Another strong day... XTO was the primary driver, buying D's assets and talking about an MLP. Strange development is a cyclone in the Middle East driving crude oil. Comments below from GS trader sickeningly bullish ->

The energy sector stole the spotlight once again yesterday as several E&P deals created a strong bid to nat gas and therefore a nice rally in Services and Drillers. Mega cap XOM was a lone underperformer yesterday, closing unched on the day, which we view as a positive seeing it generally points to the generalist community focusing on higher beta energy rather than "safe" energy exposure. We were active throughout the day for both vanilla and hedge customers mostly in red hot E&P and Pipeline names. Overall GS traders like the group and see another leg up in both the OSX & XOI, especially if sell side analysts continue to raise there 2007 avg crude prices before the end of Q2.