Quote of the day
Warren Buffett on share buybacks, “You should know, however, that we have no interest in supporting the stock and that our bids will fade in particularly weak markets.” (via Jeff Matthews)
Chart of the day
The last shall be first: Sears Holdings ($SHLD) has more than doubled so far in 2012. (MarketBeat)
Markets
John Paulson is still hot on gold. (Bloomberg)
The sentiment picture still shows excessive bulls. (The Technical Take)
Can you really have a 301 day correction? (The Reformed Broker)
You can’t blame the surge in gasoline prices on speculators (or the Fed). (Money Game, The Atlantic)
Strategy
The ultimate goal for traders is to be able to make your own decisions independently and with confidence. (Joe Fahmy)
There is no room for absolutes in investing. (Above the Market)
The $64,000 question: is Apple ($AAPL) a new kind of company that can buck historical precedent? (Apple 2.o)
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report
The 2011 Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKA) shareholder letter. (Berkshire Hathaway)
More tidbits from the Berkshire letter. (Aleph Blog, Kid Dynamite, Geoff Gannon)
Warren Buffett has a successor as CEO. We just don’t know who he is. (WSJ, Dealbook)
Remember last time when everyone thought Buffett had lost it? (Money Game)
What Warren Buffett thinks about share buybacks. ( Deal Journal, Money Game)
Another great investment by Buffett. (Bronte Capital)
Remember not every Berkshire stock purchase is by Buffett these days. (Term Sheet)
Buffett’s views on housing. (Calculated Risk, Term Sheet)
Treasury bonds should come with a warning label. (Money Game)
Finance
Thinking about the complexities of the insurance industry. (Aleph Blog)
The grand foreclosure settlement settled nothing. (Barry Ritholtz)
More investors seem to be giving up on financial advisers. (Investment News)
Why some people don’t invest: they don’t trust financial professionals. (NYTimes)
Funds
Reality sets in as the iShares S&P National AMT-Free Bond ETF ($MUB) once again approaches NAV. (Bloomberg)
If only mutual fund annual reports were this funny (and honest). (Peter Anthony)
Global
The dramatic reversal in the Japanese Yen. (Bespoke, Global Macro Monitor)
Japan has their own Madoff-type scandal. (WSJ, ibid)
For those really interested on the math of the Greek bond swap. (Felix Salmon, Marketplace)
What we could learn from the Icelandic debt saga. (Rortybomb)
Economy
The two sectors holding back the economic recovery. (Money Game)
Bank loan growth is accelerating. (Calafia Beach Pundit)
Are small companies the big jobs creator commonly thought? (NYTimes)
On the prospects for increased household formation. (FT Alphaville)
A look at US energy consumption as a percentage of GDP. (Gregor Macdonald)
Tax breaks alone aren’t going to revive US manufacturing. (WashingtonPost)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you missed in our long form Saturday linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Top clicks this week on the site. (Abnormal Returns)
Mixed media
Ten lessons James Altucher learned from the show “Shark Tank.” (TechCrunch)
The looming “integrity crisis.” (Dan Ariely)
Oscar telecasts have stopped getting longer. (Slate)
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