Over the past 12 months, the best-performing coal company stock is CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX), which is down about 10.5%. It is an even better performer over the past two years, down just 3%.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) and CONSOL report third-quarter earnings Tuesday and the consensus projections for Arch call for an earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.41 on revenues of $719.33 million, compared with EPS of $0.19 on revenues of $889.06 million for CONSOL. The difference between the two companies is natural gas, which CONSOL extracts and Arch does not.

It is a little hard to believe that even the low prices we’ve been seeing for natural gas are better than the awful prices we have seen for coal, but it is nevertheless true. CONSOL and partner Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) issued 17.5 million common units of a joint venture midstream energy transportation company, CONE Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: CNNX), at $22 per unit in late September. The initial public offering (IPO) left CONSOL with a 32.1% stake in the common units of CONE and half the general partner interest and the incentive distribution rights. Not much immediate help for the third quarter, but probably good down the road.

Two weeks ago Arch forecast better-than-expected third-quarter results and the stock jumped more than 7%. Since then the stock has gained another 9.5% to close at $1.84 last Friday. But as Tuesday gets nearer, the stock is losing ground. Shares traded at $1.78 in the mid-afternoon on Monday, down about 3% in a 52-week range of $1.35 to $5.37.

CONSOL’s shares traded down about 1.5%, at $34.16 in a 52-week range of $31.64 to $48.30.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) reported a smaller-than-expected loss last week, and its chart tracks Arch’s much more closely than it does CONSOL’s.

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