Flooding in Australian coal mines and power outages in South African ones led coal producers in those countries to halt or slow production, particular exports to asia, leading to spikes in prices.
Peabody announces a joint venture with the Millenium/BHP Mitui Coal Pty that will add 35 million tons of metallurgical coal to Peabody's reserves.
Peabody announces that it will invest in Rentech (RTK)'s coal-to-liquid program; the announcement fueled investor confidence as liquid coal is being touted as an alternative to gasoline to power cars and could be lucrative in the future.
Stock prices drop as investors sell off shares because of declining confidence in future profitability, due to the news that first quarter income fell due to declining shipments of coal.
