Tuesday, November 30, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
Should the flop of Zillow's (Z) home-flipping business be a warning for its competitors? Its biggest public peers among so-called instant buyers (or "iBuyers") – notably, Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) and Offerpad Solutions (OPAD), but also increasingly Redfin (RDFN) – have insisted the problem was Zillow's, not theirs. Don't be so sure. I started thinking about […]
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
It's so easy to want to call this a Ponzi market... Ponzi, of course, refers to Charles Ponzi, the 1920s swindler whose claim to infamy was promising big, fast investment gains, and did... but only because he would funnel money from new investors to old investors. The catch is that the scheme needs a steady […]
Friday, November 19, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
Nobody knows who, what, when, where, or why this market will crack... All you can do is keep an eye on the trends, data points, and other events that suggest late-cycle behavior... knowing full well that the meaning "late" is relative and subject to interpretation. With that in mind, the spiking prices that private equity […]
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
The day after electric vehicle ('EV') maker Rivian's (RIVN) incredibly (some might say, ridiculously) hot initial public offering ('IPO') last week, EV stocks shifted into high gear... As one analyst on CNBC observed, "You can't underestimate investor appetite for all things EV." I looked over at the screen and noticed that one of the biggest […]
Friday, November 12, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
I have no idea why it happens so much, but inevitably a rising star wants to be the next fill-in-the-blank... The obvious target for many on Wall Street is Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-B) Warren Buffett. I started thinking about this when I was reading reporter Jamie Powell's brilliant piece earlier this week in the Financial Times […]
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
One of the hottest trends in investing today is 'ESG,' which stands for environmental, social, and governance... As my Empire Financial Daily co-author Berna Barshay has written numerous times, public companies are tripping over themselves to show that they're best-in-class ESG investments. The goal, of course, is to position themselves as must-buys for investment funds […]
Friday, November 5, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
One of the great disconnects over the past year has been the stock of almost any company directly involved in the sale or financing of residential real estate... Almost all of them have pulled back sharply, even though housing prices keep hitting new highs. Perhaps the most notable is Zillow (Z), whose foray into home-flipping... […]
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
I remember exactly where I was when I started thinking seriously about investing in cannabis... It was early August 2020, and I was walking up a steep hill on my normal walking route. Usually, on the first two miles of the walk, which is flat-to-downhill, I listen to a podcast – most often some kind […]
Friday, October 29, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► You've seen it before: claims that some new whiz-bang technology will shake up the world at some point in the future... If done right, it will spawn headlines, excitement, and enthusiasm. If the company is public, its stock might even spike. If it isn't, investment bankers are likely to urge it to cash in […]
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► Every now and then, companies surprise investors with warnings that earnings are likely to disappoint... Sometimes these "preannouncements" come before the end of a quarter. Sometimes, after. But the bigger question is: When should management know? This became a hot topic last week when plant-based meat company Beyond Meat (BYND) warned that its third […]
Friday, October 22, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► My wife walked into a local Rite Aid (RAD) the other day to pick up a prescription that her doctor had phoned in a few days earlier... After waiting 45 minutes in two lines, imagine her surprise when they told her that the prescription wasn't ready. They hadn't gotten to it yet... after a […]
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► We all have at least one of them... I'm talking about stocks we never want to hear about again. You know, the stocks that you know you had nailed – long or short – that went on to remind you just how humbling the stock market can be. High on my own list is […]
Friday, October 15, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► One of my favorite interviews – many years ago – was with Gordon Segal, founder of home décor retailer Crate & Barrel... We discussed why he never got tempted by the riches offered by investment bankers to take Crate & Barrel public. Segal hated, just hated, the thought of putting up stores for the […]
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► When it comes to the mess at Medicare, if you haven't done this, you have only yourself to blame... Every year since I turned 65, I remind my friends... Medicare open enrollment starts on Friday. But the new pricing is already up on the Medicare website... If I were you, I'd get a head […]
Friday, October 8, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
► When I set out to start a short activist firm earlier this year, my motto was: 'Exposing fraud, greed, misrepresentation, and stupidity'... Fraud and greed go hand in hand. Misrepresentation, especially if intentional, isn't far behind. Then there's stupidity, my favorite and maybe the most important of all. That's because smart people do very […]
Thursday, October 7, 2021
By Herb Greenberg
Editor's note: We're thrilled to announce that longtime journalist and CNBC contributor Herb Greenberg has joined the Empire Financial Research team. Herb is one of the most accomplished journalists around, having appeared in Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, 60 Minutes, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Financial Times, Barron's, […]