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Quote of the day
David Merkel, “Illiquidity means a loss of flexibility.” (Aleph Blog)
Chart of the day
The market has moved higher without the finance sector. (StockCharts Blog)
Markets
Sector correlations are rising while the VIX is quiescent. (FT Alphaville)
Oil and stocks are no longer trading hand in glove. (Bespoke)
Sometimes it is the boring stocks that generate the best returns over time. (Crossing Wall Street)
Bill Gross is buying US Treasuries and Itaian bonds in the Pimco Total Return Fund. (FT Alphaville, Reuters, Money Game)
Strategy
Jeff Miller, “If you have significant future needs, and you do not own any stocks, you have upside risk.” (A Dash of Insight)
Living in the age of negative real yields. (Vanguard Blog)
Five behavior mistakes you likely just made. (Old School Value)
Companies
Cisco ($CSCO) stock looks cheap, but a lot needs to be done. (WSJ)
Why Microsoft ($MSFT) should borrow money to buy back shares. (Seeking Alpha)
Netflix ($NFLX) effectively raises prices. Will customers jump ship? (GigaOM, TechCrunch, Atlantic Business)
Did Netflix just kill its ‘long tail’ model? (Felix Salmon, ibid)
Fund management
Nothing is more tiresome than an unrelenting advocacy for an investment theory. (the research puzzle)
Big chunks of the asset management industry are in secular decline according to BCG. (FT)
More hedge fund investors are going direct these days. (All About Alpha)
In defense of private equity from its stereotype as simply financial engineering. (Dealbook)
ETFs
The most successful ETF launch year-to-date. (InvestmentNews)
Missed this earlier, the July ETF Deathwatch. (Invest With An Edge)
Fees on fees. A new ETF invests in muni bond closed-end funds. (ETFdb)
Are ETF options mispriced? (FT Alphaville)
Commodities
The Saudis picked up their pace of oil production. (FT)
Just how reliable are USDA crop reports? (FT)
On the prospects for Dust Bowl 2. (Greed, Green and Grains via EV)
Economy
A divided Fed cannot stand, then again… (Gavyn Davies)
What the Ceridian Index implies for future employment growth. (ValuePlays also Calculated Risk)
How many jobs do high-tech startups create? (SAI)
A drop off in government expenditures is coming. (Pragmatic Capitalism)
QE2: Wolfers vs. Altucher. (Freakonomics)
What has happened to America’s megafactories? (Economix)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you missed in our Wednesday morning linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Charles Schwab ($SCHW) validates trends in the retail investment business when they do acquisitions. (AR Screencast)
Mixed media
Twitter is now ubiquitous. (MarketBeat)
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