WEEKEND READS

Pot Legal Or Not http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052748704509304578511261557343002.html?mod=BOL_hpp_highlight_top#articleTabs_article%3D1

Greater Risk In Market http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-01/fed-s-kocherlakota-sees-greater-concern-about-risk-in-markets.html

PMI Up
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-china-economy-pmi-idUSBRE95001W20130601

Valero On The Upswing
http://news.investors.com/management-managing-for-success/053113-658391-revenue-is-ratcheting-up-at-valero-energy.htm?ref=HPLNews

It's In The Yield Curve
http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/31/investing/dividend-yield-stocks/index.html

More Millionaires
http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2013/05/31/the-world-has-more-millionaires/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=email-2013-06-01&utm_medium=email

FRIDAY READS

Schiff Firm About Bearish View http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2013/05/30/peter-schiff-doubles-down-on-doomsday-views/

US Equities Stable While Japanese Swoon
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324412604578514741159145594.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_markets

Rising Interest Rates
http://news.investors.com/investing-etfs/053013-658214-rising-interest-rates-hit-reit-etfs.htm?ref=HPLNews

Interest Rates A Different View
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/05/31/Edgy-About-Interest-Rates-Dont-Pop-the-Xanax-Yet.aspx#page1

Unhappy With Bernanke
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2013/05/30/critic-of-big-banks-wants-fisher-to-head-fed/

Mixed Signals
http://www.marctomarket.com/2013/05/japan-more-output-less-deflation.html#more

Learn What From Your Mistakes?
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/30/why-you-never-learn-from-your-investment-mistakes.aspx

Losing Money The Government Way
http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/DoE-Lost-Billions-in-Deal-with-Tesla.html

Beef Prices Up
http://investorplace.com/2013/05/beef-prices-at-all-time-high-and-expected-to-rise/

Two Kinds Of Oil
http://www.futuresmag.com/2013/05/30/oil-fields-under-olive-groves-offer-italy-economic?ref=hp&t=commodities

LATE DAY READS

Greater Risk In Market
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-01/fed-s-kocherlakota-sees-greater-concern-about-risk-in-markets.html


Tipping Or Turning
http://blog.milesfranklin.com/is-this-the-turning-point

Protracted Bull Market http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Laszlo-Birinyi-stocks-bull-market-higher/2013/05/30/id/507174

Gold Rally Says What? http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/commodities/articles/gold-crude-commodities-currencies-euro-dollar/5/30/2013/id/50071

Renters Still In The Market http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2013/05/30/in-many-markets-its-cheaper-to-rent-than-buy-but-thats-not-stopping-home-builders/

Mortgage Rates Up
http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/30/real_estate/mortgage-rates-rise/index.html?iid=HP_LN

UPDATE

Back in March we wrote a blurb, Playing the BRICS, about Mendelez, MDLZ, the food company that was part of  Kraft's breakup.

The stock hasn't set the globe on fire, though it's up more than 12% on the year.  Back then we emphasized the hidden value in the shares. We think it's still there. Value nearly always has some blemishes otherwise it wouldn't be value as in under-appreciated or overlooked.

Overlook the debt, this is a company with upside potential from several catalysts besides its products.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324125504578511432129533160.html?KEYWORDS=Kraft

BRIEFS

An old Wall Street saying notes: "When the ducks are quacking, feed 'em."

Well, the quacking as we pointed out yesterday in the bit about "new kid in town," continues. As this WSJ article points out, look for a flood of convertible securities to hit the market as bankers and corporations do what they do best--feed a growing investor appetite.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324682204578513310149956102.html?mod=markets_newsreel
_________

Old soldiers never die and they don't fade away as one famous American general once put it. They just go to Wall Street and make a lot of money.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324682204578513663485449922.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories

THURSDAY READS

Another View
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/05/28/dont-believe-new-housing-bubble-hype/

What Most Shun
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-26/gold-bets-reach-five-year-low-with-prices-whipsawed-commodities.html

Trouble Ahead
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/05/29/10-year-treasury-yield-matches-sp-500-dividend-yield-turning-tables-on-hunt-for-yield/

Bernanke Lost Control
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/05/29/pimcos-gross-says-bernanke-has-a-lost-a-little-control/

Housing Bubble
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/5/29/housing-bubble-ii-institutional-investors-instead-of-first-t.html

Chinese Acquire Big Grocery Firm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324412604578512722044165756.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0

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?
__________


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.

_______

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

TONGUE IN CHEEK

A while back we wrote a piece about Greece's problems called  PLATO'S TREE IS MISSING.

It was February and the weather gets cold that time of year. To keep warm lots of Greeks were burning wood. At the time it might have seemed a little tongue in cheek. It wasn't. Here's a link to another point of view on the subject from a well-respected, well-known energy site.

http://ourfiniteworld.com/2013/05/23/oil-limits-and-climate-change/

WEDNESDAY READS

An Interesting Read
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/138228.html

Mothers Top Earners
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/29/mothers-now-top-earners-in-4-out-10-american-households/

Gold Price Behavior
http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/commodities/articles/Gold2527s-Price-Behavior-price-of-gold/5/28/2013/id/50039?page=full

Hospitals Can Save Big Bucks
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/05/28/The-Novel-Way-Hospitals-Can-Save-Millions.aspx#page1

Youth Unemployment Trouble In EU
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/28/us-europe-unemployment-idUSBRE94R0D320130528

Not Just Yet
http://news.investors.com/economy/052813-657870-consumer-confidence-case-shiller-home-prices-rise.htm?ref=HPLNews

13 Month High
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/treasurys-fall-after-housing-10-year-nears-206-2013-05-2

Goal Setting
http://ittybiz.com/how-to-set-goals/


Commodities Provide Some Lift
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323336104578501182311597930.html?mod=ITP_pageone_1

A PRIMER

The man who wants to make an entirely reasonable will dies intestate.  

         George Bernard Shaw

Perhaps nowhere does Shaw’s dictum better apply than to markets. Markets never behave reasonably for very long. And they never will if for no other reason than all the players are human.

Yet that doesn’t excuse investors from acquiring some understanding of the whys and ways markets work. What you really need to know about and understand is 2Cs, 2Ps, 2Ls, 2Vs and one lonely little S. No, this isn’t some esoteric formula or pre-calculus math exercise. But if you can grasp this material you’ll be well on your way to avoiding many of those calculus-like shoals that infest the investing world. 

Let’s begin with the 2Cs, credit and correlation. Remember in Chapter One we discussed credit and the subject cropped up again in the chapter on bonds. The key to learning is repetition, repetition, repetition. We mentioned risk. It turns out that credit is somewhat Janus-faced—that is, a borrower may default, something market pundits call default event risk (Review chapter on risks!). That’s pretty simple. A borrower, for whatever reasons, decides to walk.

The other face of credit risk you need to understand more clearly because it involves that lonely little S mentioned above. But for now, here’s the answer: even with a loan where there is no defaulter, the lender incurs something called spread risk. And that’s what the little lonely S stands for, spread. The spread on the loan the lender makes may widen.

 We’ll say it again, SPREAD!  It turns out most things in life involve a spread of some kind. You purchase 100 shares of XZC Corporation stock. The shares are quoted at ask 23 ¼ and bid at 23 1/8. The ask 23 ¼ is what you must pay to buy the stock; the bid, 23 1/8 is what you can sell it for. So obviously, for you to break even or make a profit (commissions and all other costs aside), the stock has to appreciate in price above the asking price.

The difference then between the bid and the ask price is called the spread. Spreads in the stock market vary according to where the stocks are traded and according to market capitalization (Remember that term?). Usually larger stocks, large capitalization stocks, have smaller spreads, or bid and ask prices, than small cap stocks if for no other reason than small companies are viewed by the market as being more risky.