Quote of the day

“If Google and Facebook are fighting over Twitter, a large part of its value to each company is that the other one won’t own it.”  (Felix Salmon)

Chart of the day

The Indian stock market has disengaged from the US market.  (Bespoke)

Video of the day

Howard Lindzon talks the apocalypse with James Altucher.  (StockTwits TV)

Bond markets

Breaking down the risk-return trade-off in the world’s bond markets.  (FT Alphaville)

Are the bond markets, to ill-effect, ready to overreact to inflation data?  (Money Game)

The short-end of the TIPs yield curve remains negative.  (Crossing Wall Street)

The Treasury is (finally) extending its maturities.  (WSJ)

30-year mortgage rates now have a 5-handle.  (Money & Co.)

Expect more volatility ahead for the muni market.  (Felix Salmon also Horan Capital Advisors)

Don’t look now but Portugal yields are hitting new highs.  (FT Alphaville, ibid)

Strategy

Funds that own low liquidity, high momentum stocks tend to outperform. (Morningstar, ibid)

Indicators are a dime a dozen.  Trust in your own system is priceless.  (Crosshairs Trader)

Why hedging equities with VXX is a mistake.  (Falkenblog)

What is the optimal re-balancing frequency for equally weighted equity indices?  (Kid Dynamite)

Mean reversion and the attraction of portfolio re-balancing.  (Capital Spectator)

How to select net-nets.  (GuruFocus)

Finance

Handicapping global merger mania amongst the financial exchanges.  (Points and Figures, Curious Capitalist, Dealbook)

The ETF industry has momentum.  (IndexUniverse)

Getting up to speed on the CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index.  (Alea, FT Alphaville)

Talk grows that custody banks were gouging investors in forex transactions.  (WSJ)

Governments now fear that commodity speculators have distorted the price mechanism.  (Global Macro Monitor)

Economy

Initial unemployment claims keep falling.  (Calculated Risk, Calafia Beach Pundit)

Don’t look at the core for a sign of inflation.  (Econbrowser, Economix)

Putting a number on when oil prices would really begin to bite the economy.  (Money Game)

Why economists can’t predict disruptive events.  (Gavyn Davies also Real Time Economics)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Persistent demand for high yield bonds is helping to provide an underlying bid in the equity market.  (AR Screencast)

Our Thursday morning live link look-in.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Twitter is just hitting its stride as a communications vehicle.  An acquisition risks all that. (GigaOM)

The best economics podcasts.  (Tim Harford)

You’re doing it wrong.  Why it makes more sense to back into a parking space.  (Slate)

Pinpointing Ferris Bueller’s actual day off.  (Wired)

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