Why investors worship Old King Coal

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2008/05/coal-producers.html

Coal producers are riding high for an industry that a growing throng of Americans wish would just go away.

Year to date, shares of Arch Coal Inc. are up 41%. The biggie of the industry, Peabody Energy Corp., has waxed 24% -- and 94% from its August trough. A broader measure of the sector's stocks, the Market Vectors Coal exchange-traded fund, has advanced 26% since its January launch.

All this bullishness is based on the dark rock’s own surge in value. Benchmark prices for some grades of electricity-generating steam coal are more than $100 for a metric ton, double September’s price. Metallurgical coal, the type used in steel making, has tripled in some contracts.

Oil attracts the anger and the ink, but coal, mined here in the U.S., has joined the club of rudimentary resources blessed by the energy crisis.

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