Quote of the day
Howard Marks, “There are very few things that are as dangerous as a strongly held conviction about the future.” (Dealbook)
Chart of the day
How to think about the percentage of stocks above their 200 moving average as an indicator. (Dragonfly Capital)
Markets
Swap spreads: Europe vs. the US. (Calafia Beach Pundit)
The effect of US Treasury yields on the global markets. (The Source)
On the bias towards debt and the search for yield. (FT Alphaville)
New ETF launches: Argentina and bank loans. (ETFdb, IndexUniverse)
The often useless lists on what companies Buffett might buy. (Aleph Blog)
Strategy
Matt Hougan, “One thing the data spell out: Don’t discount any market out of hand.” (IndexUniverse)
Beware an investment guru that is willing to “rewrite his investment philosophy with each passing decade.” (Bloomberg)
Is it possible to practically protect a diversified portfolio from the risk of crashes? (CXO Advisory Group)
Deep thoughts from Ray Dalio. (Pragmatic Capitalism also NetNet)
Warren Buffett really doesn’t like bonds at these levels. (Systematic Relative Strength)
What the “ultimate stock pickers” are buying and selling? (Morningstar)
Companies
Why Disney (DIS) needs to buy the maker of Angry Birds. (SAI)
The rise in oil prices has put a bid back in the biofuels business. Cue higher corn prices. (Fund My Mutual Fund, The Source)
Why is JP Morgan (JPM) getting into the social media space now? (Institutional Investor)
Big box retailers are having to re-think their businesses. (WSJ)
Incumbents fight back: DirecTV and Comcast. (Company Town, Bits)
Finance
Jeff Carter, “Exchanges need to re-engineer how technology interfaces with smaller and lightly traded markets. ” (Points and Figures)
Firms outside of the confines of Wall Street are jumping into proprietary trading. (WSJ)
The Glencore IPO: when and how much? (The Source, WSJ)
Wall Street wants to trade muni bonds like mortgage bonds. (Institutional Investor)
Apple
Reactions to iPad 2.0. (Slate, CrunchGear, Engadget, Gizmodo)
Is Apple (AAPL) still undervalued? (Value Expectations, MarketBeat)
How the iPad is changing education. (Wired)
Apps are way more popular than e-books. (Asymco)
Another reason to own an iPad: March Madness on demand. (AllThingsD)
Global
Euro banks are in more trouble than commonly thought. (Spiegel Online via Economist’s View)
Mongolia bonds, any one? (beyondbrics)
Economy
Weekly initial claims continue to fall. (Bespoke, Calculated Risk)
An employment report preview. (A Dash of Insight also Calculated Risk)
The ISM services index shows continued growth. (Carpe Diem, MarketBeat, Atlantic Business)
US productivity continued to ramp through the end of 2010. (Bloomberg)
QE2 worked. Breakeven inflation is back to pre-crisis levels. (Calafia Beach Pundit)
Who to believe about the Taylor Rule: Taylor or Bernanke? (Real Time Economics)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
Tactical asset allocation isn’t cool in a bull market, but it is worth reviewing its potential benefits. (AR Screencast)
Our Thursday morning live link look-in. (Abnormal Returns)
Errata
The Cramer abides. (Big Picture)
Why we waste time on trivial decisions. (The Frontal Cortex also Nudge Blog)
On the relationship between temperature and exercise. (Economist)
How to make better decisions? Drink a big glass of water. (Marginal Revolution)
Sleep is more important than food. (HBR)
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