Quote of the day

Seth Godin, “Just as newspapers fell off a cliff, radio is about to follow. It’s going to happen faster than anyone expects. And of course, it will be replaced by a new thing, a long tail of audio that’s similar (but completely different) from what we were looking for from radio all along.”  (Seth Godin)

Chart of the day

Gasoline prices are at 2010 levels.  (Crossing Wall Street also Calculated Risk)

Markets

How has the stock market performed after periods of high returns.  (A Wealth of Common Sense)

Energy stocks have been down so long.  (Humble Student)

Bonds

Bonds as portfolio insurance.  (Alliance Bernstein)

Are fixed income investors taking on too much leverage to goose returns?  (Enterprising Investor)

Strategy

Josh and Rob Arnott sit down to talk smart beta and fundamental indices.  (The Reformed Broker)

Why the 52-week high has predictive power relative to momentum.  (Alpha Architect)

Companies

The big banks are ponying up fines for forex rigging.  (Dealbook, Bloomberg)

There have always been two Microsofts ($MSFT): enterprise and consumer.  (stratechery)

Yahoo ($YHOO) just keeps on rolling up startups, now Brightroll.  (WSJ)

Tough times in the shale oil patch.  (FT)

Activists

Bill Ackman now wants to mess with Zoetis ($ZTS) management.  (WSJ)

Dow Chemical ($DOW) is raising its dividend and buying back shares to fight off Dan Loeb.  (Dealbook)

Economy

These indicators point towards more employment growth.  (ValuePlays)

How are recent economics PhD graduates doing?  (Marginal Revolution, Free exchange)

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century wins the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year award.  (FT)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

The starting is the hardest part: the case for robo-advisors. (Abnormal Returns)

What you might have missed in our Tuesday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

MBA programs ranked.  (Businessweek, Statistical Ideas)

The ESA landed the Philae probe on a comet.  (Space, NYTimes, Vox)

Shoppers are still addicted to bargains.  (WashingtonPost)

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