China Coal Imports Triple, Dollar Mutes Equity Response

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 12:04 pm EDT, Monday October 26, 2009

Shares of major U.S.-listed coal miners were up big on Monday before dollar strength weighed on commodities.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese coal imports jumped by 7% from August to September - more than tripling on a year over year basis. The report cites economic recovery for the re-opening of small mines to meet growing demand.

Earlier this month we covered Barron's optimism for coal in 2009. The newspaper noted Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU - News) as a potential beneficiary of a growing presence in Asia. The report said global coal use is projected to rise by 55% by 2025, and Bloomberg noted the commodity is used to generate 80% of China's power.

As a whole, the Coal Stocks Index turned negative after spending most of the morning in positive territory. Still it is outperforming the S&P 500 by more than 5% over the last month.

A midday jump in the U.S. dollar has weighed on commodity stocks, but China's Yanzhou Coal Mining (NYSE: YZC - News) is hanging onto a 3% gain. Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE - News), Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR - News), and Peabody are also in positive territory on the day.

Most of the coal sector got beat up last week. Evergreen Energy (NYSE: EEE - News), Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX - News), and National Coal (NASDAQ: NCOC - News) are now off by double-digits in the last five sessions.

On a monthly basis, however, 12 of the Coal Stocks Index's 18 components are ahead by 9% or more. Top performers for the period include Utah-based small-cap play Headwaters (NYSE: HW - News) with an 17% run.

As of this writing, the Coal Stocks Index is one of the top-30 performing tickerspy Indexes over the last month, up by 8.5%.

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