Check out this video from the Financial Times: Banking with Bird and Fortune

“About the future of the world’s economy”

One of the best income stocks I have come across since starting my site is Inergy L.P. (NRGY). This propane retailer and natural gas midstream company has again increased its quarterly payout. This is the 31st consecutive increase in the distribution. The stock currently yields almost 9%.

Inergy seems to be especially well managed to control costs and grow revenues. It has not had a hiccup in the 3 years I have been watching the stock. The retail propane business continues to make its margins in both high and low energy price scenarios. The natural gas midstream operations are also not dependent on energy prices.

Capital Link Shipping, a New York based investor relations and advisory firm, this week announced the launching of a set of indices to track the different classes of shipping stocks. Here is a listing of the new indices:

• Capital Link Maritime Index
• Capital Link Tanker Index
• Capital Link Drybulk Index
• Capital Link Container Index
• Capital Link LNG/LPG Index
• Capital Link Mixed Fleet Index
• Capital Link MLP Index

The components of the indices all trade on the U.S. stock exchanges. Component values in the indices will be market cap weighted and updated at the end of each trading day.

Here are my quick thoughts on the National Association of Realtors existing home sales report for May. First, the numbers showed small but positive gains from April. Second, the national mean and median prices increased for the first time in a year. Here are the numbers:

• May seasonally adjusted housing sales vs. April: +2.4%
• May non-adjusted sales vs. April: +9.2%
• Months inventory supply, May vs. April: -5.0%

• May median sales price vs. April: +3.8%
• Mean sales price change, May vs. April: +3.2%

Adjusted sales numbers for May were still 2.9% the total for 2008, but marks the 3rd increase month-over-month out of the last 4 months. The report shows the median sales price in the west fell by 3.2% vs. April but this is an improvement compared to the March to April decline of 10.2%. I have written earlier about the positive price numbers for May in California.

Median home sale prices rise for most of Sacramento region - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee.

Linked above is one of the three sources I have read concerning the increase in home prices in May for the Sacramento region.

Housing sales in Las Vegas continue to accelerate with almost 4,000 single family homes and condos sold in May. This was 60% more sales than in May of 2008. Inventory has decreased by 9% since a year earlier and stands at a 7 month supply. In 2008 the supply figure was stubbornly near 20 months for the entire year.

The majority of purchases continue to be bank owned properties. The median price was 40% lower than a year earlier, but down only 1.2% from April. I am still looking for that first median price increase to call a bottom in the LV housing market.

The recent conference call from Atlas Pipeline Partners (APL) gave estimates of distributable cash flow of between $1.90 and $3.65 for the next 4 quarters. Further remarks indicated that pending board approval, distributions could restart in early 2010.

These numbers are based on historic NGL prices in relation to $65 oil. APL has been working to deleverage their balance sheet and it is anticipated that much of the cash flow for the next several quarters will go to pay down debt.

Linked here is the April sales report from the California Association of Realtors. The big news is that the state has now had two months of increases in the median sales price.

The median price for April was 36.5% lower than for April 2008. This is the first time in 9 months that the YoY price decline was less than 40%. Kind of like less bad bad news. The number of sales was 49% higher than a year ago and the available inventory was at 4.6 months.

I developed an interest in Flower Foods (FLO) some time back but did not follow up on further research. It was nice to get the email announcing that the company is increasing the dividend by 17%. This comes on a sales increase of 19% in the most recent quarter.

Management is projecting 2009 profits of $1.37 to $1.48 per share. That gives plenty of coverage for the 70¢ annual dividend. I am surprised that the shares are trading not very far above the recent low set in March. Since that time the over all market is up more than 30% and FLO has gained only 4%.

Linked here is the data from the National Association of Realtors on existing home sales for May 2009. If you get tired of sensationalized headlines and spin in the articles, take a look at the data for yourself.

The non-seasonally adjusted numbers show some nice gains from April and I wonder in this new economic age if seasonality is still in play as much for real estate.

Embedded video from CNNMoney Video

I am a fan of continued low housing start numbers until the inventory of bank owned homes is mostly absorbed and job numbers start to improve. A problem is that low housing starts equals low job numbers in the construction sector.

The 1st quarter earnings release for Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional [CSN] (SID) is linked here. I like CSN for its exposure to the Brazilian manufacturing market and huge EBITDA margins. Revenues and profits for the first quarter were down about a third from a year earlier as the Brazilian economy slowed due to the global economic crisis.

At the same time the stock of CSN, as traded on the NYSE, is up over 50% so far in 2009. It seems the value of this quality company fell a little too far.

I have always thought that the different business lines of Headwaters, Inc. (HW) were well managed and offered a lot of future potential. Unfortunately, those business lines have been particularly hard hit by the economic slow down. (Earnings Call Transcript)

Headwaters has been in a restructuring process of its basic business for about two years now. The previous bread winner ceased to be so when the portion of the tax code that allowed the profits expired. Since then HW has been expanding into related lines, but has not yet generated an overall growing revenue and profit stream.