The S&P 500 briefly traded about the 1500 level for the first time since late in 2007 but it could not hold that level as the hide-whipping of Apple reached a possible crescendo.  Frankly, the move in Apple at this point is becoming silly and the hedge fund running that operation is sincerely pushing its luck.  Of course since it is likely the work of a group tied to one of the too big to fail banks, they have no worries if the trade goes against them, they’ll just ask for a bailout and the Fed will give it to them because no one can seriously entertain the notion of letting one of them fail.

The fate of western civilization rests in the hands of a bunch of sociopathic traders gleefully destroying people’s portfolio’s simply because they can.

But, no matter how these things go in the end the fundamentals always assert themselves.  This is not a vote in Apple’s favor, mind you, I’m now segueing to oil.  Brent Crude finally decided it was getting on the inflation bandwagon along with the Euro and TIPS yields, breaking above $113 and staying there.  A close tomorrow above $112.88 per barrel will be a significant breakout from consolidation below $112.50 and a strong signal that the rapid expansion of the monetary base in the past month by the Federal Reserve is leaking into the economy proper.

At some point you can’t hold an equity rally of this magnitude on such shoddy fundamentals without the monetary reality making an appearance.