Oil $47.18US in early trade, page-100

Serena - stocks as a group dont rise with economic performance.

If you have a look through history the best performance times for stocks is when economy is just after its worst but still poor - and stocks tend to crash when economic growth is at its fastest

the reason is that while earnings rise with economic growth generally, multiples are set by the allocations decision between bonds, property, stocks and cash.

Basically the lower interest rates, the lower bond returns and the more multiples will be assigned to stocks.

As gdp rises, interest rates rise, bond yields rise and relative appeal of stocks reduces.

Its not a straight line though. And there are often specific things about a given sector that will change way it performs vs index in higher interest rate environments.