume      2,884,657,000
NASDAQ Volume 2,233,690,000

Jon C. Ogg
June 5, 2007

Posted on: June 5, 2007 – 3:38 pm in ETF, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,