Quote of the day

Jason Goepfert, “Copper is not a good predictor of stock prices.  It is a marginal leading indicator of GDP, but not for stocks.” (SentimenTrader)

Chart of the day

Ford Motor ($F) reintroduces a dividend after a five-year absence.  (MarketBeat, Crossing Wall Street)

Markets

Have corporate profit margins topped out?  (Dr. Ed’s Blog)

The latest additions to the S&P Dividend Aristocrats.  (Total Return, Crossing Wall Street)

Stock picking is dead, redux.  (Big Picture)

Strategy

The January Effect is now the December Effect.  (SSRN via @quantivity)

Does a long-term version of the Magic Formula make for better results?  (Turnkey Analyst)

A look inside the big merger arbitrage spread at Pharmasset ($VRUS).  (Kid Dynamite)

Companies

McDonald’s ($MCD) sales soar.  McRib anyone? (Bloomberg, Minyanville)

About those Apple ($AAPL) iPhone sales.  (MarketBeat)

Has Reed Hastings of Netflix ($NFLX) learned nothing?  (Herb Greenberg)

Finance

Jon Corzine speaks.  (WSJ also Felix Salmon)

What value do banks actually add to the economy?  (voxEU)

Why does the SEC let some investors, like Warren Buffett, keep their trades secret?  (WSJ)

StockTwits is becoming an investor relations powerhouse.  (StockTwits)

ETFs

Low fees win again:  $BND overtakes $AGG.  (IndexUniverse)

Will insider sentiment make for decent ETFs?  (IndexUniverse)

Global

The ECB cuts rates and…  (FT Alphaville, Crackerjack Finance)

The European debt crisis is not the US subprime problem, redux.  (Money Game)

Political unrest and the Russian economy.  (Finance Addict)

Words of caution from the world’s only “structural bear” on the emerging markets.  (beyondbrics)

Economy

A big drop in weekly unemployment claims.  (Calculated Risk, Capital Spectator, Bespoke)

Check out the drop in consumer credit, student loans excepted.  (EconomPic Data)

Income tax receipts are coming back.  (Calafia Beach Pundit)

How the Great Recession affected the sexes differently.  (The Atlantic)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

A handful of unusual market valuation graphs.  (Abnormal Returns)

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

Mixed media

Is Albert Pujols worth $250 million?  (Grantland)

The best gadgets of 2011 including Kindle and the MacBook Air.  (Slate)

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