While the idea of US growth re-acceleration is driving dollar strength, it's not the only story. Recent positive surprises in European PMI data and upgraded Chinese GDP forecasts suggest broader global growth resilience. This breadth should help cap the US dollar's rally and may promote weakness against other currencies.

For commodities to benefit from reflation, rising inflation alone is not sufficient. It must be accompanied by a genuine economic and industrial rebound, indicated by rising Purchasing Managers' Indexes (PMIs). This combination dramatically improves commodity returns, especially for energy and industrial metals.

This simple ratio serves as a powerful, real-time indicator of market confidence in productive economic growth versus a flight to safety. A rising ratio, driven by a stronger S&P 500 or falling gold prices, signals that investors believe in the current economic strategy's ultimate success.

A specific set of cross-asset indicators serves as a reliable barometer for an impending global growth acceleration. These include rising copper prices (industrial demand), outperformance of Korean equities (global trade sensitivity), and strength in the financials sector (credit creation).

The market is focusing on individual positives like earnings growth and Fed easing, but the real story is the reinforcing interplay between deregulation, operating leverage, and accommodative monetary and fiscal policy. This collective impact is being underestimated by investors.

A wide range of historically reliable leading indicators—including copper prices, non-traded commodities, Korean equities, and small-cap stocks—are all simultaneously pointing towards a strengthening global cyclical outlook. This alignment across different assets and regions provides a more substantive and reliable signal than any single indicator could.

An index of non-traded industrial commodities like glass and tin provides a clearer view of true economic activity. Because these materials are not easily traded by financial investors, their price movements are less likely to be influenced by speculative activity and more directly reflect genuine industrial demand, making them a purer leading indicator.

To assess true macroeconomic stability amid market noise, investors should monitor four specific signposts: inflation expectations, government debt volatility, U.S. dollar valuation, and credit market stress. As long as these core indicators remain calm, the fundamental case for market strength holds.

While the "quad" economic outlook is crucial, the ultimate authority is the market's "signal"—a multi-factor model of price, volume, and volatility. Keith McCullough states if he had to choose only one, he would rely on the signal, as it reflects what the market *is* doing, not what it *should* be doing.