The 10 Dumbest Things This Friday

November 8, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg

Groupon24/7 Wall St. is watching a few key moves in the market and economy on Friday that should all be points of consideration over the weekend. We are calling these the dumbest things, but they may simply be commentary on the reactions seen rather than based on where the stocks are heading or what the economic outlook may be after the news.

Bitcoin hit $354 on Friday, with yet another new high of $358. Imagine if Bitcoin could create a “real” virtual government too. Wait a minute, did they? The Winklevoss twins sure don’t look dumb at all now, even if this Bitcoin move is getting silly.

Francois Hollande’s policies in France brought on an S&P credit ratings downgrade. Promises of curbing austerity and taking from the top have backfired. Growth is now expected to be 1% on average and unemployment is more than 11%. Maybe S&P really meant to upgrade Nikolas Sarkozy.

Geron Corp. (NASDAQ: GERN) is a continuation of one the dumbest stories out there. This company has developed severe trust issues for causing losses galore in the past. Then its test results almost created a double to a high of $7.79, before falling all the way down to $5.21 in the same day. Then shares were down 10% more at $4.67 on active volume yet again on Friday. Those who did not take the warning about trust here yesterday probably feel pretty dumb.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) shares rising after the earnings report may be one the more dumb things we have seen this Friday. We see problems inside the company metrics, yet the reaction went the other way, based on record mobile apps being downloaded. Oh boy!

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) could have a $10 million giveaway after a huge sale? Maybe they could get into the lottery business themselves while they are at it. Anyhow, this is a thought.

Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) may have been down too much by our take as well, but activist fund Elliott Associates, with a 9% stake, calling the company significantly undervalued may already be a bit too much of a move. What is funny is that Elliott is right and it can be worth more. That being said, we saw a 15% rise to $17.42 against a 52-week range of $13.77 to $21.39. Some 13 million shares traded hands right before noon. Be advised that the short interest has been more than 12 million shares for three straight reports, and it was more than 12.6 million in late August.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) may be a great company, but the Tesla bulls must feel pretty dumb right now. Elon Musk told the world that Tesla’s stock price had risen to levels that it did not deserve. Now the stock is down around $135 after fires and earnings. The stock was close to $170 on October 28, when Musk’s overvalued comments were panning the stock. What do you do when a CEO tells you to sell and you don’t? You feel dumb.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) is still valued at more than 50 times sales. Not earnings, sales. If things just stay as they are now, investors are buying annual revenues from now out to the year 2063. Sure, a low float has something to do with this, and we cannot make any formal directional call here, even though the math does not add up. Is it a social media hangover?

The unemployment report was definitely in the top spot for the dumbest things of the day. The Labor Department managed to show more than 200,000 jobs in both nonfarm payrolls and in the private sector. It is as if the shutdown and debt debate was a joke. ADP and TrimTabs severely ratcheted down expectations for the payrolls report. So who is the dumb one here? Maybe everyone.

University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment report may be a dumb thing to consider going into the weekend. The government shutdown ended, the Labor Department blew its expectations out of the water on jobs and somehow the few hundred people that the Reuters and UofM students surveyed were all residents inside of Detroit. Either sentiment or the Labor Department was the dummy here, if not both.

These are 10 of the dumbest things we have seen this Friday. Just consider this your weekend reading, a few hours ahead of the weekend. A little entertainment and finance never hurt anyone on a Friday afternoon.

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