Quote of the day

“But the extraordinary upheaval in North Africa should serve as a reminder to investors that rapidly improving macro-scorecards do not eliminate all kinds of risk.”  (Lex)

Chart of the day


January was an odd month return-wise.  (EconomPic Data)

Markets

Best and worst stocks (and sectors) of 2011.  (Bespoke also Global Macro Monitor)

The market is overbought.  (Trader’s Narrative)

Zinc the “new copper.”  (MarketBeat)

A new natural gas ETF.  (ETFdb)

Strategy

Where some TAA models stand at month-end.  (MarketSci Blog, TAA for the Masses)

On the importance of rebalancing to an asset allocation strategy.  (Capital Spectator)

What is being said is more important than who is saying it.  (Kid Dynamite)

Finance

A profile of the “empowering” and “high conviction” Meredith Whitney.  (Bloomberg also Clusterstock, FT Alphaville)

Leveraged loans are the new funding source of choice for buyouts.  (WSJ)

Just when you thought it was safe to invest in airlines, a new low-cost airline startup comes to market.  (Curious Capitalist)

Technology

Microsoft (MSFT) as free cash flow machine.  (the research puzzle)

Yahoo! (YHOO) as a cigar butt stock.  (Tech Musings)

Blekko bans content farms from search results.  Will Google (GOOG) follow suit?  (TechCrunch)

Now reading articles on the web is getting disrupted.  (NYTimes, GigaOM)

With money falling from the sky it is a great time to be an entrepreneur.  (Howard Lindzon)

Egypt

Why are investors mucking about in the Market Vectors Egypt Index Fund (EGPT)?  (ROI, Focus on Funds, IndexUniverse)

Democracy, oil and unrest.  What countries are most vulnerable to unrest?  (FiveThirtyEight)

Global

Worldwide factory activity by country.  (Real Time Economics also Bespoke, Pragmatic Capitalism)

Michael Lewis on Ireland’s disastrous decision to bail out its banks.  (Vanity Fair)

There is more to Norway than just oil.  (FT Alphaville)

London is still the forex trading capital of the world.  (The Source)

Economy

Higher prices paid amidst a strong manufacturing PMI. (Calculated Risk, Gavyn Davies)

What some independent gauges of inflation are indicating.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

State tax revenues are on the rise, just not fast enough for comfort.  (WSJ)

Spurring innovation is great, but the link between economic growth and income seems to be broken.  (Consider the Evidence via Economist’s View)

Can a computer do your job?  (Falkenblog)

Does immigration explain recent income stagnation?  (Marginal Revolution)

Errata

Our Tuesday morning look-in.  (Abnormal Returns)

Be careful what you wish for female Academy Award nominees.  (Economix)

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