Rick Schottenfeld is one of my favorite guests on Squawk. Straight-shooter who can walk the walk (if your returns are in the triple digits, you're kicking a$$ and taking names, even in this market). Plus he's kind of a smart-ass which is entertaining. But what was the deal with Haines this morning? Schottenfeld starts talking about this potential bubble and Haines just about fell out of his chair. Schottenfeld starts elaborating on it, and Haines starts shaking his head and acted as if Schottenfeld was out of his mind. At first I thought Haines was just jerking his chain, but as the dialogue went on, it appeared that Haines was dead serious, as in "how dare you come on CNBC and not go along with our 'siss-boom-bah, rah-rah Dow 20,000 here we come' daily theme? Who the hell are YOU to rain on our Nasdaq 4000 parade?!!" I couldn't believe it. Either Haines & Crew are trying to protect Welch's investment in that ECN they recently bought, or else the whole gang needs to go back and review the CNBC tapes from 1987 and 1989. Haines' reaction probably confirms Schottenfeld's bubble theory...when someone says 'the emperor has no clothes' and the commoners jeer at him for such "blasphemy," it probably is a sign of a market top. I know CNBC is interested in ratings and all, but c'mon guys, let's not chastise someone for simply telling it like it is. Cripes, has everyone already forgotten about August thru October of last year?
It's unreal...when some analyst or PM comes on and says he likes the stock "flavor of the month," no one ever peppers them anymore with "well geez Bob, that thing's selling for 200x 2002 earnings and only growing at 30% per year...what the hell could you possibly see in that?" I mean for once, just for once, I'd like to see a money manager say, "I'm buying Bozo.com, Cyberjoke and e-Goofy because, well, because even though they're incredibly overpriced, everyone else is buying them and I'm a 'me-too' kinda guy."
And, I like Faber, but this a.m. when Kernan started talking about a stock (that I own) that filed an NDA this morning on a drug for pain, Faber chirps in with "nahh, that's already in the stock price." Geez Dave, thanks for your 2 cents. David must have some pals at Mustang Partners. When Monsanto filed Celebrex, I don't remember him chirping "nahh, already in the stock price." Of course, when Goofball.com, trading at 50,000x next year's estimated revenue, announces they will begin selling books (oooh, what a revolutionary concept) on their site, of course, that's *not* already in the stock price.
On a separate note, let's hope now that the holiday shopping season is over, the advertising guys come up with some new material for entertaining commercials. All of the ads have gotten really stale lately. The Ameritrade one with the old hag who looks like she's been chain-smoking for the last 40 years ("I call him Bud the Teachah...I got a stock SPLIT!...use the 'coastah' sweetheart")??? C'mon, I don't exactly envision that woman sitting in front of a computer (or even *owning* one for that matter) trading stocks...a commercial where she's hanging out at the local bowling alley smoking Camels and drinking Schlitz draft beer, that would be believable, but online trading? I don't think so. And yeah, the Lexus commercials are pretty phony too...hmm, let's see, someone just bought you a $50,000 automobile for Xmas and your reaction is simply "that's nice honey." Even more disturbing is that, after a much-welcomed (and I had hoped permanent) hiatus of the old Sugar-hag "Johnny! Johnny!!! Time to rub the bunions..." commercials, they're now back in full force. That commercial alone has worn out the mute button on my remote. Yikes. |
