Is Anyone Out There Interested In Buying Anything? Anyone? Hello?

Since the middle end of August, lethargy seems to have haunted almost every market you can name. (In general, many industrial and agricultural commodities are down considerably, however.) But let’s look at some major areas to get a feel for what’s happening overall.

Gold, for instance, closed at 1160 on August 17. Today, as we draw near to close of trading, it’s looking at a close of perhaps 1130 to 1132.

The S&P 500 since its price fell off the table between August 10 and 17, (and a second step down on the 31^st), has been hovering between 1900 and roughly 1980. Every time the index seems to move back toward the 2000 mark, real resistance and a psychological line, it tumbles back into the mid 1900s. And analysts shout “Look out below!”

West Texas Intermediate crude has been operating in a very tight range for the month of September, shifting between roughly $44 and $48 per barrel. Crude seems to be steadily victimized by conflicting data. Today one industry report showed a drop in crude inventory levels but a steep rise in gasoline stockpiles. Of course gasoline is the primary use of crude, although that changes a bit once winter heating season blankets the northern climes.

The U.S. dollar/euro split has been a bit more rambunctious since last October when it took 1.29 dollars to buy a euro. The oscillation has been restricted the 1.11 to 1.14 range in September of this year.

It would be all well and good if we could point at the Fed, for instance, and say, “Aha, there’s the reason for uncertainty.” But as soon as we draw that or a similar conclusion, we are faced with what lies in back of the Fed’s action.

We know what Chairwoman Janet Yellen and her posse say and there is much to agree with in their statements and actions. They are responding to macro events like China’s continuing economic subsidence (despite all protests to the contrary by the People’s Republic’s state media and “official” data).

Then there are more quotidian issues such as the Volkswagen sensor tampering scandal. Or Hillary Clinton beating on the heads of big pharma companies.

We are constantly reminded that the U.S. is still the big dog in the hunt but is nonetheless running with some other pretty good-sized hounds. The European Central Bank is one such animal.

ECB chief Mario Draghi painted a sober, but not negative, picture of economic developments in the Eurozone, trying in the process to assure members of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee that the central bank “will not hesitate to act if some of the downward risks weaken the inflation outlook over the mid-term more fundamentally than we project at present.” He hinted at the option of re-calibrating the size, composition and duration of the ECB’s asset purchase program, to add monetary policy impetus if necessary.

That served to strengthen the euro against the greenback on the day, making for yet another day of trading in a neutral mood, a kind of economic DMZ.

Everyone is looking for some sort of engine to appear, rev up loud and clear and start driving the world economy forward with certitude.

Wishing you as always, good trading,