Quote of the day

Josh Brown, “The online currency trading shops are modern-day boiler rooms.”  (The Reformed Broker also Barron’s)

Chart of the day

The stock market is tracing out lower highs on this widely-followed indicator.  (@jackdamn)

Markets

Is the stock market cheap?  Shiller vs. Bianco on how to value the stock market.  (WSJ also Money Game)

A peek at 2012 earnings estimates.  (Crossing Wall Street)

What does the Fed have to do with this low volume market?  (Big Picture, Barron’s)

Stock buybacks are back.  (Horan Capital)

Looking back to the last time oil soared and eventually rolled over.  (chessNwine)

Money market mutual fund investors just can’t catch a break.  (WSJ)

Felix Salmon, “All indexes are arbitrary by nature.”  (Reuters)

Strategy

The materials and healthcare sectors still look “sound.”  (Dragonfly Capital, ibid)

Companies don’t like to write down impaired goodwill until they have to.  (Empirical Finance Blog)

Gerald Loeb’s 15 fundamentals for market success.  (Kirk Report also Trader Habits)

Can you lose in the financial markets on purpose?  (Derek Hernquist)

Do you really need a “Black Swan fund“?  (CBS MoneyWatch)

Companies

What does Bill Ackman see in Alexander & Baldwin (ALEX)?  (ValuePlays)

One company happier than Google (GOOG) that the ITA Software deal was approved.  (Term Sheet also The Tech Trade)

Why is Starbucks (SBUX) worth more than McDonalds (MCD)?  (YCharts)

Cramer vs. The Fly on the oil refiners.  (iBankCoin)

Finance

Jason Zweig, “It’s flattering to be asked to invest in an exclusive deal that not everyone can afford to participate in. But most private offerings aren’t tradable, and many go bust.”  (WSJ, ibid)

The broader implications of a more expansive approach to private stock.  (FT Alphaville)

Floyd Norris, “For the auditing industry, the financial crisis was really not that bad.”  (NYTimes)

These inside traders almost got away with it.  (Dealbook)

Economy

CEOs say they are going to start hiring.  (NYTimes)

Homeowners are picking up the pace of remodeling.  (Calculated Risk)

Five problems with ultra-low interest rates.  (Atlantic Business)

The rate of business failures is slowing.  (Street Sweep)

China had a quarterly trade deficit for the first time in seven years.  (Bloomberg)

The sociology of the economics profession needs to change to take into account economic history.  (Economist’s View)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What people were reading this week on Abnormal Returns.  (Abnormal Returns)

Our Saturday long form links.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

The ‘greying’ of the mainstream media is accelerating.  (Economist)

Jonah Lehrer, “Sports teams are impressively amateurish when it comes to the science of human capital.”  (The Frontal Cortex)

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