In Case You Missed Them - Some Links of Interest (7/28/09)

Below are some links of interest, just in case you missed them. A few have already been posted to Twitter.

• Economic calendar for Tuesday, July 28th (Briefing.com Economic); S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index at 9:00 AM EST, and Consumer Confidence at 10:00 AM EST.
  
• Earnings calendar for Tuesday, July 28th (Briefing.com Earnings)
  

• Hedge funds investing in Asia now appear to be a popular asset class among the wealthy in the region, with AUM expected to rise from $14 billion in 2001 to $160 billion by the end of the year (HFMWeek).
• Jeremy Grantham's quarterly letter (GMO, The Pragmatic Capitalist). Always insightful. This one is no different given his views on China and emerging markets.
• Even with the relatively positive housing news Monday, U.S. efforts to modify mortgages has faltered (WSJ).
• Are there two housing bottoms, one for activity, and another for price? If so, the price bottom may not have been reached yet, even if housing activity is picking up (Calculated Risk, Clusterstock).
• Potential problems with commercial real estate rears its ugly head again (Fortune). As it turns out, banks in the U.S. hold $1.8 trillion of commercial loans, with regional banks set to take the biggest hits. Some large regional banks with exposure include PNC of Pittsburgh, KeyCorp of Cleveland, and BB&T of Richmond, Va., each with more than half their loan books in commercial loans. Ouch.
• Bank failures appear to be accelerating (The Big Picture).
  
• Bank of America plans to cut 10% of its branches (WSJ).
• Lending continues to slow as bankers and borrowers refrain from taking risk (Financial Armageddon).
• There has been a 585% year-over-year change in CMBS delinquencies (Zero Hedge).
  
• The next financial crisis is on its way and will be triggered by commercial real estate, credit cards, and student loans, says Kirby Daley, fromNewedge Group ( The Pragmatic Capitalist).
• The truck tonnage index declined 2.4% in June (Calculated Risk). What does this mean for the recovery?
• "The End Of The End Of The Recession" (Zero Hedge). A pretty detailed macroeconomic presentation from Zero Hedge in collaboration with David Rosenberg, Chief Economist & Strategist at Gluskin Sheff and Associates. The link is a few days old, but worth a look if you have not seen it.
  
• The SEC issued new rules on short-selling that will require more transparency, albeit delayed (WSJ, Financial Times). This comes as the CFCF pins the blame for the 2008 crude oil spike on commodity speculators (WSJ).
• The VIX was up on a quiet day (The Financial Ninja), and looking oversold as equities appear stretched.
  
• Looking at the individual sectors, everything except energy seems overbought (Bespoke Investment Group).
  
• Apparently the FX market is slowing down as Forex trading volume shrinks (Kathy Lien).
• When breaking the S&P 500 into 10 deciles (10 groups of 50 stocks), the two deciles with the most institutional ownership are up the most, while the two with the lowest institutional ownership are up the least (Bespoke Investment Group). Is this institutions standing behind their bets and adding more, simply staying strong during a short squeeze, or something else? Or nothing else?
• The AirShares EU Carbon Allowances ETF (ASO), which gave investors a way to play the cap-and-trade market, is calling it quits and liquidating (ETF Trends).
  
• Traders are not happy with plans to limit natural-gas trades (WSJ), with some market makers considering pulling out of the market.
• Is it dispersion time - the idea being to go long options gamma in individual names or sector specific ETF's, and go short gamma in index ETF's or index options (The Daily Options Report).
• Hedge fund replication for all (Bull Bear Trader, greenfaucet). MIT Professor Andrew Lo discusses hedge fund replication and his SG Global Alternatives A (GAFAX) fund that is available to average investors.