I'm Thinking Of A Front-Month Commodity Futures Contract That Begins With 8...

Can you guess what it is?

As of 10:50 am, light sweet crude for February delivery was trading at $89.54 per barrel on the Nymex, having declined more than 10% since poking above $100 two weeks ago.

Oil's swift pullback from its brief foray into triple digits offers a welcome counterpoint to this morning's retail inflation report, which showed prices rising slightly faster than expected in December (0.3% actual vs. 0.2% expected).  December closed out a year of rather uncomfortably high inflation, with retail prices now sitting 4.1% above year-ago levels.  Energy prices were by far the biggest inflationary factor in 2007, soaring 17.4% during the year.  Excluding energy and food prices, inflation for the year would've been a far more subdued 2.4% (close to the average rate seen over the last several years).

So whether you like the idea of low inflation (and a Fed with a full quiver of rate cuts) or you take some sordid pleasure in watching the share prices of major oil companies sink, this trend is likely your friend.