The first week of October was dismal for both the stock market and gold. That's because the odd reaction to any good economic news was that traders assumed that a booming economy would cause a small (0.25%) fed funds rate increase in December, which could theoretically hurt the stock market and gold.
In truth, both gold and stocks fared just fine during the last Fed rate-raising cycle, but traders were looking for an excuse to sell, so the S&P fell a slight but noticeable 0.67% in the first week of October. I'll run down some of those positive economic indicators later on, but rest assured that the economy is not suddenly 100% robust.
Crude oil cracked $50 a barrel as both the American Petroleum Institute ((API)) and Energy Information Administration ((EIA)) reported a falling inventory for the fifth straight week. Higher refinery activity is apparently drawing down crude oil inventories,…