1. Commodity Inflation: Silver, gold, wheat, corn....its all up, and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon.
2. Crisis in the Middle East: Global uprisings fueled by political and social unrest are gathering through social media sites such as Twitter. The crisis in Libya, for instance, has shot oil prices near the $100 mark and is causing $3-$4 a gallon at the pump, easily.
3. Rising Equity Markets: The Fed's $600 billion in government purchases has increased the money supply back into the hands of investors and subsequently keeping interest rates lower for the time being. This seems to be spurring money into the markets, keeping levels afloat.
4. Artificial Intelligence: IBM's supercomputer, Watson, handily beat Jeopardy's two most successful champions and furthers the case that the exponential growth of computing will soon match the levels of humans.
5. Consumer Confidence: Numbers from the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment were at 77.5, up from 74.2 the prior month. Confidence and sentiment seems to be back on the rise, but I still don't buy the fact that consumers have increased their saving habits - which needs to happen on a more wide scale across the US.
