The steep drop in the price of oil in July 2015 was a concern for traders.
Drillers and other energy companies comprise a significant portion of the
S&P 500 index. “The upside to falling oil is that all the money that
drivers are saving at the gas pump should mean more spending by them at stores
— and a faster-growing U.S. economy. But Americans are choosing to pay off debt
instead of going shopping.”[1]
Is this a bad thing? In reckoning it as such, Wall Street analysts are missing
the big picture, even financially.
The full essay is at “Wall
Street Defining American Society.”
Gas at a station in January 2015 (ABC News)
[1] Bernard
Condon and Ken Sweet, “Why
Stocks Are Tumbling 6 Years into the Bull Market,” The Associated Press,
August 23, 2015.