In response to Linkedin Question :- Weather Economy is decided by Crude Oil or Money?

Oil is just a commodity, yes a large one but after all a commodity. It is a resource required to drive the demand of various activities in the economic growth and set up of Economies. In 2008 almost $2.7 trillion of Crude Oil was traded, big enough right. But when you compare it to World GDP it is less than 5% of almost $60 trillion (World GDP). Yes there is lot of value added at various stages and that increases the influence on Crude Oil in deciding the final GDP numbers. But certainly it is not the Economy decider.

2nd factor which can explain you about why it is not the only driver is CPI. Energy including oil are 17% of Inflation basket (in US). There are 83% other things that is part of inflation basket, so does it explains the World GDP or economies certainly not.

Gulf Countries, they are always profitable even if Oil trades at 30$, if they have excess cash, they create Soverign Wealth Funds and invest in other countries, so higher prices doesnt mean more local investments.

Now coming to money.

Money supply drives prices, no matter whatever the reason be. Price of any thing, stock, commodity, food will increase if more money is chasing it, but does that mean money drives economy certainly not, it is just the means to buy something once economy has given you enough power to buy something.

So what drives economies:-

1. People:- Countries need to be young to grow, where you have more earning population and less dependent population. In other words the earning population earns enough to take care of dependent population.

2. Economic development, which is dependent on government policies, open and investor friendly the country more wealth (in any form) will enter the economy thus making it grow.

3. Literacy. Can you name a developed world economy that is not literate, certainly not. More literate the people are, more connected they will be, more intellectual they will be and more options they will have to drive the economic activity.

4. Innovation:- Innovation does not mean only about winning Nobel Prize, it can also be doing something already being done, but in more efficient manner. Like, producing cheap, micro products etc.

To conclude: Crude is a commodity required to full fill certain tasks of economy. Money is one way of deciding the wealth the economy have and a mode of exchange, it in itself is not a wealth. Economy, is dependent on the activity that takes place within it or associated with it. Thus decided by all (All means all) the action that happens within it.

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Market mood and current scenario! A perfect text book picture of doing exactly they have done before!!!

Around a month ago in one of the discussion I talked about S&P range of 1010 and that is where it got tested!

I love to talk in numbers, however sometimes its better to speak logic and not just the numbers. I would like to share few points which have indirect or may be direct relation to market movement and can help us analyze the current situation where we stand and what should we do???

1. Mean Convergence is something that can never be ignored. S&P in its recent rally had gone far ahead of its mean (which ever you follow, I follow Mean Overshoot beyond moving average). So it needs to cool down and we are seeing the cooling effect.

2. First leg of any positive movement (from times immemorial) start in such kind of extreme panic. First correction is seen as a caution by most people as thoughts of recent meltdown still are fresh in minds of everybody. This factor is also proving true. 3. USD, everybody is speaking against it. (Only 5% people are bullish). So logically it is forming a base and I think may be a long term bottom. We should see strength in USD. 4. Gold, the channel its moving in, if you see the chart is getting narrower and narrower, which indicates that it need to chalk out its new course very soon (may be Oct), and things should work against it if USD rises and thats a possibility.

5. Sugar went into correction much before the rest of the things and whatever reason we say (Excessive rains in Brazil or less rains in India), it is bouncing and bouncing hard. Will other commodities follow, take your call.

6. China, and other Asian tigers once again have proven their metal. They are roaring and roaring hard, not dependent solely on Western Consumption. Now if you add a bit of Western recovery, then expect much better numbers.

7. Baltic Dry Index which was at $700 in December is now close to $3000 and is more or less close to rates where world trade and ship usage start getting normal.
8. Recent good set of numbers by so many companies (yes quality of numbers can be debated), expect numbers closer to these in coming quarter as well and that can contribute to lowering PE multiples, as its always easy to climb from lower base.

9. For the time being inflation argument has been thrown out of the window and central banks need not to worry about raising interest rates just to control inflation, the most common step they take. It seems that inflation will be normal.

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10. After all it is the money flow that will drive the market, scenario right now is, we all (investors, traders etc) are deploying the money to stocks, brought the market to these levels, now all of us want to book some profit, we talk of hitting bottom again, but are we pulling out completely, I think, "no", Actually we are cautiously looking for an opportunity to enter the market as very few people took the benefit of recent rally to an extent they can feel satisfied.

So to conclude, please sit back and take a overall look, I am seeing this a perfect example of "Fear Overplaying+Markets Outplaying+ Smart guys doing exactly what they need to do, be fearless but diversified and watchful".