More Randoms

Another ridiculous close, with a ten-handle improvement in the S&P for no apparent reason.

Repeating for emphasis: Kill the quants, before they kill us!

Of all the commentators in the business media, Bloomberg's Tom Keene is among the best, if not at the top of my list.

He does his homework and is very smart. Last night Keene interviewed former St. Louis Federal Reserve President Bill Poole on Bloomberg Radio.

Since the Fed can't lower the federal funds rate anymore and doesn't want to expand the mortgage-backed securities purchase program -- Poole opined that, if the economy softens more than expected, the Fed will consider the option to buy longer-dated Treasuries to bring rates down and flatten the yield curve.

Several key components of the Philly survey were strong!

One can be negative on the outlook for equities and the domestic economy for many reasons, but the weak Philly Fed is not a good reason!

The market seems to be over-reacting to the headline Philly Fed.

Specifically, many of the components were inconsistent with the Philly headline and with the in-line LEI (+0.4% vs. flat in May), which was announced at the same time. The six-month diffusion index in the LEI and the rate of change were 80 and +7.9%, respectively. The LEI signals negative growth when it reads -3.5% and the diffusion index is under 50.

As well, the Philly release conflicted with the strong Empire PMI and industrial-production gains reported earlier in the week.

Moreover, several important components of the Philly release were strong -- new orders increased, delivery times lifted and the six-month outlook improved. Yes, the labor component was weak -- but this is well known!

I am that Apple will announce a 4-for-1 split.

Structural unemployment might be dismissed now, but -- in the fullness of time -- probably not!

The claims number was poor. While the price momentum of the stock market is great (and intoxicating!), less so in the employment market.

The weakness in the jobs market underscore that we are in The Era of the Temporary Worker.

This morning, Sanford Bernstein speculates that LNC could be acquired by Sun Life of Canada later in the year.

long AAPL; long LNC