U.K. inflation reached the highest since at least 1997 in May, and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King predicted it will exceed 4 percent later this year, adding to speculation that the economy will fall into a recession.
It's a stock-market conundrum: The economy is barely growing, oil prices keep climbing, housing remains in a funk -- and yet stocks are rebounding.
Wall Street often goes in a different direction from Main Street, of course, largely because stock prices are bets on the future value of companies, as opposed to a report card on their operations and profits today.