Thanks to low interest rates and the predictable earnings of utilities, they've been appreciated handsomely in price.

FORBES

If you know that you will make it--you have to make choices whether you're going to pay your utilities or buy food, if you know you've got to make a choice whether you're going to buy--if you're a senior, if you got to buy medication or buy food.

NPR: Escaping Hunger: One Man's Story

United Utilities project manager Jason Boyd said the company had been taking out "what we've been allowed" but water removal had caused the rivers to run dry in past summers.

BBC: River Brennand

For two years they've tried to ram through big rate hikes on coal shipments--drawing an antitrust suit by utilities and an investigation by the Justice Department.

FORBES: America has coal to last 250 years. Why is there a shortage?

"We've seen reports of people who have not had a previous interest in copper--the military, utilities--saying, 'This looks like a good opportunity, let's buy some, '" says Jon Barnes of CRU Analysis.

FORBES: Heads Up