Stocks Up As New Year Begins

After the fifth straight month of positive manufacturing numbers, investors were optimistic and bullish about the US economy as 2010 began with a great bang today.  Production is up which means that not only are consumers buying, but companies are optimistically projecting that they will continue to buy even beyond the holiday shopping season.

I noticed this right away as gas prices spiked where I'm at to almost 40 cents more per gallon than last week.  As manufacturers produce more and as consumers buy as it seems like this is suggesting, there will be more consumption of oil.  As demand for oil rises, so will the price of gas.

Economic prosperity unfortunately comes at the cost of higher oil prices, which might have a significant hand possible inflation, unless the Fed steps in soon.  The Consumer Price Index, that thing economists do to measure inflation by taking a huge survey of how much daily household stuff costs, doesn't include the gas.  I'm still not sure why the price of gas isn't included in the CPI and the rate of inflation when this is a major percentage of the monthly household budget for most Americans.  I don't get it.  If someone could explain it to me, I would really appreciate it.

I track the USD/CAD currency exchange for various reasons.  Okay, I'll tell you.  I'm an American currently living in Canada and a lot of my business and therefore much of my income comes in USD.  So depending on commodity prices, because the Canadian economy is very much involved in the commodities sector, as well as the health of the US economy, the USD/CAD forex market can do some crazy things.

The USD/CAD spiked at like 1.04 today, but it's been tanking because of the rising US stock market.  No worries, I found a Chinese currency exchange place that gave me a decent rate, a much better rate than the big banks around here that rob you when you do exchange foreign currencies.