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Gold/Mining/Energy : A Bottom in perishable commodities?/war stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (111)	1/1/1999 8:04:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 178

natural gas looks better and better..(ultimate perishable commodity :) U.S. Winter Storm Strengthens, Targets Midwest 06:26 p.m Jan 01, 1999 Eastern CHICAGO (Reuters) - Travel warnings were issued and snowplows readied Friday as a powerful winter storm gathered strength and took aim at the Midwest, authorities said. A moderate snowfall produced accumulations in the Dakotas while heavy thunderstorms pounded eastern Texas as two storms along a frontal system converged and threatened the Midwest with its heaviest snow in decades, meteorologists said. ''This is definitely a powerful winter storm. In Chicago, you could possibly have the biggest snowstorm in 20 years (over the weekend),'' said Jon Racy, a forecaster with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. High winds at the back of the storm were expected to create blizzard conditions and pile up drifts in frigid temperatures. Hundreds of cots were prepared for an expected army of stranded travelers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. United Airlines, which has a hub there, suggested that people planning to travel Saturday and Sunday try to make other arrangements. ''We urge them to consider moving their plans,'' United spokesman Joe Hopkins said. ''We're probably going to have limited operations'' in Chicago over the wintry weekend, he added. Hundreds of plows and road-salt-carrying trucks were assembled to battle the storm, which was expected to dump more than a foot of snow on the city. Sandbags were piled up along vulnerable sections of Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline to try to prevent wind-driven waves from flooding a highway. ''We've never had forecasts so dire,'' a city spokesman said. Much of the Midwest has enjoyed a mild late fall and winter, although conditions turned frigid earlier this week. The storm was expected to dump ice and sleet further south and possibly hit Virginia, where a Christmas Eve storm knocked out power for thousands of people, some of whom were still without electricity a week later. The latest storm was expected to sweep into the Appalachians. It also threatened to develop into an ice storm in coastal New England, forecasters said. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (111)	1/1/1999 8:12:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 178

Canadian energy stocks end 1998 on high note 05:12 p.m Dec 31, 1998 Eastern By Jeffrey Jones CALGARY, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Investors in Canadian energy stocks on Thursday bid farewell to a dreary 1998 on an upbeat note, pushing up share values after upticks in both crude oil and natural gas prices. The Toronto Stock Exchange's oil and gas subindex climbed nearly 145 points, or more than 3 percent, to 4,643 in thin pre-holiday trading, with the lion's share of the 50 producer and oil service stocks listed on it closing higher. Big gainers included Suncor Energy Inc. (SU.TO), up C$1.75 to C$46, Berkley Petroleum Corp. (BKP.TO), up C$1.50 to C$11.60, Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM.TO), up C$1.25 to C$26.95, Renaissance Energy Ltd. (RES.TO), up C$0.70 to C$17.45, and Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. (GOU.TO), up C$0.33 to C$4.48. Still, nearly all the stocks are well below their 52-week highs after this year's painful decline in oil prices, which have stubbornly clung to inflation-adjusted 25-year lows, sending cash flow, earnings and capital spending tumbling. The subindex is down more than 30 percent from a year ago, when the world's oil glut was beginning to balloon and industry conditions were in the early stages of deterioration. Analyst Craig Langpap of Calgary-based brokerage Peters & Co. Ltd. attributed Thursday's jump to higher commodity prices as well as an end last week to year-end tax-loss selling, which drew some investors back to the market. ''While (prices) aren't exactly robust, it's a big improvement over where we were,'' Langpap said. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed $0.30 in New York to close at $12.05 a barrel. Since Monday, crude steadily rose from $11.46 a barrel, although the upward movement occurred on thin to moderate trading. Natural gas futures, meanwhile, rose $0.06 on Thursday to finish the year at $1.95 per million British thermal units. Gulf Canada led the oils on volume with more than 1.2 million shares changing hands. In addition to the general firmness of the energy sector, observers attributed the brisk action in debt-heavy Gulf's stock to an upgraded rating from an analyst. John Clarke, analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities in Toronto, on Wednesday raised his rating on Gulf Canada to ''accumulate'' from ''hold,'' and made similar moves with its majority-owned affiliate Gulf Indonesia Resources Ltd. (GRL.N) as well as rival Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. (CXY.TO) Clarke said he expected oil price weakness to continue at least through the first half of 1999, and that long-term investors would be wise to accumulate oil-weighted stocks like Gulf Canada while their prices remained well below their asset values. ''I think that the (first quarter) is likely to be still quite nasty and I'm not expecting any kind of rebound in oil prices until the second half of next year,'' he told Reuters. ''I'm just preparing investors for that.'' Gulf Canada, with major oil operations in Canada and Indonesia, hit a 52-week low of C$3.57 in Toronto on December 22. The company set a goal to sell C$1.38 billion of assets worldwide this year in an effort to reduce its debt, which stood at C$2.5 billion in September. ($1-$1.53 Canadian) ((Reuters Calgary Bureau (403) 531-1624)) Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.