It seems increasingly apparent that commodity prices are creeping upwards. The question is, will they creep up slow enough to be offset by cuts in processing, distribution, and sales to the end user. Clearly commodity price rises are not good for the US and most of them are coming from the weakening of the dollar and demand from elsewhere, especially precious metals. One must look at the whole globe to see what is going on here. Demand for things like cars are growing in Asia and less stable countries are acquiring precious metals and other assets for good reason.

The world as some think of it, where US demand alone, is a good indicator of commodity prices is waning. As our demand has waned due to never ending QE and Zirp zombification the world is moving on to those who want to invest in capital equipment and growth. These are the ones who are eating up larger quantities of steel, gas, oil, and even precious metals. Although the spenders rule the roost for now, the savers are the slow but inevitable winners in capitalism. That is why it is called capitalism and not debtism. The Federal Reserve is leading the whole economy away from reality in a very bad way.

Although things have been somewhat rosy for quite a while in the stock market, it is still not so rosy in the whole economy which has changed very little. We will see if political issues adversely affect things this coming week because that seems to be the biggest uncertainty in my eyes right now.

It is sad. Whoever takes who normalizes rates will be blamed for crashing the economy when the blame like with Greenspan, goes to the one who put us where we are today. Even if they choose not to normalize rates, when a downturn comes if we are near zirp, the downturn will be very bad because the Federal Reserve will not have their usual weapon against severe downturns (the ability to lower rates substantially). When you mess with capitalism, the business cycle, and free market signalling, there is hell to pay. We should have learned that in school. It's sad the Federal reserve can't seem to get it into their head that Americans want to be responsible for their lives, not dependent on a socialist planned economy run by them. If you want to see where that leads and live in it then just go look at North Korea.

Accenture is a good company and reasonably valued given its good balance sheet and decent growth. If one wants stability and is not looking for a rocket ship, it is a good stock to consider. Nice call.

True if it is sustainable and built on cash flow and not increased debt and not the result of stock buybacks, especially if they are generated with increased debt.

10-23 I agree that a reversion is overdue. Today seems like just one of those and nothing much else. The last comment was for 10/22

Agreed, I think the dollar will break out to the upside unless a major deficit creating tax break is pushed through. Then we will see where the economy goes with or without the tax break.

Actually there seems to rotation out of tech stocks into more traditional businesses including autos, etc. I think some re-balancing is taking place as many tech stocks are richly valued and many non-tech stocks have languished on the sidelines.

Japan also looks to be primed for increased government spending on defense. This may prove as a short term stimulus to the economy which may be some of what Japan bulls are betting on. Also the US dollar has stopped falling for now.

There is renewed optimism that the economy will perk up at least a little. It certainly would make sense if a massive cut in taxes is on its way without a major drop off in spending although the Federal reserve may well counter it with faster paring down of QE and more raises in rates.

We will see how strong a rally is and if it is sustainable. Without tax cuts it probably won't last which makes it much clearer what a rally or lack of one comes down to from here on out.