Bad news for Dennis Gartman ...

Back in January, Dennis Gartman said in his widely read letter that crude oil wouldn't trade above $44 again in his lifetime.

Well, bad news, Dennis: crude oil just broke above $44 per barrel.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York rallied 3% on Wednesday to as high as $44.24 per barrel.

That's basically the highest level of the year.

In October 2014, Gartman said we were witnessing the end of an era for crude oil.

And in the CNBC interview in January, Gartman said he did not think the correlation between crude oil and stocks would last very long.

None of these calls is working out that well so far.

Oil prices have whipsawed in the last few weeks, as various headlines about a possible production-freeze deal bounced around.

The producers' meeting in Doha on Sunday ended without a deal, and that sent oil lower.

But prices have reversed course since Monday's initial drop. One of the catalysts analysts have pointed to is the three-day strike by oil workers in Kuwait, which ended Wednesday.

Here's a chart: