Quote of the day
“Daily headlines are almost irrelevant unless they bring us closer to discovering how the debt pile of the developed world will be eliminated in each country – by growth, inflation or default.” (Buttonwood)
Chart of the day
Retail gasoline sales as a percentage of total retail sales. (Capital Spectator also Street Sweep)
Video of the day
James Grant talks with Consuela Mack about the dangers of easy money. (Wealthtrack)
Markets
Small caps haven’t been this expensive compared to large caps in decades. (WSJ)
Sometimes the market needs a reason to go down. (Howard Lindzon, Dragonfly Capital)
Management and analysts are seeing diverging opinions on earnings. (Money Game)
Did you feel the shift in interest rates? (Points and Figures, FT Alphaville)
March was a tough month for trend followers. (Au.Tra.Sy Blog)
Strategy
Why Grandma is buying junk bonds. (the research puzzle)
How does the market typically trade around Easter? (CXO Advisory Group)
Longer isn’t always better when it comes to backtests? (ETF Replay)
On the limitations of using a ‘margin of safety.’ (Musings on Markets)
Funds
How ETFs have reshaped investing. (WSJ)
More MLP ETFs on the way. (IndexUniverse)
Individual investors are taking tentative steps back into equities via hybrid funds. (Bloomberg)
Value
A backtest of some of Ben Graham’s rules. (Empirical Finance Blog)
What spin-offs can teach us about investing. (Gannon on Investing)
Are the big, cash-rich tech stocks cheap enough yet? (Hard Core Value via @geoffgannon)
Companies
Perfect World (PWRD) has not been a perfect stock. (Eric Jackson)
Goldman Sachs (GS) stock is in a funk. (Bespoke)
Reasons for pause with the Glencore IPO. (Stone Street Advisors)
S&P vs. USA
Putting the USA on credit watch. (FT Alphaville, ibid)
How much stock should we put into S&P’s views on US credit ratings? (Big Picture, Felix Salmon)
What if the US gets downgraded? (Planet Money, Felix Salmon)
How did the ratings agencies do with their downgrades of Japan? ( Money Game, ibid)
How we should be looking at the deficit. (Calculated Risk, Mark Thoma, Curious Capitalist)
Fuel for the austerity fire. (Pragmatic Capitalism)
Global
Is it time to lighten up on Canadian assets? (Globe and Mail)
Do you really want exposure to small cap Russia? (beyondbrics)
Remember Egypt’s stock market? (WashingtonPost)
With uncertainty rife, the case for commodity currencies. (The Source)
Economy
QE2=Y2K. (Market Anthropology)
The US economy is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, i.e. housing. (Big Picture, Calculated Risk)
Americans continue to remodel their homes, but not with mortgage equity withdrawals. (Calculated Risk, ibid)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
An Apple (AAPL) earnings preview and much more. (AR Screencast)
Our Monday morning live link look-in. (Abnormal Returns)
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