Max Levchin says the market is wrong about Affirm Holdings, the buy now, pay later company he co-founded a decade ago, and it might just take a recession to prove it, The Wall Street Journal's AnnaMaria Andriotis reports. Affirm's stock is down 77% since hitting its peak in November, compared with a 9% decline in the S&P 500 during the same period, as investors worry about future costs of borrowing, growing competition and whether Affirm's borrowers will fall behind on payments during a downturn, the author notes. Levchin is confident that Affirm has safely cracked the code to underwriting more consumers than banks would. Reference Link

Victoria's Secret spent the last year trying to shift from a brand associated with the male gaze to a company representing female empowerment, but many customers don't know it made any changes at all, The Wall Street Journal's Khadeeja Safdar reports. Most shoppers who participated in a study conducted by the lingerie seller in February weren't able to identify Victoria's Secret & Co. as the brand behind recent ads of models wearing its lingerie, according to internal research documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The ads show women with different ethnicities, body types and ages mostly in natural-looking lingerie, the author notes. Reference Link

Coinbase (COIN) trades like a side bet on Bitcoin. Lately, though, shares of the crypto brokerage have added meme-stock volatility to the mix, taking cues from the likes of GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC), Joe Light writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Coinbase's volatility arises from several factors. For one, hordes of investors are betting against it. About 18% of Coinbase stock is sold short, the author notes. Such high short interest makes a stock vulnerable to a "squeeze," when traders who had sold borrowed shares - aiming to buy them back later at a lower price - must frantically cover their positions, causing a stock to surge. This helps Coinbase trade untethered from its fundamentals, acting like meme stocks such as AMC and GameStop, both heavily shorted and unmoored from valuation measures like price/earnings ratios, the publication adds. Reference Link

American drivers are back on the road despite high gas prices, and miles driven are now above pre-pandemic levels. That's bad news for auto insurers, which are reporting some of their worst results in a decade due to elevated claims expenses, Andrew Bary writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Progressive, the No. 3 auto insurer based on premium revenue, continues to distance itself from rivals and take market share, the author notes. But auto insurance costs were up 1.3% in July after rising 1.9% in June, based on the consumer price index. More increases are likely as the industry deals with what Mercury General has termed "extraordinarily high inflation" in claims costs. Reference Link

Berkshire Hathaway has never been in better shape. Its stock looks appealing after pulling back more than 15% from its record high in March, Andrew Bary writes in this week's edition of Barron's. The conglomerate's operating profits were up 22% in the second quarter, excluding foreign-exchange gains, powered by a 56% gain in investment income. Berkshire's annual operating income is running at more than $30 billion after taxes, the author notes. Reference Link

Rising interest rates and tightening credit conditions could spell trouble for higher-risk issuers that need to refinance debt or borrow more, Evie Lu writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Among those are Royal Caribbean (RCL), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Party City (PRTY), Rite Aid (RAD), Wolverine World Wide (WWW), Caleres (CAL), and Express (EXPR), the author says. Reference Link

Things admittedly have been challenging for American Eagle, Karishma Vanjani writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Still, the stock has believers who say the issues highlighted in the earnings call were temporary and that the company has solutions for the long run. The valuation-at about $2 billion, American Eagle is a small-cap stock-has fallen to a level that likely reflects the worst of the impact, the author adds. Reference Link

New weight-loss drugs, known as incretins, from Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) have show striking results in studies. If insurers step up to back them, the drugs - and the stocks - could take off, Bill Alpert writes in this week's edition of Barron's. If every hefty American got treated at these drugs' current prices, the annual market for incretins would be a trillion dollars. Insurers can't afford that, of course, and access to the new drugs is highly restricted. But there's plenty of room for prices to come down and still reward Novo and Lilly shareholders, the author notes. Reference Link

The climate bill in the U.S., approved by Congress this past week and sent to President Biden, unlocks $370 billion for clean-energy incentives and consumer benefits, Avi Salzman writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Barron's has identified six promising companies and stocks, including a developer of solar roof projects, two innovators in hydrogen technology, a battery maker, a supplier of green power to utility companies, and a miner of a mineral key to renewables. According to the publication, AES (AES), Bloom Energy (BE), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), LG Energy Solution, Plug Power (PLUG) and Sunrun (RUN) could make the most of the new opportunities in renewables. Reference Link