Quote of the day

Josh Brown, “The real [investor] sentiment is neither bullish nor bearish, it is absent entirely.”  (The Reformed Broker)

Chart of the day

Where did all the bulls go?  (Bespoke)

Markets

A review of some reasons for caution.  (Humble Student of the Markets)

Profit margins are just one part of earnings.  (A Dash of Insight, dshort)

Nearly every global asset class is in bull mode.  (Capital Spectator)

Strategy

May historically has been a good month for gold stocks.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

At what level of assets under management does alpha turn negative?  (All About Alpha)

The market runs through market gurus ever faster these days.  (Market Anthropology)

Funds

Why the push into actively managed ETFs is inevitable.  (MarketBeat)

On the use of fund clones in hedge fund due diligence.  (AlphaClone)

Finance

Blackstone Group (BX) says traditional LBOs are a tough sale these days.  (Dealbook)

The worrisome trend towards earlier (and larger) demands for founder liquidity.  (peHUB)

Real options:  the case of offshore drilling.  (Felix Salmon)

What Michael Steinhardt had to say to the FCIC.  (Value Walk)

Apple

Is Android to blame for Apple’s valuation?  (Asymco)

Can you trade Apple stock without using the products?  (Big Picture, Globe Investor)

Estimating Apple’s earnings:  bloggers kick the sell side when it is down.  (Apple 2.0)

Sovereign credit

The US sovereign credit debate.  (FT Alphaville, Pragmatic Capitalism)

There is no avoiding a Greek debt restructuring.  (The Source, Felix Salmon)

Debt is never retired, just shifted around. (Economist)

Economy

Initial unemployment claims are still stubbornly high.  (Bespoke)

A mixed picture of economic indicators.  (VIX and More, Calculated Risk, Bloomberg, Atlantic Business)

Small business lending is expanding at a glacial pace.  (WSJ, Street Sweep)

The Fed’s decision to hold press conferences has been “years in the making.”  (WSJ)

Sixteen questions for Ben Bernanke.  (Aleph Blog)

Still few answers for the lost decade in American jobs.  (Calculated Risk)

A chart showing why higher taxes are an inevitability.  (Modeled Behavior)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Amgen (AMGN) initiates a dividend in hopes of breaking the stock price out of a lost decade.  (AR Screencast)

Our Apple (AAPL)-focused Thursday morning linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

The crackdown on online poker may be a prelude to legalization.  (Economist)

Owning a baseball team isn’t all its cracked up to be.  (Bloomberg, ibid)

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