Diamonds and Dogs

3/23/23

KB Homes (KBH) holding in there even with higher interest rates. The homebuilder is up 9% as the company beat estimates as sales revenues fell 1.4% to $1.38 billion. A dramatic jump in mortgage rates has caused a housing correction as buyer cancellations spiked to 68% in the fourth quarter. However, demand is slowly coming back as incentives and price reductions are starting to work.

Block (SQ) taking a hit on a short seller research report. The stock formerly known as Square is down 13% as the two-sided digital payments ecosystem for merchant sellers and consumer buyers may be overstating their genuine user counts and has understated its customer acquisition costs. Former employees estimated that 40%-75% of accounts they reviewed were fake, involved in fraud, or were additional accounts tied to a single individual. facilitates fraud.