PDL BioPharma: Take the LEAPS

As I pen this newsletter, I'm already seeing the Dow Industrials Index dropping by 160 points, despite the fact that oil is actually down over $1.00 per barrel today.

Markets seem to be detaching from the recent predictable cause-and-effect of higher oil prices = lower stock prices and vice versa.  The focus is shifting...but the big question is:  To what is that focus going to be on next?  PIMCO's Bill Gross had an interesting June Newsletter opining on the "real" rate of global inflation vs. what the US Domestic CPI and PPI measures are showing.  His very interesting observation was the US Government, which reports the statistics of CPI and PPI has been monkeying with how those indexes are measured for so long, and in such measure, that they really don't reliably report the actual "real" rate of inflation any more.  Bill's group has a gigantic vested interest in knowing what the real rate of inflation is on a global scale, and the fact that the rest of the world is reporting 6+% inflation rates while we in the US still are being fed data that show benign rates - well, let's just say that what we're being fed is pretty good fertilizer.