Inflation Fizzle Rivals Democrats' Win as Year's Big Surprise « Thread Started on Dec 27, 2006, 10:03am » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Inflation Fizzle Rivals Democrats' Win as Year's Big Surprise By Peter RobisonDec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Inflation was the dog that didn't bite in 2006. In a year of surprises -- hurricanes that didn't hit, oil that didn't soar to $100 a barrel, a Republican majority in Congress that didn't hold -- the non-arrival of inflation was the biggest non-event of all. Money manager Robert Doll says that as recently as July he worried inflation would surge, triggering a meltdown in corporate earnings and pummeling U.S. markets. Crude oil prices that month reached a record $78.40 a barrel. Copper had doubled since late 2005, to almost $4 a pound. ``The volatility in commodities was just amazing,'' says Doll, chief equities investment officer for New York-based BlackRock Inc., which manages more than $1 trillion. ``That was a big scare.'' Things did look disheartening. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 7.7 percent from May 9 to June 13. U.S. consumer prices rose for a sixth consecutive month in June. To head off inflation, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate for the 17th straight time on June 29, to 5.25 percent, the longest string since the 1970s. By December, it was a different story. Further rate increases never came, as companies absorbed the higher fuel prices and inflation eased. read at source> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home