Even though it was a short week for the markets, the bulls got their money's worth as even a sharp drop in Japan's Nikkei 225 last Thursday could not keep the US market down as stocks dropped early before finishing the day higher.
There was plenty of economic news to placate both the bulls and bears, both of which seem to be frustrated by the recent wide swings. One data point that caught my eye was the normally boring CPI report.
Late last year, I felt that the threat of deflation might keep the Fed from tapering, and I still think that deflation is still the greater threat, The low inflation rates in the Eurozone have been a key factor in the ECB's decision to keep rates low.
With January's data, the overall CPI inflation rate on a year-to-year basis came in at 1.6%, which was the highest rate since early 2013. So what does this mean for stocks?
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