Quote of the day

Bryan Goldberg, “I think that our generation has given up on Finance as the career of choice.”  (Pando Daily)

Chart of the day

Coffee_0113

Another look at the looming bottom in coffee.  (Dragonfly Capital)

Markets

Where did all the commodity volatility go?  (FT Alphaville)

The underlying conditions point towards more grain volatility in 2013.  (Bonddad Blog)

Just how out of control is the high yield bond market?  (Distressed Debt Investing, FT)

Strategy

The S&P 500 is not your benchmark.  (The Reformed Broker)

Investors simply tend to extrapolate past returns.  (Free exchange)

When examining merger deals keep an eye on the 52-week high.  (Empiritrage)

Apple

How much farther could Apple ($AAPL) have to fall?  (Market Anthropology)

Do normal rules apply to Apple?  (Lex also WSJ)

The many ways in which Google ($GOOG) is beating Apple.  (Pando Daily)

Apple is mortal.  (Herb Greenberg)

Apple is trading way below analyst target prices.  (Bespoke)

Four Apple charts to watch.  (Phil Pearlman)

How Apple sets its prices.  (Macworld via Digg)

Companies

Dell ($DELL) is talking about going private.  (WSJ, Clusterstock, Term Sheet, Quartz, Dealbook, Businessweek)

Is the ‘phablet‘ the form factor of the future?  (Pando Daily)

Executive compensation

Dan Loeb is none too happy with Morgan Stanley ($MS).  (WSJ)

What does Dan Loeb have to say about executive pay at Herbalife ($HLF)?  (Bronte Capital)

Finance

The SEC keeps probing SAC on insider trading charges.  (Dealbook)

Hedge funds are now returning to Manhattan.  (WSJ)

More pension funds are getting into direct investments.  (Institutional Investor)

ETFs

T. Rowe Price ($TROW) is jumping into the actively managed ETF game.  (AdvisorOne)

FINRA is keeping an eye on ETPs in 2013.  (IndexUniverse)

Why is Vanguard bucking the rest of the industry on money market fund NAVs?  (Businessweek)

More smart beta ETFs are coming from iShares.  (IndexUniverse)

Global

Germany’s economy is sputtering.  (Bloomberg, FT)

Iron ore prices have rebounded.  (FT Alphaville)

Income inequality is rising everywhere.  (NYTimes)

Economy

Retail sales were pretty good in December.  (Bloomberg, Capital Spectator)

The housing recovery is rescuing millions from underwater mortgages.  (Bloomberg)

The cyclical deficit is declining on its own.  (Calculated Risk)

Signs that the US manufacturing economy is perking up.  (Bonddad Blog)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

Taking items off your investing to-do list.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Drug stores are going upscale.  (Time)

On the relationship between marijuana use and IQ.  (Scientific American)

How America’s drinking habits have changed.  (The Atlantic)

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