| MLP Distribution Suspensions October was a busy month for distribution suspensions in the Master Limited Partnership arena. The following partnerships suspended their distributions–none of them are particularly surprising. CVR Partners (ticker:UAN) is a fertilizer company. Emerge Energy (ticker:EMES) is a frack sand and oil field service company. Mid-Con Energy (ticker:MCEP) is a upstream oil and gas producer. Hi-Crush Partners (ticker:HCLP) is a frack sand company. MLP Merger Refiner Northern Tier Energy (ticker:NTI) announced last week that they had received a buy out offer from Western Refining (ticker:WNR). Being an offer with just a 15% premium NTI may reject this offer or negotiate a higher price. We shall see. Interest Rates The 10 year treasury moved in a range of 1.91% early in October to a high of 2.18% late in the month, before closing the month at 2.15%. Recall from prior learnings that the level of rates is not likely as concerning as it is the ‘rate of change’. YTD the highest level we have seen on rates on the 10 year is 2.49% back in June with the low at 1.67% way back in January. Only a very strong employment report is likely to move interest rates higher from here over the next couple of weeks. A strong report moving the 10 year by 20 basis points would knock stocks for a loop–more modest moves are not likely to cause stock disasters. Economic News for the Coming Week For this week we have a number of economic releases, but there are really just a few that are likely to have broad implications for stocks and interest rates. On Wednesday we have the ADP employment report. This will give us an indication of what the Employment Situation report may look like on Friday. For what it is worth the consensus is looking for 190,000 additional jobs–a number at or above this amount will no doubt send interest rates up–maybe 10 basis points on the 10 year treasury. | 
Connect with Tim McPartland
