Investors Are Ignoring The Evidence At Their Peril

I was recently watching a movie about the FBI trying to bring down a terrorist cell in the U. S. During their investigation, their evidence board became more and more cluttered with people, evidence, and locations as they attempted to track down the ‘cell.’ At first, the clues were disparate, and they didn’t provide a clear path to the end goal. But as more clues were obtained, the bigger picture emerged eventually leading to the successful ending of the terrorist threat.
It got me to thinking about what is currently happening in the markets. As stocks rang new highs last week, there were several disparate stories that caught my attention. Individually, each story is nothing to be overly concerned about, and are regularly dismissed by investors. However, when you begin linking these stories, a picture is beginning to emerge that suggests investors may be ignoring the evidence at their own peril.
Story 1: CPI Remains Weak
Despite three hurricanes and wildfires over the last couple of months, core CPI (ex-aircraft) failed to register much inflationary pressure. One would have expected given the surge in demand for goods and services needed to rebuild destroyed communities.
However, despite the Fed’s hopes for a surge in inflationary pressures to justify further hikes in interest rates, inflationary pressures have been on the decline for the last several months.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Oct 16, 2017.