This segment is from Tuesday's edition of 'Digging for Value', in which sector analysts Joel South and Taylor Muckerman discuss energy & materials news with host Alison Southwick. The twice-weekly show can be viewed on Tuesdays & Thursdays. It can also be found on Twitter, along with our extended coverage of the energy & materials sectors @TMFEnergy.
The dreaded "Polar Vortex" brought frigid temperatures throughout the United States. As a result, natural gas prices spiked. However, these weather-related blips are generally short-term in nature. In our analysts' minds, investors -- not traders -- should pay little attention to weather's affect on pricing. Instead pay attention to long-term demand trends, especially from the chemical sector with companies like Dow Chemical (DOW), LyondellBasell (LYB 1.35%) and Valero Energy (VLO 0.86%) sporting plans to spend several billion dollars on facilities that will use natural gas as a feedstock. More analysis can be found in the short clip below.
