The economy has been growing at an ever slow pace for the last couple of years.  When it seemed like we were seeing things pick up, we started to see some softening economic numbers come in.  It hasn’t been that great of a time for investors and there is really no light at the short term tunnel to speak of.  It may be a difficult time to find good stocks to invest in currently in this kind of oppressive climate.  Here are the things you want to watch out for in the coming months and quarters.

One of the biggest barriers to the economy and your investment portfolio is the price of oil.  So here is how this works out in our economy.  The US economy is driven by consumers.  I’m not sure all the details of how this works, but if consumers aren’t spending money, our economy is not doing well.  So guess what happens when the price of oil goes up.  Yes, you guessed it right, the price of gas goes up.  What does that mean for the consumer?  There is less money in their pockets to spend on stuff.  That hurts our economy because of the way it’s set up.  Websites like Finance World won’t agree with things like this, but it is how it work nonetheless.

So the oil market is a huge factor in terms of how our economy grows or not.  But it works differently in how it plays out in the stock market.  If you are a stock investor, how you view the price of oil will depend on why it’s happening.  If the price of oil is going up because of supply shortages, that’s not a good sign for investing.  But if it’s going up because of rising demand in emerging markets, that is a good sign and you should invest in stocks that are in those economies.