If dogs are man’s best friend, that might explain the market’s affection for coal, one of the poorest commodity performers in recent years. That is until this year. Thermal coal prices are up about a fifth from this spring’s low.
Great news for long-suffering holders of coal mining shares, though some will rightly wonder if the run can last. Coal has probably caught up with other energy commodities.
Oil has of course led the way; over the long run coal prices tend to track crude. Yet coal’s main energy competitor is natural gas for power generation. In the US the Henry Hub benchmark price has leapt 30 per cent in the past month alone, partly due to unseasonably warm weather.