Quote of the day

Gillian Tett, “At the end of last week, trading in the credit derivatives markets implied that no less than 70 large US companies are now considered a better credit bet than the American government, according to Markit data.”  (FT also MarketBeat)

Chart of the day

The S&P 500 at inflection points.  (Big Picture)

Markets

Ten reasons to look at the bright side of things.  (Brett Arends contra Jon Markman)

What the stock market typically does the last two days of the month.  (Bespoke)

Contango has eased across many commodity markets, except WTI.  (FT Alphaville, ibid)

Strategy

What fund managers are likely doing this week.  (Investing With Options)

What the ultimate stock pickers are buying and selling.  (Morningstar)

Momentum generally works, just not at market turning points.  (Morningstar)

Is all the bitching on Twitter worth something after all?  (The Reformed Broker)

Why trading is nothing like sports.  (Minyanville)

Spread trades

ExxonMobil ($XOM) vs. Chevron ($CVX).  (Dynamic Hedge)

Coal vs. gas:  a tale of the tape.  (Dragonfly Capital)

Companies

Winners and losers:  the Apple ($AAPL) disruption edition.  (Big Picture)

Kevin C. Tofel, “Amazon has levers that few others can pull in the tablet space in terms of price flexibility.”  (GigaOM)

College kids are going back to school in plush new apartments.  How to play the trend.  (YCharts)

In praise of subscription fees for social sites, like Angie’s List.  (WSJ)

Finance

The social media and greater access to information will upend current business models in finance.  (Data Diary)

Hedge funds are about marketing and fees, not performance.  (Clusterstock)

Algorithms are smarter than people until they start interacting with each other.  (The Physics of Finance)

The media, Warren Buffett and Bank of America ($BAC).  (Value Plays)

Why (and how) the stock price of a mutual fund manager matters.  (SSRN)

Global

Sino-Forest bonds are trading at 33 cents on the dollar.  (Globe and Mail)

Poland’s economy is a bright spot in Central Europe.  (beyondbrics)

Economy

US consumer confidence falls even farther into the dumps.  (Bloomberg, EconomPic Data, Credit Writedowns, TRB)

The double dip in housing per Case-Shiller.  (Calculated Risk)

Is there anything that can be done about the economy?  (The New Republic)

Would another round of bank stress tests boost confidence?  (Free exchange)

Painful problems are normally not anticipated.  (Falkenblog)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

The quest for alpha cuts both ways.  (Abnormal Returns)

What you missed in our Tuesday morning linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Pundits are prone to change their methods to fit their conclusion.  (A Dash of Insight)

How to get the most out of StockTwits.  (Howard Lindzon, Chicago Sean)

In praise of working less.  (The Atlantic)

Abnormal Returns is a founding member of the StockTwits Blog Network.

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