Amid Energy Pullback, Coal Chugging Ahead

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Oct. 20 at 10:59 a.m. EDT. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.

It's still somewhat hard to believe that traders are sitting around this week waiting on pins and needles for the earnings report of a coal miner. Strange as it may seem, coal producers have become the "it" stocks of 2005.

When formerly highflying oil and gas stocks were crushed early this month as fears of "demand destruction" trumped old fears of scarcity, the stocks of most coal miners sailed along unperturbed. Many of the big-caps are just a bit of black dust away from their all-time highs, as earnings reports in the group so far have been awesome.

In a tip of the cap to the city that lost its bid for a National League pennant, let's take a look at St. Louis-based miner Arch Coal(ACI Quote), which reports on Monday. ...