BRIEFS

Don't look now but if yesterday's market is any indication, a new kid is in town.

His name: economically sensitive stocks. Yea, those puppies a while back nearly everyone shunned for those safer, dividend-yielding equities like drug and utilities, two groups that have helped boost the market nearly 18% higher this year.

In a low interest rate environment yield and safety became the watchwords for institutional and retail investors. Perhaps now all that has changed. On the other hand, it could muddy the equity waters even worse, making it another is it or isn't the real deal?
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TWO SIDES

The trouble is they both can't be correct.

On one side are the strategists who think Bernanke will end the Fed's bond-buying spree sometime this September and that will push the 10-year Treasury note yield up to 2.5% by year end. Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street firm with a long lineage to the Fed, among others, falls in that camp.

In the other camp are those who feel the economy is still weak and the key rests with labor or jobs numbers. They also see stocks, given their strong run-up this year so far, as risky and believe that will provide a buying platform for bonds that keeps yields around 2% as investors try to hedge a market down turn.

As noted they can't both be correct.

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It's all in the eyes--as in eye contact.

At least that's what the social experts are saying, not that poets for ages haven't been rhyming the same, according to the WSJ.

Adults today make eye contact about 30%-60% of the time during an average conversation. But to create a real sense of connection, these experts say, we should be making eye contact 60%-70% of the time.

So what's the problem and it isn't just ordinary, subaqueous shyness?  Mobile devices for one. Here's more.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324809804578511290822228174.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_0