Today's Peculiar Stock Chart

Sumthin' fishy here?

Just wondering aloud about something: How is that that a company reports a negative earnings surprise, combined with New York Times exposure of inflated EBITDA numbers -- and its share price soars 9% and ends the day up 2%?

This happening on a day when the market is down?

And then weakens when the market is on a tear?

All this happening to a stock that, even after being beaten down, is already grossly overvalued?

I'm wondering:

Is this stock being manipulated on the upside?

Does a recently announced share buyback have anything to do with this?

Or were small investors hoodwinked into buying the shares on the basis of those inflated EBITDA numbers, only to get a quick loss for their trouble?

Just wondering. That company is, of course, my favorite corporate train wreck Overstock.com (NSDQ: OSTK), and as with every other aspect of this creepy little company, its share price chart is mighty peculiar.

I guess you can call what happened on the day of the earnings announcement as a "Patrick Byrne rally," as in the famously dissembling CEO of this SEC-investigated company.

This looks to me an awful lot like a pump-and-dump but hey, what do I know?

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.