Quote of the day

DH, “There is a big difference between genuine intuition and knee jerk reaction. The difference is similar to that of legitimate fear and run-of-the-mill anxiety.”  (Dynamic Hedge)

Chart of the day

The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index has rolled over.  (Behavioral Macro also FT Alphaville)

Markets

Investors put a bunch of money back into the stock market last week.  (The Reformed Broker, Money Game)

Remember that drought that killed the corn crop? It really hasn’t gone away.  (Marketblog)

Everyone is looking for a correction. You know what that means…  (Dragonfly Capital)

Currencies

Placid forex markets have erased profit opportunities for currency hedge funds.  (WSJ)

Is the carry trade a replacement for income?  (Inside Investing)

Strategy

Souring on TAA.  (MarketSci Blog)

A word of caution on REITs.  (Vanguard Blog)

Does your research operation operate at the “right speed”?  (the research puzzle)

Twenty lessons from Richard Love’s Superpeformance Stocks.  (Ivanhoff Capital)

Financial planning

Don’t skip step one in the financial planning process.  (Aleph Blog)

Twelve financial tasks to take care of this year.  (StockCharts Blog)

Companies

The crux of the battle over Herbalife ($HLF).  (Dealbook)

How Samsung became the biggest tech company in the world.  (Slate)

UPS ($UPS) simply works.  (YCharts Blog)

Finance

Equity trading errors keep piling up at the nation’s stock exchanges.  (Michael Santoli, NYTimes, WSJ)

Interest in muni bonds is back, but the tax exemption is still at risk.  (WSJ, Income Investing, MuniLand)

Goldman Sachs ($GS) is the last investment bank standing.  (The Daily Beast)

ETFs

How the mutual fund/ETF split will evolve.  (ETFdb)

On the performance of microcap ETFs.  (research puzzle pix)

Global

Japan is adding fiscal stimulus to its bag of expansionary tricks.  (NYTimes, Bloomberg, Money Game)

What is going on with Saudi oil production?  (FT Alphaville)

Central bank independence is ebbing.  (Tim Duy, FT, ibid)

Economy

Why #mintthecoin has already won.  (TheArmoTrader)

In praise of Tim Geithner.  (Business Insider)

Hey, California has a budget surplus.  (Calculated Risk)

The Fed is by far and away the most profitable bank in the world.  (Real Time Economics)

Mixed media

Baseball is set to expand its drug testing program to HGH.  (Bleacher Report, NYTimes)

Gourmet popcorn is the hot new trend.  (Time)

Fecal transplants get their own custom set of bacteria.  (Scientific American)

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