With no further delay a number of items we wanted to bring to your attention.

We previously discussed the potential for rising housing inventories to put pressure on resales in the housing market. Jesse Eisinger in the Wall Street Journal notes some dyed-in-the-wool value investors are taking positions in the housing stocks. The housing companies have transformed the way they do business, so it will be interesting to see if they can weather this downturn better than they have in the past.

Speaking of value investors, Controlled Greed notes yet another value stock closing to new investors. This time it is the Third Avenue Small Cap Value Fund (TASCX).

macroblog notes that the markets are anticipating Fed fund increases at both the March and May meetings.

William Pesek Jr. in Bloomberg.com notes rising rates in Japan could have an impact on global interest rates. From the piece a great quote:

“All liquidity starts in Japan, the world’s largest creditor country,” said Jesper Koll, chief economist for Japan at Merrill Lynch & Co. “When rates go up here, rates go up everywhere.”

HedgeStreet and the Chicago Board Options Exchange are getting together to offer “hedgelets” to a broader audience.

Gregg Wolper at Morningstar.com notes the similarities between world index funds and momentum investors.

Timothy Middleton at MSN Money recommends investors not mix their portfolio with their religous beliefs.

Emma Trincal at TheStreet.com has a number of items in her hedge fund report, including an interesting arbitrage situation.

David Warsh at economicprincipals.com discusses the way big-box retailers are changing our economic ecosystem and how that might effect backward-looking measures like CPI.

Daniel Drezner asks, “What’s the big deal about the port deal?”

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