Dazed and Confused

Does the price of crude mean something in common stock pricing? I think the answer is that right now it just might. The truth is that the market focusses on certain things at various times.

At certain times, the stock market seemed to move whenever the gold or copper market moved. This was particularly true dureing the Hunt runup in silver prices, for instance. At other times, the stock market focussed on grain prices. During two periods, this was especially the case, once during the Chernobyl disaster (1983) and the other time during the Soviet wheat deal. In periods of inflation in the 1970s, grain prices seem to move the stock market.

At other times, the interest rate market seemed to move the equity market. If bonds ticked up, S&Ps rallied, and so forth. And of course in the first gulf war, oil price movement shook up the market in a big way.

In times of high oil prices, the stock market is seemingly relatively correlated with equity prices. But just remember...this will inevitably change!