News flash! The housing market stinks. Barry Ritholtz, BusinessWeek.com and Free exchange on the housing recession.

High yield bond spreads are soaring. (via MarketBeat & Bespoke Investment Group)

Michael Kahn at Barrons.com on “The Hindenburg Omen” is telling us about the U.S. stock market.

Market indicators: poor financial sector performance, a plethora of new 52-week lows, $77 crude oil, and a VIX spike.

The LBO Put has expired. (via DealBook)

Aaron Pressman at BusinessWeek.com on what role hedge funds might play in a “financial crisis.”

The Epicurean Dealmaker anticipates a change in investment banker behavior.

Stephen Grocer at Deal Journal with some interesting data on M&A volume.

The WSJ.com has a nifty scorecard on “How Credit-Market Tremors Have Affected Junk Bonds, LBOs and Hedge Funds”

Alea tracks down a timely paper on how innovations in credit transfer have affected the efficiency of the capital markets.

Gwen Robinson at FT Alphaville on the increasingly complex (and competitive) world of share trading.

Jennifer S. Forsyth at WSJ.com on Blackstone’s success in flipping a majority of the office properties acquired via the Equity Office Properties acquisition.

Not every activist investor position works out for the best. (via Deal Journal)

Gregg Wolper at Morningstar.com on how portfolio holdings can be misleading indicators of mutual fund performance.

Abnormal Returns on the changing nature of portfolio construction and portfolio conviction.

Cheap international equity exposure. (via IndexUniverse.com)

Why options backdating is wrong. (via Market Movers)

Talk about an alternative investment…Mebane Faber at World Beta on investing in plankton.

Is eating “locally” all that “green” after you take into account realistic transportation costs? (via Free exchange)

David Shenk at Slate.com does something brave for an author. He revisits his decade-old discussion of “data smog” and the downside of the then-nascent Internet.

John Markoff at NYTimes.com on man vs. computer at…poker.

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