Wednesday 8/27 - Another Order Of Business

By: Matthew Graham

Remember that whole OIL thing?  Yeah, yeah, yeah....  We know that oil does not equal inflation, but the interconnectedness is incontrovertible.  That debate aside, the markets certainly discounted much of the suggested impact of the CPI and PPI due to falling commodities (with oil leading the way).  Remember last Thursday when oil rallied (big time) and bonds sold off? Other factors?  Sure....  But the implied inflation, if it was in doubt before, is now obvious.

All that to set the stave to let you know that oil is up 2 bucks so far today.  "No big" as the kids on the playground say these days, but more of an FYI, and something on which to keep one's eye.  Moreover, it could, at least, in small part, be contributing to what we are perceiving to be the "selling pressure" effects of the Durable Goods report--two horsemen of an innocuous quasi-apocolypse.  Heck, we can probably even make it through this one.  We're still at 100-24.  The longer we stay there, the more those horsemen begin to look like miniature ponies at little Johnny's birthday party.