Recent US interest rate cuts have helped create a liquidity boom in emerging markets (EM), fuelling demand for raw materials and boosting stock markets. In turn, robust demand and a global oil supply contraction in the third quarter of 2007 recently pushed crude oil briefly above $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the US dollar is close to record lows, both against the euro and on a broad basis. More interestingly, the long-term correlation between oil and the dollar has moved from a historical average of -1 per cent to -80 per cent of late.

How are the spike in oil prices and the slide in the dollar related?