Biofuels Stock and Financial Outlook for October 17: Stock futures up on corporate earnings; oil hits record; biofuels flat
Stock futures were up this morning as strong corporate earnings results started pouring in, and major indices were up 0.3 to 0.8 percent in overnight trading. Nasdaq led the way on the particularly good results from the technology sector.
The Biofuels Digest Indexâ„¢, a basket of public biofuel stocks, fell 0.03 percent yesterday to 102.66, up 3.4 percent over the previous week. Sector giant Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) drifted down 0.17 percent to close at $34.85, while winners led losers 5 to 3 on the day. There were mixed results from pure-play ethanol stocks, with VeraSun (VSE) up 0.26 percent to $11.59 and Aventine Renewables (AVR) up 2.26 percent to $9.94, but Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) fell 0.33 percent to close at $8.96.
Biodiesel stocks had a good day with Nova Biosource Fuels (NBF) up 3.41 percent to $2.73 and Better Biodiesel (BBDS.OB) up strongly, rising 26.13 percent on the day to close at $1.40.
In sector news, Bluefire Ethanol (BFRE.OB) announced that it will receive a DOE loan guarantee for its waste-based ethanol plant proposed for California, while the Wall Street Journal slammed ethanol subsidies and raised the hope that they would be eliminated when the Energy Bill emerges from a conference aimed at resolving differences between the House and Senate bills.
