I’ve included the Dollar Index in today’s list of touts not just because the U.S. dollar’s ups and downs affect the economic world more than any other trading vehicle, but also because the greenback is moved by market forces far bigger than the eggheads, navel-gazers and charlatans at the Fed could pretend to control. The long-term chart is unambiguously bullish, notwithstanding the stall since December. This stagnation presumably is corrective, since the Nov/Dec peak exceeded a prior high at 102.15 recorded back in 2003.  That makes the rally itself, from last May’s 91.92 low to the recent high at 103.82, bullishly impulsive — an analytical distinction whose significance would not be lost on our Elliot-Wave colleagues. While I would not hazard a prediction about how long it will take for the dollar to consolidate in order to achieve the 113.40 target shown, when the move finally happens, as I very strongly expect it will, bullion prices, U.S. manufacturers’ overseas profit margins and all who owe dollars will come under renewed pressure. _______ UPDATE (Feb 26, 7:57 p.m.):  Last week’s pullback tripped a ‘mechanical’ buy signal at 100.83 off the pattern shown. If this bounce achieves and then exceeds the 102.09 target, it will shorten the odds that the Dollar Index is on its way, eventually, to 113.40. _______ UPDATE (Mar 2, 8:52 p.m.): Today’s thrust somewhat exceeded the 102.09 target, implying that still-higher prices are coming, presumably to 113.40 eventually. _______ UPDATE (Mar 19, 6:00 p.m.): With last week’s moderate selloff of the dollar, traders seemed to be betting that France’s election on April 23 will go the way Holland’s went — i.e., with a less-than-decisive victory for the ‘Trump candidate’, Marine Le Pen.  This strikes me as a dangerous bet, but we shouldn’t be surprised if the trend continues for the next few weeks as pollsters and the news media do their disingenuous best to knock Le Pen down. The juiciest odds to bet it the other way will likely come on Friday, April 21, but we should stay on the sidelines for now.