Quote of the day

John Gruber, “Google is a hyper-competitive company, and they repeatedly enter markets that already exist and crush competitors…They want everything; their ambition is boundless.”  (Daring Fireball)

Chart of the day

A look at the S&P 500 on a forward P/E basis.  (Dr. Ed’s Blog)

Markets

Does sentiment still matter?  (Capital Observer)

Check out these market divergences.  (Charts etc.)

Take a breath and look around: things are pretty good.  (The Reformed Broker)

Yet another reason to look at tech stocks.  (YCharts Blog)

MLPs look rich, except relative to Treasuries.  (Income Investing)

Strategy

When no news means information.  (Aleph Blog)

Models help clarify our thinking but are only as good as their builder.  (ContrarianEdge)

Companies

Elon Musk is doubling down on his bet on Tesla Motors ($TSLA).  (Dealbook, SAI, In Pursuit of Value)

The pickup market is back in a big way.  (WSJ)

Southwest Airlines ($LUV) has had a huge run. Is it still cheap?  (SumZero)

Google ($GOOG) is not the new Apple ($AAPL).  (Unexpected Returns also Babbage)

Facebook fatigue is a real thing.  (FT)

Wal-Mart ($WMT) is having a tough time finding the recovery.  (MoneyBeat, Quartz)

Finance

Hedge funds can’t wait to advertise to the unwashed masses.  (The Guardian)

Traders are nervous about the Bloomberg snooping scandal.  (Fortune)

Lessons learned from the Facebook ($FB) IPO.  (peHUB)

Funds

Investors are pouring money in bank loan funds.  (WSJ)

Top ten ETF asset gainers of 2013.  (IndexUniverse)

Global

The Japanese economy resumed growing last quarter.  (FT, WSJ)

Greek government debt has some new fans including credit raters.  (Quartz, FT)

Economy

Not a good week for weekly initial jobless claims.  (Calculated Risk, Capital Spectator, Bespoke)

Welcome to the ‘golden age of deficit reduction.’  (Daniel Gross contra Felix Salmon)

The news on manufacturing is disappointing.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Some local housing markets are red hot.  (Bloomberg)

Mixed media

Google+ is a ‘beautiful disappointment.’  (Techland)

The craft brewing industry has gone hop crazy.  (Slate)

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