Quote of the day

Howard Lindzon, “For the markets to work, we need less marketing from Wall Street and more investing. We need less technology for trading and more technology for schools.”  (Howard Lindzon)

Chart of the day

Gold miners have been unable to break out to new highs.  (StockCharts Blog, Kimble Charting, Humble Student)

Markets

The Treasury bond bull market cannot go on forever.  (Capital Spectator)

Does the $RSP/$SPY ratio serve as a useful breadth indicator?  (CXOAG)

Why gasoline prices haven’t kept up with the decline in oil prices.  (Bespoke)

Grain prices are moving sideways.  (Bonddad Blog)

Gold

There is usually only one dominant theme driving prices at any point in time.  (Peter L. Brandt)

A gold investment post mortem.  (Phil Pearlman)

Is gold set to trace out prior bubble patterns?  (Marketwatch)

The divergence between $GLD and $SPY is breathtaking.  (Big Picture)

Weekly charts of gold, silver and platinum.  (Afraid to Trade)

Strategy

The difference between trend and momentum.  (Tyler’s Trading)

David Merkel, “My best purchases occur in bear markets.” (Aleph Blog)

Backtesting in Excel.  (MarketSci Blog)

Companies

Who, if anyone, would buy HP’s PC business.  (GigaOM)

At least one big pharma company seems to be making its R&D pay off.  (The Source)

The ten most popular stocks held by hedge funds.  (Insider Monkey)

Some high quality stocks for the optimistic investor.  (Castellano)

Why dollar-stores are attractive to investors.  (Institutional Investor)

Demographics

Are retiring baby boomers going to put a lid on market valuations?  (FRBSF, MarketBeat)

Demographics could also be detriment to economic growth.  (FT Alphaville)

Banks

Signs of stress in the banking sector.  (Bespoke, MarketBeat, Don Fishback)

All eyes are on Bank of America ($BAC).  (FT Alphaville, Don Fishback)

Are Goldman Sachs ($GS) investors overreacting?  (Dealbook, NetNet)

Finance

Should companies go public in tough market conditions?  (Term Sheet)

Angel investors picked up where venture capitalists left off.  (Atlantic Business)

Why investment bankers keep their portfolios in cash.  (Dealbreaker)

Global

Full Libyan oil output could be years away.  (FT)

US market cap as a percentage of world market has fallen due to the rise of China.  (Bespoke)

Global market valuations are returning to 2008-09 levels.  (FT Alphaville)

CDS traders think the Euro banks are a worse bet than in 2008.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Economy

Americans are really bummed out about the economy.  (The Reformed Broker)

Once more with feeling, why hyperinflation is not around the corner.  (Econbrowser)

David Rosenberg thinks we are already in recession.  (The Reformed Broker)

Why the US is unlikely to follow the path of Japan.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

New home sales tracing our a bottom.  (Bespoke)

On the ultimate benefits of infrastructure spending.  (Daniel Gross)

Would more salary transparency make for better companies and a better economy?  (Atlantic Business)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Market valuations are certainly cheaper than they were a month ago, but are they cheap enough?  (AR Screencast)

What you missed in our Tuesday morning linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

How to move $12 billion in gold to Venezuela.  (Felix Salmon)

Homo erectus would have loved macaroni and cheese.  (Bloomberg)

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