Quote of the day
Erik Swarts, “Follow leaders, trends – follow performance. It’s a hardwired survival trait built into all of us, and generally speaking – exposes our achilles heel at times, when it comes to bends in the road and future expectations.” (Market Anthropology)
Chart of the day
There is only one stock trading above $200,000 a share: Berkshire Hathaway ($BRKA). (MoneyBeat)
Markets
Is the Sotheby’s ($BID) indicator pointing towards a market top? (Pragmatic Capitalism)
Money managers are none too keen on utilities and UK stocks. (Brett Arends)
Coal stocks are showing signs of life. (Afraid to Trade)
Gold miners are holding their own. (Short Side of Long)
Strategy
What fundamental assumptions underlie your portfolio strategy? (Pragmatic Capitalism)
On the dangers of buying distressed stocks. (Aleph Blog)
Retail
Wal-Mart ($WMT) is struggling. (Quartz)
What’s going on with retail sales? (Scott Krisiloff)
Finance
Private equity-backed IPOs have had a rough time of it of late. (Michael Santoli)
Brokers continues to flee the big wirehouses. (Reuters)
What effect will the Kinder Morgan ($KMI) deal have on MLPs? (WSJ contra ETF)
Funds
More on why active managers underperform. (Humble Student)
Non-traditional yield vehicles require a higher educational hurdle. (Random Roger)
Stock picking still pays in emerging markets. (AllianceBernstein)
Global
Europe: lower for longer. (FT Alphaville)
Colombia as an investment is getting a tad too popular. (WSJ)
Economy
Weekly initial unemployment claims ticked higher this week. (Calculated Risk, Bespoke)
Sleep, health and the economic recovery. (Free exchange)
Why the US might start making solar panels again. (Slate)
Expect to see a lot of corn stored this Fall. (Wonkblog)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you might have missed in our Wednesday linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Mixed media
50 financial Twitter feeds you should follow. (MoneyBeat)
Your smartphone isn’t all that smart. (Farhad Manjoo)
Millennials should be better known as Generation Rent. (Business Insider)
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