Is Liquidity--or Inflation--Driving Dow to Record Territory?

Ned Riley, chief executive officer of Riley Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Morning Call” that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will soon top 13,000 and 14,000 is possible.

He said liquidity is driving the market higher and propelling intense merger and acquisition activity.

“It’s liquidity, liquidity and more liquidity,” Riley said Tuesday. “The tremendous amount of liquidity is pushing the market higher.”

But Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, disagreed.

“It’s not liquidity – it’s inflation,” Schiff said. “The new (market) high is meaningless. It’s an illusion created by inflation. Look what’s happening to the value of the dollar – it’s near a 27-year low against the British pound, it’s at an 18-year low against the Australian dollar.”

He said European stocks are now more valuable than U.S. stocks for the first time since the years prior to World War I.