With the price of a barrel of crude currently wafting north of $120, Wall Street seems oddly, if not to say blithely, unconcerned. How else to explain a 50-point rally in the Dow on a day when oil prices roared to new all-time highs, violently reversing last week’s brief shakeout?  Oil futures closed yesterday above $120 for the first time, settling at 121.80, a dollar off their intraday peak. Over the last three sessions, quotes have risen $9.32, or a little more than 8 percent.  And they could go significantly higher, too, since there’s an unachieved Hidden Pivot target just above $131 that implies more upside of at least 10% over the near term. If so, can $5 gas and the nationalization of what remains of the nation’s airlines be far behind?  And what about the part of U.S. economy that moves on trucks? It already costs $1,000 to fill the tank of an 18-wheeler. And even at a “mere” $3.60 a gallon, the average family is paying $4,300 per year to fuel two cars, up from $3,600 less than a year ago.  

Amazingly, none of this seems to be troubling investors at the moment, assuming the upward skew of shares since mid-March reflects their true mood. One stock in particular, Apple, has led the charge, gaining ground on more than 80% of the trading days during that period. Recall that when Apple was plummeting from $203 to $115 in January and February, there was talk that sales of the Cupertino firm’s pricey iPhones, iPods and computers would suffer during a prolonged recession. But if falling sales were a concern a month ago, they evidently aren’t now, Apple shares having recouped more than 80 percent of the ground lost earlier in the year.  We’re not sure how far this “service-sector rally” can go, especially considering that the banks, whose troubles could persist for quite a while, contribute far more to the bottom line than all other non-manufacturing businesses combined. But for now, at least, Wall Street investors appear to have discounted the impact of dramatically higher fuel prices.

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Free Hidden Pivot Demo on Friday

Can a novice learn in mere months how to interpret stock and commodity charts more accurately than many experts who do it for a living? Rick’s Picks  invites you to find out for yourself. Click here, then on the “Upcoming” tab, to sign up for a free Hidden Pivot demonstration this Friday morning from 9 to 10 (Mountain). The session is open to anyone seriously interested in attending the Hidden Pivot Seminar slated for May 21-22 (two consecutive evenings). During Thursday’s session we will attempt in real time to identify trading opportunities in such popular trading vehicles as Comex Gold and Silver, the Diamonds, QQQs and E-Mini S&Ps.

If you are skeptical that chartist “voodoo” can correctly call the trend in any time frame, or that it can consistently identify price reversals to within hundredths of a point, then I would urge you to attend this session.  You will come away convinced not only that it is possible, but that you can do it yourself with just a few hours of training. You’ll learn to look at stock and commodity charts in a completely different way, using your eye to discriminate winning trading patterns from losers as you would good art from bad.

Seats are limited, so please register soon if you want to be assured of getting a spot. No telephone is required, only a headset/microphone that plugs into a USB port or speaker jack on your computer.

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Get Your Chat-Room Pass

The Rick’s Picks chat room is the place to be if you’re looking for tradable ideas in real time.  Gold and silver traders in particular can benefit, since the room attracts experienced traders from all over the world at all hours of the day, particularly during U.S. market hours. If you would like a free one-day pass to check it out, click here, and then on the green banner.