Quote of the day

Matthew Yglesias, “Earning big profits and paying out dividends is boring. Building a company that grows and grows and grows is amazing.”   (Slate also Reuters)

Chart of the day

WETF Chart

WETF data by YCharts

Pure play ETF provider WisdomTree Investments ($WETF) stock has been a big winner YTD.  (Focus on Funds earlier Abnormal Returns)

Markets

High yield bond spreads drop to a new low.  (Bespoke)

Why technology stocks should outperform the rest of the year.  (Capital Observer)

The current rally is a once in a decade sort of experience.  (Fat Pitch via @reformedbroker)

Strategy

The fine art of being wrong.  (Big Picture)

How to deal with a choppy market.  (Joe Fahmy)

How higher interest rates would affect preferred stocks.  (iShares Blog)

Companies

Why is Apple ($AAPL) seemingly so concerned with its stock price?  (Businessweek)

What Apple could learn from Warren Buffett on share repurchases.  (Bloomberg)

Samsung is profiting from the smartphone boom, for now.  (Quartz)

George Soros jumps into the J. C. Penney ($JCP) fray.  (WSJ, Dealbook, TRB)

Finance

The CBOE ($CBOE) had a big outage yesterdat.  (WSJ, Dealbook)

Investors are bidding up bank bonds.  (FT)

The IPO surge is still not doing much for VC-backed companies.  (Institutional Investor)

Prague is trying to lure hedge funds away from Luxembourg.  (Businessweek)

Private equity is sticking its nose in the wine business.  (Dealbook)

Why is Excel behind so many high profile blow-ups?  (FT Alphaville)

Companies are looking for further guidance from the SEC on the use of social media for financial disclosures.  (Dealbook)

ETFs

Money is gushing into low vol ETFs.  (IndexUniverse)

Comparing three big emerging market bond ETFs.  (ETFdb)

iShares doesn’t close many ETFs, except for iShares Diversified Alternatives Trust ($ALT).  (IndexUniverse)

Norway

Norway’s huge SWF is benefiting from the equity rally.  (Bloomberg,  earlier Abnormal Returns)

Norway also wants to get a bit more active on the equity side.  (FT)

Global

Still no inflation in Japan.  (FT Alphaville)

African countries, like Rwanda, are finding ample demand for their bonds.  (WSJ)

Why aren’t Euro stocks doing worse?  (Charts etc.)

Economy

The US economy grew at a 2.5% rate in Q1.  (Calculated Risk, Real Time Economics, Capital Spectator, Bonddad Blog)

Fabrice Tourre is now a PhD student in economics.  (WSJ)

Mixed media

Is Path the new Facebook?  (Digits)

Why sleep deprivation eases depression.  (Scientific American)

Can we please stop talking about TV?  (WSJ)

Thanks for checking in with Abnormal Returns. You can follow us on StockTwits and Twitter.