Notes From All Over -- The Early Morning Edition -- Part 5 -- August 24, 2020

CNBC guest: still talking about growth stocks and value stocks. I agree with a guest on CNBC last week. There are only "growth" companies -- companies are either growing or they aren't. Period. Dot. Well said.

"Story stocks": how Andrew Sorkin refers to AAPL and TSLA.

Sorkin: still can't get over AAPL's stock split. Amazing. Doesn't understand human nature.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Home sales surging. Why? Link to USA Today: the question is never answered in this article except perhaps in a superficial way with several memes. Clickbait.

Home sales soared in July, continuing a stunning rebound buoyed in part by buyers seeking a more comfortable home in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Home sales jumped 24.7% from the month before. 

That surge broke the record for a month-to-month sales spike set in June when completed home purchases rose 20.7%. July sales rose 8.7% over the same month last year. 

“Right now housing, amazingly, in the midst of a global pandemic (and) high unemployment ... is in a booming phase,'' Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said in a briefing Friday.  [Has he looked at lending rates?]

But a significant segment of the country is being left out of the home buying rush because they can't afford to participate. 

"Unfortunately, home prices have also soared in the last year, a consequence of high demand, relatively low supply and low interest rates,'' Robert Frick, corporate economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. 

"This puts homeownership further out of reach for lower-income Americans and even middle-income Americans in some markets. That lower-income Americans have been hurt more by the pandemic just makes that situation worse." [Is this anything new, where a crisis hurts the low income more than the wealthy?]

The number of homes available to buy was down. The 1.5 million houses, condos, and townhomes available for purchase in July was 21% lower than the housing inventory on the market one year earlier. That helped elevate prices. 

The national median price for a home topped $300,000 for the first time, reaching $304,100 -- an 8.5% jump over July 2019. Despite the higher price tags, many sellers are fielding multiple offers from buyers eager to take advantage of historically low interest rates that can shave hundreds of dollars off their mortgage payments.

So, again, did I miss it? Why are home sales surging? And to think folks read this drivel while waiting for their flight. Well, not so much any more.

AAPL price target: raised by Morgan Stanley to $520. Joe Kernan gets it. Wow, wow, wow, he finally mentions a "reverse split."

Lego on a tear. And not just in my household. LOL. From The WSJ. This is a non-story but it's my hunch the editors were aware of LEGO's growth and wanted a story on LEGO and here it is.

Seeking ideas for TV shows, digital videos and toy sets, Lego A/S is asking people to share their imaginings on a new platform set up for that purpose. 

Called Lego World Builder, the platform lets users propose story worlds, characters and other ideas by uploading concept art, videos and descriptions. Lego said it will buy the ideas it likes. 

Entertainment has long been important to the $21 billion toy industry, which also sells playthings based on popular Hollywood franchises as well as making TV series and movies about its own wares. 

Licensed “Star Wars” toy sets helped Lego rebound from near-bankruptcy in the early 2000s, while the success of “The Lego Movie” in 2014 helped usher in new products and an increase in revenue. 

But content—stories featuring toys—has become central as toy makers vie for children’ attention against videogames, YouTube and social media. “It’s a different world with so many choices for children,” said Chris Byrne, an independent toy-industry consultant and analyst. 

Lego’s most ardent fans will stay engaged on Lego World Builder, as the company mines them for ideas to reach consumers across a fragmented media landscape, he added. 

Lego has budgeted $500,000 a year for at least the next three to pay the platform’s users when it likes their submissions, said Keith Malone, the company’s senior director of entertainment development. To option an idea—meaning Lego will try to develop it—the company will pay $10,000, he said. If it decides to buy the idea outright, it will pay $50,000. Those pitching ideas must be at least 18 years old.

From my perspective, LEGO is the most transformative of all non-electronic toy companies. It is simply incredible. And the interest is shifting to millennials and baby boomers, alike.