For what it’s worth
- My wife Lisa chimed in on yesterday’s blog entry. An employee at McDonald’s had just told her that gas would soon cost $4 per gallon. Actually, the employee isn’t that far off, if yesterday’s math applies. Gas prices at the pump, like energy stocks, haven’t moved up nearly as much as the price of oil has in recent months. A move to parity would bring the cost of a gallon of gas to about $4 from the current $3.10 we’re seeing here in Ohio.
- This morning, a commentator on CNBC mentioned an interesting statistic about recent market volatility. Apparently, the S&P 500 hasn’t had three consecutive up or down days since mid August. Clearly, the markets have been schizophrenic lately. Yesterday’s strong gains were wiped out by today’s equally strong sell off. Maybe the statistic suggests that we’re at a crossroads economically. There has certainly been a whole lotta’ churnin’ goin’ on. The trend has still been growth’s friend.
- Gold and oil have soared since the Fed first cut rates in August. I’m sure the falling dollar and the search for alternative stores of value are partly responsible. But I’m not so sure this would explain the entire move. It wouldn’t surprise me if another hedge fund blows up soon. Remember Amaranth? They blew up about a year ago after making some very bad leveraged bets on natural gas. Natural gas hasn’t done much of anything since then.
- Our October 12th blog entry titled My Neighbor’s Candy sparked a high level of interest from our readers and The New York Times elaborates on the question in today’s paper. If you’re interested in learning more about China’s many new billionaires, click here.