Intelligible Market Dictum

Back when I was interviewing for both IBD and PE jobs I remember the number one question I got was for me to share my thoughts on the market. Once the interviewer established that I had the required amount of intellect to do the job they tended to see how in touch with the markets I truly was. This was especially true for my buy side interviews. On the buy side they were less interested in my ability to be a banker monkey and more interested in my ability to speak and truly add value via original thoughts. This was usually through one of the following questions: tell me about a stock idea, where do you think the market is heading and why, or give me an idea for an M&A deal or LBO that hasn't yet be done? Trouble with this, is it is easily one of the harder aspects to keep sharp on. Sure reading the journal, Barron’s, FT, dealbook, economist, etc.. will keep you up to date, but it doesn’t help if your just rehashing widely shared opinions. Net-net there is too much information out there and it is hard to focus in on what matters and use it to speak in an intelligent manner to seperate you from the pack. As such I was wondering what sites/resources people found the most useful?

Here are two sites that I have found to be extremely helpful:

http://neoalpha.blogspot.com/ (recently started but whoever writes it is crazy in touch with the markets)

http://www.pimco.com/TopNav/Home/Default.htm (they have awesome featured market commentary, and remember equity market typically lags what the fixed income people already know)

What sites have you found to be the most useful?