Kimble Charts: Coal

February 25, 2015

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Kimble Charts: Coal

By Ilene

Chris Kimble's chart for KOL shows a recently beaten down ETF struggling to pull itself up from the ashes. As the chart shows, KOL has recently drifted down to levels not seen since the financial crisis of 2008-9.

Bouncing or recovering with energy in general, coal prices appear to have stabilized in the short-term. Reflecting coal prices, KOL has traded between $13.45 and $19.75 during the past year. Bouncing from lows, KOL traded around 2% higher yesterday from $14.26 to $14.48 on high volume. It traded another 3.6% higher in after hours to $15, possibly related to Obama's veto of the Keystone XL bill allowing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. KOL's back to around $14.56 now.

The chart below is of the NYMEX Central Appalachian coal futures near-month contract final settlement price history from Jan. 2008 to Dec. 2014. After running up rapidly in early 2008, coal prices fell quickly during the financial crisis. Coal traded in a narrower range since the 2008 spike. KOL's prices have behaved similarly. (Source.)

Chris's chart analysis suggests that KOL might be ready to stage a breakout to higher levels. Chris likes buying KOL with a stop loss at about $13.87.

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For an in-depth analysis of the coal industry, Market Realist provides A must-know overview of the US thermal coal industry for investors. The Realist notes, "There are six main publicly traded companies that operate coal mines in the U.S., which are also part of the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL). These are Arch Coal (ACI), Alpha Natural Resource (ANR), Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU), Cloud Peak Energy (CLD), Consol Energy (CNX), and Walter Energy, Inc. (WLT), in order of production. In 2013, the top four publicly traded companies’ U.S. assets made up about a half of the U.S.’ annual coal supply." KOL's top holdings are listed here.