Nat-Gas Stocks Must Know Something

What the heck is going on with natural gas? Where are the actual industrial users? Is there any company out there, a big chemical company, that can lock in these prices? They are totally breaking down, in part, I believe, because of the artificially high level that the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (UNG - commentary - Trade Now) propelled it to, and in part because we learned that a major fund has taken a long position down that is leveraged, and others seem to be shooting against him.

What I don't understand is, what are the firms like Owens-Illinois (OI - commentary - Trade Now) and Dow Chemical (DOW - commentary - Trade Now) and DuPont (DD - commentary - Trade Now) and PPG (PPG - commentary - Trade Now) doing to lock in these prices? Surely they aren't waiting for them to get to $2.

And what are the utilities that burn natural gas doing? They can lock in some profits here vs. their sale prices that could make for bountiful profits if it ever gets cold again!

Oh, and at what price does President Obama notice this and say, "We will embrace this cheaper, cleaner fuel until the other alternatives are ready"?

It has to be that something positive is happening underneath, or clearly Southwestern Energy (SWN - commentary - Trade Now), the purest play I follow, wouldn't be up more than a dollar, and XTO Energy (XTO - commentary - Trade Now) and Chesapeake (CHK - commentary - Trade Now), two other levered plays, would be down big.

Ultra Petroleum (UPL - commentary - Trade Now) should be down big. Nabors (NBR - commentary - Trade Now), the most natural-gas-geared driller, should be at $10, for heaven's sake.

This is the ultimate conundrum group. How can it not be at 52-week if not multiyear lows?

I think it has to be because something major is about to happen in Washington, in the Senate, to the energy bill. Something that will make it so we wished we bought nat gas here -- as users -- and that will justify the prices of the stocks themselves.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long PPG.

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