J. Alex Tarquino in the New York Times on one of our favorite topics – the modest, but real benefits of portfolio re-balancing.

Howard Lindzon details how he is re-balancing his portfolio in light of the market’s recent run.

Bespoke Investment Group checks in with the prediction markets for clues on oil and the odds of a U.S. economy.

Kara Scannell at WSJ.com on the return “with a vengeance” of insider trading. Speaking of insider trading, did it ever leave?

DealBook on whether the Dow Jones (DJ) board can “just say no” to Rupert Murdoch.

Paul Tharp at the New York Post on the financial decision facing members of the Bancroft family.

If a Dow Jones deal doesn’t happen, the market may just have to settle for a Reuters-Thomson hookup. (via WSJ.com)

Rumors have been flying about a Yahoo (YHOO)-Microsoft (MSFT) deal. Chad Brand and Paul Kedrosky weigh in.

Jennifer Waters at Marketwatch.com on the growing cash hoard at Eddie Lampert’s Sears Holding Corp. (SHLD).

Paul J. Lim at the New York Times on the prospects for continuing large cap outperformance.

Brett Steenbarger at TraderFeed on the current large cap rally’s “dwindling base of strength.”

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture passes along an oddly behaving sentiment measure.

Bill Luby at VIX and More on the statistical relationship between the VIX and the SPX.

David Merkel at the Aleph Blog has a half dozen market observations.

Daniel Gross at the New York Times on whether the U.S. economy has de-coupled from the rest of the world.

Michael Cieply in the New York Times on the prospects for a Gordon Gekko-focused sequel to the movie Wall Street.

Thanks for checking in with Abnormal Returns. You can always reach us with your questions and/or comments.