Hot Links: Most Hated

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning…

Crude oil going banoodles on the Iraqi terror takeover.  (BusinessInsider)

May Retail Sales disappoints. Guess it was the polar vortex again.  (Reuters)

You should be reading these five financial bloggers.  (MarketWatch)

S&P’s Howard Silverblatt on the return of the stock split (maybe).  (Indexology)

Do We Need a Recession for a Meaningful Correction in Stocks? (WealthOfCommonSense)

Contrarians: These are the nine most hated stocks on Wall Street, based on analyst coverage:  (USAToday)

Paul McCulley’s first note since returning to PIMCO tackles inflation and interest rates.  (PIMCO)

Pick a factor, any factor – given enough time, almost all of them beat the cap-weighted S&P 500.  (IrrelevantInvestor)

…However, Bill Sharpe has plenty of not-so-nice things to say about Smart Beta.  (FT)

Erik Swarts:  Last years class of ugly ducklings still holds the most promise and potential going forward.  (MarketAnthropology)

No bond bubble? Really? Introducing the securitized burrito:  (MoneyBeat)

Barry: Why calling market tops is so hard.  (BloombergView)

Don’t worry, you’re probably a better investor than the Harvard Endowment Fund, which blows.  (WSJ)

“What is more likely to have a positive surprise: a market with high valuations, above trend profits, and high expectations, or a market with dirt cheap valuations, below average profits that can revert to the mean, and overwhelmingly negative sentiment?” (ResearchAffiliates)

The new book – Clash of the Financial Pundits – now available for pre-order!