Oil, the stock market and economic inconsistency


There is too much noise on Wall Street, and it becomes clearer with each passing day why some of the best money managers and investors in the world choose to do their business from somewhere else.

The most famous of all being 'my pal' Warren Buffett who has operated his business from the amazing "financial Mecca" of Omaha, Nebraska.

Today I wake up to the news that the market is down because oil is down because the world economy may not be healing as fast as many had hoped.

Gee wiz, it was only about two weeks ago that oil was up hitting a recent high and we were hearing that the market was down on fear that commodities were going to become more scarce. Maybe the market just moves on the "spin".

How is that for consistency? Oil goes up and oil goes down and in either case we are told that is the reason the market is down. This could only be possible in a place where you can refer to something as really hot when you think it's great, unless of course you think something is really cool meaning it's also great!

If you're not confused by all this noise yet, just keep listening to Wall Street guru's and the flock that report on them.

Update: The DJIA reversed course mid day to end up 44.13, about a half percent, to 8,324.87, while the NASDAQ was down by the same, and the S&P moved up a a quarter point. Does this reflect a change in direction of oil prices from the early morning or perhaps the correlation on any given day is a fantasy?

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture and planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

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S&P 500+2.001,351.96

Last updated: February 09, 2012: 04:23 PM

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