Oil at US$55 a barrel and the CPI's inflation indicies around...

Oil at US$55 a barrel and the CPI's inflation indicies around the world hardly budging. Why? Retailers cannot afford to pass their costs of fuel on to the consumer because of the fear of losing market share/volumne on already tight margins...there are massive competitive pressures around...not just from Chinese exports

the above from christianp



OK so we accept that retailers cannot (or are not) passing on costs so in that case many companies profits will be down in the next 1/4, 1/2 or yearly reports & if that is so & the stock mkt is usually 6 months ahead of 'the action' why is the stock mkt at record highs, at least in Australia? Because obviously if what you say is true then profits will be down accross the board, even the banks will suffer from the flow on effect.

So when is the ASX going down? I have had a couple of goes at 'puts' & lost both times.