A funny thing happened on the way to Bernanke's wealth-creation strategy program. The unintended consequence of flooding the world with USDs, as we have pounded the table again and again on, has been 'spillover' into hard assets (or assets with relatively fixed supplies). To wit, oil prices are surging once again. Critically, as the chart below shows, each time this energy price hangover has trickled down to the consumer via $4 gas prices, it has marked a turning point in the US equity market. Of course, this time is different, but nevertheless one has to wonder how stock prices rise by any measurable amount with stagnant wage growth and price inflation in everything we buy and use (and now even the hedonically-tamped PPI is starting to show signs of instability).
S&P 500 'tops' vs $4 Gas Prices...
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Chart: Bloomberg
(h/t Brad @ NewEdge)