CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Fast Money Review Archive — Jan. 2026]

You can leave rates unchanged as much as you want, if you’re handsome (a/k/a Rick Rieder lost the beauty pageant)

Eamon Javers delivered news from the White House during Friday's (1/30) Halftime Report, saying Donald Trump was indicating he's not going to demand Kevin Warsh commit to rate cuts because Donald Trump wants to keep it "nice and pure."

Eamon also reported that Donald Trump actually said "looks don't matter, but he's got the right look, uh, for the job."

Honestly, given the Pete Hegseth model, and the fact that to some very interested parties, the Fed chair job amounts to making about 15 business speeches a year on television, we're guessing the White House scout team put together a short list of CNBC recruits that may have included anyone from Joe Kernen to Morgan to Judge to Tim Seymour, and that all were either nixed by Scott Bessent or simply declined to participate.

At another time during Friday's show, Rob Sechan said Warsh is the "responsible adult in the room" because Warsh is aware of the 2008 financial crisis.

We can't wait to see how incredibly good Kevin Warsh is going to look in a sweater/vest at Jackson Hole.

Apparently, every Friday, Jim and Judge are going to tell us that Bob’s actually stepping aside

Basically repeating what they said a week earlier, Judge and Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (1/30) Halftime Report said a filing suggests the DIS "successor" will be announced "sometime in the month of (sic 3 words redundant) February."

Jim bemoaned that "they have to know who the, who the choice is by now," so why is it taking forever. Jim said he's holding DIS, but "one's mettle is tested in holding it."

Meanwhile, Stephanie Link said of SBUX, "This stock should be bought." That's fine; we would swear that we hear about a new Starbucks store/concept overhaul about every 6 months, but whatever.

Josh Brown said he sees autonomy as "bullish" for UBER, but "apparently, most of the Street doesn't." Stephanie Link got a chance to mention GE Vernova and its "book to bill." Rob Sechan talked up GILD.

Jim said XOM has so many things working, it's a great long-term stock even if there's short-term fluctuations to oil's price. Stephanie likes CVX.

Josh's Final Trade was RKT; he said he'd probably add on the dip.

Sucking assets away from crypto; the horror ...

At the top of Friday's (1/30) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal noted the "speed" with which the retail crowd has traded silver.

Judge said, "Escalator up, elevator down," which maybe was true Friday, except, to be honest, it's actually been kind of an elevator in both directions this month.

Rob Sechan said, "You certainly saw the mania phase reached earlier this week."

Rob said metals mania "has sucked even assets away from crypto." Stephanie Link said metals maybe take a "pause," but she's glad to have the "unknown" revealed regarding the Fed; Stephanie said Trump's gripes about Powell "might just go away with Warsh."

Josh Brown said the Fed news is just the "excuse" for why gold and silver got sold; it doesn't really have anything to do with policy.

Halftime Report crew apparently likes tagging Jim as some sort of curmudgeon

On Friday's (1/30) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal said maybe there's "no near-term catalysts" for AAPL and suggested "people are kinda tired of hearing about supply constraints."

Judge chided Jim for making a "vociferous defense" of MSFT a day earlier over supposed supply constraints while Jim was saying Friday that with AAPL, according to Judge, "investors don't want to hear that." Jim claimed he was saying previously that Mag 7 earnings reports may be met with a "tepid response."

Stephanie Link said the replacement-rate cycle at AAPL has risen from 4 years to 5.2 years, a "big big change."

Josh Brown tried talking about the importance of China to AAPL while Rob Sechan and at least one other person were on open mike the whole time laughing about something; Judge explained after Josh's remarks that it apparently was about the version of iPhone that Jim has.

Stephanie admitted she's "frustrated" with AMZN.

Judge said MU's had an "unbelievable" chart.

Judge suggests Jim is glossing over key issue with MSFT earnings report

Judge started off Thursday's (1/29) Halftime Report on MSFT, indicating it's "spend vs. revenue growth."

Jim Lebenthal, completely dismissing the MSFT selloff, said, "This to me seems well overblown," shrugging that the selloff is simply because "Azure disappointed by about 1 to 2 percentage points."

Judge said, "I mean, I think you oversimplify it a little bit ... you miss the fact that spending was greater than expected."

Jim insisted "there's a supply constraint issue going on here."

Malcolm Ethridge though asserted "the thing that really matters to the Microsoft story right now is Azure cloud credits and their ability to sell those." Jim said the point is "well made" but the stock's "overdone."

Jim said he's not rushing out to buy though because it'll take some time to get going. Rob Sechan said there was "tactical pressure" on MSFT and there's minimal room for disappointment. Josh Brown said, "I think you're in the cooler for 90 days."

It was in the 9th minute when Josh Brown said "monolithic" (as in, the Mag 7 is NOT trading that way).

Judge tries to one-up Josh’s use of French

Judge on Thursday's (1/29) Halftime Report said the IGV was having its "worst day since April 4th of 2025." Judge noted that NOW was down also.

Judge said he doesn't know what "reverses" the narrative about AI killing software.

Malcolm Ethridge admitted he bought NOW recently on the theory of "peak pessimism," and "it doesn't look great." Josh Brown emphasized that ORCL is in a "50, 5-0% drawdown."

Judge talked up how IBM (Zzzzzzzzz) "delivered." Rob Sechan said it's up about 47% since he talked about it on the show last year.

After an AAPL preview, Judge and Josh chided Jim Lebenthal for making the declaration that AAPL is a "great company." Judge said, "How long did you think about working that one up." Jim said, "Hilarious."

Josh bought more JOBY, saying it's taking advantage of the opportunity to raise capital. He sold PL, which he said was a double for him. Josh said "au revoir," and Judge said "merci, beaucoup," apparently to show off.

Jim said LMT is "the stock to own." Rob said LMT is a "great way" to play the defense space.

LLY got a price target hike. Rob said LLY has "re-rated quite a bit."

Josh said NUE is on the Best Stocks list.

How does Judge know that Brad Gerstner’s letter is what prompted META to rein in spending?

On Wednesday's (1/28) extremely sleepy pre-Fed version of CNBC's Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said, "We've lost that broadening-out narrative" (Zzzzzzz).

Joe said you have to take a "pause" (Zzzzzzz).

Judge told Jenny Harrington that he likes when META reports because it's the only megacap Jenny owns. Jenny said, "Just because I don't own them, doesn't hold me back from talking about them." (Yep.)

Sarat Sethi seemed to indicate that V and MA aren't going to be derailed by talk of credit card caps.

Sarat said the oil patch right now is where "momentum comes into play." But Joe said momentum funds aren't into it yet. Bryn Talkington said commodities have gone "parabolic" but energy hasn't yet participated and people in gold and silver will be "moving in to this other commodity." Bryn talked up the RSPG as a better alternative to the XLE (Zzzzzzzzzz).

Sara Eisen had an interview with Vlad Tenev; Vlad spoke of personally talking to Donald Trump about Trump Accounts and said the administration has gotten "the best of the best" across public and private sectors to work on this initiative. (It's good that they've got the best of the best; sometimes it seems like Peter Sellers is running things.) (Vlad didn't say whether they discussed if kids with accounts need to have a free copy of It's NOT An Option.)

Later in the day on Closing Bell, Jeffrey Gundlach said he and Judge were doing their "41st post-presser interview," and it's impressive that Jeffrey keeps count. (However, Judge never went to see the Marisol exhibit at the Buffalo art museum, as far as we know.) Jeffrey always likes to begin by identifying the most common/significant phrase from Jay Powell's press conference; Jeffrey suggetsd it was, "I got nothin' for ya on that."

Jeffrey indicated he's not expecting any more rate cuts during Jerome's tenure as Fed chair.

Also on Closing Bell, Judge happened to claim, "It took the Brad Gerstner letter to, to help them get religion on, on spending."

Which is an interesting allocation of credit.

For example ... this is a completely FICTIONAL example ... let's say this page posted a couple weeks ago that "The Buffalo Bills should fire Sean McDermott."

And then McDermott got fired.

Is Judge going to say, "It took a posting by the CNBCfix Fast Money/Halftime Report Review for the Buffalo Bills to find religion in their coaching situation." Or is he going to conclude that such messages were merely coincidental until proven otherwise?

CNBC trying to convince media landscape of the importance of The Golf Channel

Late in Wednesday's (1/28) Halftime Report, Judge turned to The Dominator, Dom Chu, for a "major development in the golf world." (Translation: The Golf Channel, unlike NBC Sports, is part of Versant.)

Dom said Patrick Reed is leaving LIV and rejoining the PGA Tour. Judge said "the real earthquake as I see it would be if, if Bryson DeChambeau made a similar announcement, and then we would have to be talking about the future of the LIV Tour in general."

Dom said, "We're not there."

‘Shock’? C’mon, it’s health care and the government

Stephanie Link on Tuesday's (1/27) Halftime Report called UNH "a buying opportunity after you actually let it settle for a couple of days."

Stephanie said "Something's gotta give" on Medicare pricing. "The seniors are gonna lose," Stephanie concluded.

Jason Snipe said it's "not good at all" for UNH, but the CEO Hemsley (not Sherman) will respond and the company is diversified.

Judge said Steph and Jason may be dismissing Tuesday's trade as an "overreaction," but what about the full-year chart. Stephanie said, "That's old management." Stephanie said HUM is actually "much more at risk" from this Medicare report.

Joe Terranova pointed to how insurers could "thrive" during the "negative years" of the Biden era and said the Medicare thing will be "flat or down" in 2026 because it's an election year. Stephanie said the Trump administration was supposed to be the "friend" of the industry and "obviously they're not." Stephanie kept saying "shock."

CoStar’s standstill agreement apparently is being monitored at the very highest levels

The Halftime Report's big scoop of the day on Tuesday (1/27) was Judge's chat with Dan Loeb (which wasn't actually on TV, but whatever).

Judge said "new at noon" is that Third Point is "stepping up its activist campaign today against CoStar," a stock you've likely never heard of that had a "standstill agreement" with Third Point.

Judge quoted at length from a letter Loeb is sending to the board that mentions a "dim view" of the company that is "plainly shared" by other stockholders. Judge said he spoke to Loeb "last hour" but went on to quote the letter while the bottom screen text said Loeb told Judge that other shareholders see Third Point as doing "God's work"; eventually Judge mentioned the "God's work" quote.

Joe Terranova said the JOET, for whatever reason, is actually a shareholder of CSGP since last summer (and might ditch this month) and "I support everything that Dan Loeb is saying in this letter." Joe said "They're trying to almost be Zillow" and spending a "tremendous amount of money." Joe said CSGP needs a "pivot."

It’s been ages since Carl Icahn has been on Judge’s show

Joe Terranova on the Halftime Report said Tuesday's (1/27) market is a blow to the broadening theory; "Once again, it's all about tech."

Stephanie Link likes the "setup" of the Mag 7 names being down from their highs.

Discussing META spending, Joe said people have "fallen asleep" on GLW, himself included, and it's a buy on a pullback. Joe also said "president" (snicker) instead of "present" but corrected himself.

Jason Snipe said AMZN has some tailwinds.

Steve Liesman said Donald Trump wants the Fed funds rate at 1%, which Steve said is a "recession-type stimulative funds rate."

Maybe when kids get a Trump account, they should also get a free copy of It’s NOT An Option

Kate Rooney on Tuesday's (1/27) Halftime Report recapped the 5-year anniversary of the GME meme trade.

Judge observed, "Retail's been right on this rally." Joe Terranova said investing is a constant learning process and young people are more financially literate than ever and Joe even mentioned Brad Gerstner's Trump Accounts.

Shannon Saccocia said "we should be encouraging not discouraging, as advisers in my seat; the, the next gen is incredibly interested and engaged in the market."

Judge touted the scheduled appearance of Jeffrey Gundlach on Wednesday's Closing Bell.

Jason Snipe's Final Trade was ABBV and Jason drew chuckles mentioning some of those products you hear all the time in TV commercials.

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said the GM report was "really great" but lamented, "it doesn't seem to get anything but a cyclical multiple."

Weiss says Jim’s commentary is an argument against live TV

On Monday's (1/26) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said he "completely" sold JPM and shrugged, "I don't get emotional about this stuff," though he's "comfortably long" GS personally.

Joe said "Going with consensus has been the wrong move over the last 18 months."

That conversation prompted Jim Lebenthal to make a statement (no, not the sweater thing at the end), declaring, "I just wanna say I strongly agree with the concept that there is no such thing as a forever stock."

Jim said "around this time last year," he mentioned selling V, and "there was the question about my education credentials. It was kinda funny actually, I hope you do remember it."

Judge said, "I don't," and Steve Weiss didn't either.

Jim explained that it was Jim Cramer who said, "Anybody who sells Visa, I have to ask where they went to school." Judge said he has "no recollection of that in any way, shape or form." (Editor's note: Neither does this page. Jim mentioned trimming V in December 2024; we also noted that Cramer joined the Halftime set on Jan. 31, 2025.) Jim said Judge "just took glee in it ... I'm reminding you of a funny moment." Judge wondered if Jim had a Red Bull before the show; Jim admitted he had.

Steve Weiss has "no problem" with anyone selling JPM. Weiss said "Jimmy's soliloquy was a great reason not to do live TV." Weiss then questioned why a long-term investor like Jim makes so many short-term market calls. Jim admitted that's a "great point," he is giving short-term views but he's not trading his long-term holdings.

Joe seems to think ‘consensus’ is a dirty word

On Monday's (1/26) Halftime Report, Judge's opening screen text claimed this is a "huge (snicker) week for markets."

Joe Terranova said the volatility that was expected in 2026 is here, and that's the "headline." Joe said foreign central banks are buying gold.

Steve Weiss said there's some "vestiges of the Sell America Trade." Weiss said there's "maybe" a 5% risk of a market "drawdown." One reason would be if the Fed takes a "hawkish" stance Wednesday, another if there's a "disappointing" batch of earnings reports. But that would be "buy the dip," Weiss said. And those scenarios are "all unlikely."

Jim Lebenthal said, "Just to be specific about what I believe both short term and through the end of this year is that the equal weight, small cap, international stocks are likely to outperform the S&P 500."

On Fast Money, Guy Adami said we "absolutely" should be focused on the weakening dollar (Zzzzzzzz).

Weiss sorta gets Jim to switch ‘trapped’ to ‘underwater’

Judge on Monday's (1/26) Halftime Report asked Jim Lebenthal about META.

Jim claimed "There's a lot of people trapped in there" who may be "heading for the exit" if there's a post-earnings spike.

Steve Weiss wondered to Judge, "What does 'trapped' mean?" Judge asked Weiss, "Why are you asking me; ask him." Weiss said, "I need an interpretation." Judge wondered if he needs to be the "buffer."

Jim said, "There's a lot of people who bought it and are down 10, 15%." Weiss said he doesn't see it as "trapped," there's plenty of liquidity. Jim said OK, he means people who are "underwater."

How long has It’s Not an Option been a ‘new’ book?

Joe Terranova bought more ZM, saying on Monday's (1/26) Halftime Report that it "could go to 125, 130 easily."

Jim Lebenthal talked up CSCO; a stock he has liked for probably 15 years running.

Judge said Milius expects the software vs. semis underperformance to "persist."

Joe bought more OIH (Zzzzzzz). Jim thinks crude can "stabilize" between $60-$63. Jim mentioned the XOM buy of XTO (snicker) as why the nat gas move is helping XOM. Joe said March natural gas is only around $3.80. Joe said there's really no way to trade nat gas other than in the futures markets.

Jim said comps in Vegas are tough but as always, recommended WYNN. Joe said LVS is a better trade than WYNN.

Weiss said the BAH contract cancellation was about a court case adjudicated in 2020, "so it seems kind of irrational" to do it now, "so maybe there's more behind it." Jim mentiond the F-35 again.

Jim took off his jacket to reveal a red sweater, apparently in honor of Mr. Rogers, for Final Trades.

Jim insists we ‘kinda’ know who Iger’s successor(s) is without saying who

Judge on Friday's (1/23) Halftime Report announced that DIS is saying in a regulatory filing that it plans to name an Iger successor (snicker) in "early '26."

Jim Lebenthal said this already feels like "early 2026" and it's getting to be like the next Fed chair; "Don't we kinda know who it is?"

Well, actually, we don't, and if it's the 2 in-house underlings, the market is going to be underwhelmed.

Jim said the succession issue is an "unnecessary overhang," though we're not sure who Jim is faulting with that comment; perhaps he is faulting the market for wondering about this, but apparently he is faulting the company for letting it continue this long. Jim said, "Let's get people on those Disney cruise ships, let's get people in the movie theater ... let's focus on that, not the CEO turnover."

Bill sells CEF in favor of ‘straight gold’

Judge on Friday's (1/23) Halftime Report said silver topped $100 and gold hit a record and is closing in on $5,000.

Bill Baruch dialed in to say he sold CEF. (And this must've been some kind of initiative at Blue Line because another chap at Bill's shop joined Kelly's Power Lunch to discuss the same subject.) Bill said he's written that $5,000 gold and $130 silver could just be "middle innings." Now, he wants to trade in CEF in favor of OUNZ, "which is straight gold."

Steve Weiss said the GLD still has "some legs." Weiss said of gold approaching $5,000, "I hope it doesn't turn into bitcoin 125, when that was the top ... that's a very real risk."

Kevin Simpson said "I'd rather play the miners," talking up AEM. (This writer is long AEM.)

Judge says chance of a 10% credit card interest cap is less than ‘slim’

Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (1/23) Halftime Report said the Mag 7 for the past year moves at "unsynchronized (snicker) times," and he thinks AMZN is "due."

Jim said MSFT isn't in the "hurt locker," but he's concerned that investors might find the "exit ramp" if there's a pop on earnings. Judge said "Microsoft has kinda been in the hurt locker" and that the chart "says 'hurt locker' to me."

Kevin Simpson said AMZN is his top pick for the year and that AAPL is the one most under the "microscope."

Weiss said, "It wouldn't surprise me if Meta one day goes into the cloud business."

Kevin bought EXP, which is some kind of play on building materials (Zzzzzzzz). He also bought BLD.

Bryn Talkington bought COF. Judge said, "What's in your wallet." Bryn said it was her "Final Trade" on the day Donald Trump mentioned 10% caps (and it became her Final Trade again Friday) and she thought it was "overdone." She said Brex, which COF is buying for $5.15 billion, was worth $12 billion a few years ago. She said Friday's move was an "overreaction."

Weiss said a 10% cap isn't going to work because "having 10% doesn't compensate them for the risk of the credit card holders that are, that don't have the good FICA scores." Judge suggested the chance of a 10% cap is "slim and none, and, and slim just left."

Kevin bought BAC, but it sounds like he's already got a bunch of big bank stocks.

Bryn thinks she’s done a ‘great job’ trading TSLA

Kevin Simpson owns INTC, unfortunately; Judge on Friday's (1/23) Halftime Report asked Kevin how he would "assess" the stock. Kevin said he bought it a month ago around $42. Kevin suggested not following him in to the trade; in the short term, it'll need a "tweet" or "memeification" to surge again.

Kevin bought MDT and said he's in it for the "demographic," which has kind of been the argument for stocks like that for decades.

Kevin owns SLB but said it's given back a lot of its post-Venezuela gain.

Late in the show, Judge asked Bryn Talkington about TSLA; Judge pointed out it's underperforming the Nasdaq over 5 years. Bryn said, "I think I've done a great job trading this stock because I continue to sell calls. Right now I have 500 calls that expire February 20th. And I feel there's a very low probability that those get called away."

Santoli said Friday was a "total countertrend move" in the market.

Jim worked with guys who made no money in gold in the ’90s, so look out

Josh Brown on Thursday's (1/22) Halftime Report said gold "trends" (that's a verb) and is "a whole different animal" than other commodities, and "this could go on for 10 years."

Jim Lebenthal told Josh "you know" (which Jim seems to say often to Josh) that gold also has trends of "absolutely zero."

Jim recalled that he "grew up in this business with the original gold bugs after we, you know, got off of the gold standard, post-Bretton Woods, everything with Nixon ... these guys went through the '80s and '90s making no money in gold, no yield." Judge said gold seems like a hedge on "erratic policy" and "inflation" and it'll have a "bid" as long as there's a bid in those things.

Jenny Harrington said her clients aren't bullish; "they're nervous." Judge said "maybe their fund manager is making them less bullish."

Jenny mentions 1929

On Thursday's (1/22) Halftime Report, which was basically Jenny Harrington arguing with everybody about everything ("Today's Thursday." "NO IT'S NOT!"), Josh Brown knocked those who react to presidential tweets; "It's mostly algos trading that stuff."

Josh said he likes the market getting beyond data centers. Jenny said "I'm loving this market this year. It's a lot of fun." Kari Firestone said it might end up where the S&P 500 does "very little this year, but these other indices do a lot," even up 20% while the S&P may be up 2%. Jim Lebenthal said earnings growth of AI stocks may be slowing but other stocks are picking up the slack.

Judge said JPMorgan finds that overall market bullishness is at high levels. Josh said surveys like that are "concurrent indicators" that merely reflect "conditions as they are."

Jenny argued with Josh over AI's impact so far on productivity and the job market; Jenny arguing (we think) that increased productivity could drive unemployment. Josh said we're not there yet but it's a no-hire/no-fire economy. Jim insisted it's not about productivity making people irrelevant yet but "the risk for all of us is that AI actually is a bubble and all these stocks are inflated."

At one point, Jenny claimed (sigh) a bunch of metrics show "This market is more expensive than it's ever been since 1929." Josh said Americans' wealth is at an all-time high and they need stocks and suggested comparing stocks today to those of the 1940s is "apples to oranges." (And if we have another 1929, Jenny's stocks will do great; and if we don't have another 1929, Jenny's stocks will do great.)

Kari trimmed Alphabet, saying it had gotten close to 10% of the portfolio.

Jenny argued with Josh during the AI conversation and during the AAPL conversation and with Judge during the AI conversation.

Jim thinks ORCL has stopped going down but also isn’t sure

Jim Lebenthal on Thursday's (1/22) Halftime Report said he bought ORCL personally and stopped buying it for client accounts; Jim said "I think it's stopped going down," then moments later admitted he's "not sure."

Josh Brown questioned if ORCL loses its investment-grade rating. Jim said he doesn't think it will, but if so, "it's a disaster." Jim said the question is "whether OpenAI is good for the money."

Kari Firestone sold INTU (Zzzzzzzzzz).

The panelists debated whether this is the greatest time of all time for retail investors and kind of hailed SCHW and HOOD.

FSLR has made Josh's Best Stocks list; he thinks it's on the "cusp of challenging" a 20-year high.

Santoli said Rick Rieder's odds have improved.

Joe Kernen, stand-up guy

Previewing Joe Kernen's talk with Donald Trump at Davos, Judge at the top of Wednesday's (1/21) Halftime Report said it's "such an incredible time to be able to sit down with the president of the United States, as we are."

Actually, they didn't "sit down" at all.

Meanwhile, Joe Terranova said we don't have the "all clear" yet on yields. Joe said, "Don't bottom-feed" but focus on areas that have worked.

Shannon Saccocia said there's "a bit of fatigue in terms of policy."

Steve Weiss said "you can't find anybody that's negative," and with everyone on the same side of the boat, it's "kinda wobbly."

Weiss said talk of taking over Greenland was "just bluster" and never a possibility.

Malcolm Ethridge bought more NOW and said it's probably reached "peak pessimism." Weiss though argued that a lot of companies are building their own software applications. Weiss said he's "sticking with" MSFT.

Joe bought more XBI and OIH (Zzzzzzzzzzz).

Grasso: Can wait for NFLX to drop $10, or just ‘dabble’ now

Judge on Wednesday's (1/21) Halftime Report asked Steve Weiss about selling half of his stake in NFLX, the stock of the week. (This writer is long NFLX and added Wednesday.)

Weiss said it's important to be "very open-minded as an investor." Weiss said it's a question of whether he wants to "bemoan" that he didn't sell it higher, or raise cash now for a "real market dump" later.

Weiss said, "I still like it on a long-term basis." Bu he's "not happy" it's buying WBD; he wants PSKY to buy WBD and get "crushed" by the debt. "I just don't know why they need it," Weiss said, saying the spend amounts to "5 years worth of content."

Malcolm Ethridge said NFLX has a "YouTube problem."

Later on Fast Money, guest Tom Rogers said of NFLX, "I think the core story is still very much intact" even though the WBD bid remains an "overhang." Rogers did note that in buying WBD, that's a lot of spend on legacy media when the real threat to NFLX seems to be short-form stuff from YouTube.

Steve Grasso said, "If you want to get greedy in this stock, look back to November 2024 levels. $10 lower from here. If not, dabble at these levels right now. ... This is where it should bounce from technically." Karen Finerman said she did "dabble" on Wednesday, buying around 84.

‘We think bitcoin is both a risk-on asset and a, ultimately, a risk-off asset’

The star guest of Wednesday's (1/21) Halftime Report was Cathie Wood, who hasn't been on the show for a while.

Judge asked Cathie about reasons for economic optimism and market multiples. Cathie cited the same reasons everyone cites (deregulation, lower inflation, etc.) for the former and said multiples compressed "significantly" in 2017 and 2018, and "we were up" in the down market of 2018.

Judge asked Cathie why, if she's such a believer in AI, ARKK doesn't have bigger stakes in hyperscalers. Cathie said she's more into stocks that are "not as well known." Judge said it sounds like Cathie thinks hyperscalers are spending too much and not getting enough return on the spending.

Judge asked Cathie if she regrets trimming her NVDA stake a while back. Cathie shrugged that the proceeds went to PLTR and COIN.

Judge said TSLA has done "nothing over the past 12 months." Cathie said there's been a "bit of a tug-of-war," as there always is. Cathie said she thinks robotaxis will "break it out."

On bitcoin, Cathie said there was a "flash crash" on 10/10 related to a software glitch at Binance that "caused auto-deleveraging." Cathie said the shock has been "reverberating." Cathie asserted that bitcoin and gold don't trade together. Judge suggested bitcoin doesn't seem like a safe haven, while gold is trading that way. Cathie actually said, "We think bitcoin is both a risk-on asset and a, ultimately, a risk-off asset."

At the end of the show, Judge asked panelists to opine on Cathie's comments about the hyperscalers. Steve Weiss said "nobody's going to Cathie Wood to invest in hyperscalers," rather, they go to Cathie for the "next generation" of hot stocks.

Judge said that's like a "so what." Weiss said "I don't know what you mean by 'so what.' I answered your question."

Judge asked, "Are you trying to discredit her opinion on it." Weiss said "Not at all," Cathie's smart and a businessperson and "knows they're not coming to her to invest in that."

Josh says NFLX made a ‘checkmate move’; Karen sounds not so sure

Josh Brown on Tuesday's (1/20) Halftime Report again mentioned taking down his NFLX position 85%, though he said "hopefully" he'll get back into a full position at some point. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Josh called NFLX's bid adjustment to all cash a "checkmate move" to win WBD. Josh said, "This is a much worse sit- situation for Paramount than it is definitely meaningful for Netflix right now. Uh, once the deal closes, I think people will get positive about it."

Brian Belski said cash bids are better, and NFLX has "simplified the process."

On Fast Money, after the NFLX earnings report, Karen Finerman, who, in a treat for viewers was in gorrrrrrrjus black like Mel on the same show, said the NFLX numbers were "pretty good" and said the company isn't a great "estimator" of its earnings.

Regardless, "Warner Bros. is so far from over. This bump is not gonna get it done. They know that," Karen said, adding, "Looks like they're gonna end up paying more, if they want it. They seem to want it."

Karen said she's "staying long" NFLX.

Tim Seymour said Ted Sarandos mentioned "2 or 3 things that sound horrible for margin." Tim questioned if NFLX wants to be a "TV company" and expressed skepticism at the 35 multiple.

Dan Nathan said if he were Ted Sarandos, he'd want to have a "stronger outlook" than what was indicated.

Guy Adami though said "I thought the quarter was fine." Guy admitted he had been calling for an earnings-report surge for the stock, which wasn't happening Tuesday, but "I think the guidance scared people ... I think the selloff now is completely overdone to the downside."

Later in the show, NFLX longs got the good stuff from Rich Greenfield. Rich said his impression from Ted Sarandos is "that they are absolutely committed" to closing on the WBD acquisition. Rich said the all-cash offer shows "how focused Netflix is on winning this."

Rich asserted, "It's gonna be really hard for Paramount to come back" because there is "more value" to the spinoff cable assets that NFLX isn't buying.

Paramount should "pack it in," Rich said, unless it wants to "really overspend" and "do something truly crazy from a valuation standpoint." But he doubts PSKY will actually pack it in. (Indeed. We're expecting a cash infusion from Larry any moment now.)

Karen asked Rich if he preferred NFLX wasn't attempting this. Rich kind of punted and didn't really answer, saying, "At this price level, Karen, I'm not sure it matters."

And that, we think, might be the best argument of this whole saga. Buying WBD may or may not be a good move for NFLX. We have no idea. But we hardly think that making a bid/deal is going to permanently mar the NFLX mindset or business model or whatever it is people are thinking when they point out that it hasn't been an acquirer. Should we be outraged that they shifted to streaming instead of sticking with DVDs by mail?

Rich said "a couple dollars more" from NFLX won't "skew this." The issue is whether PSKY decides to "go for broke." Rich conceded, "I think there is a price where Netflix walks away." Rich said ultimately it's a "win-win" for NFLX because the stock would go up even if it loses WBD.

Rich also mentioned Iger and the "transformative" DIS acquisitions of Marvel, Pixar and LucasFilm. "I think of Warner Bros. as sort of being a similar transformative acquisition," Rich said. OK, THAT'S a big difference from Paramount. Those were super-elite properties whose owners weren't interested in an auction but wanted the ultimate Hollywood caretaker (if there is such a thing).

Karen congratulated Mel on Mel's new Closing Bell Overtime gig and made NFLX her Final Trade, though she'd wait "a day or 2."

Panelists don’t seem the slightest bit concerned about big selloff

Joe Terranova started off Tuesday's (1/20) Halftime Report saying that if you want to be troubled by Tuesday's selloff, note that "yields are rising."

Liz Thomas said she doesn't know that we're in an "extreme moment" right now in which you "buy risk assets in general."

Josh Brown shrugged, "This is normal."

Judge suggested to Brian Belski that Monday's political flap may be just "noise." Belski said it's an "absolute headwind" but that there are "longer-term tailwinds."

Joe bought TWLO and retraced his recent trading in the name; bought in early December around 130, sold this month at 137, now he's a "buyer at 119."

Joe again was talking about the 4th quarter "paradigm shift."

Joe bought more of the JOET on Monday because it's equal-weighted, and equal-weighted will be "a dominant theme in '26."

At one point, Judge told Santoli that the market seems to come down to whether we overcome the "own goals" and still win the game.

Karen Finerman on Fast Money noticed "the lack of move in the VIX," saying it was "nowhere remotely close to a panic territory."

Missy dynamite in black on Closing Bell Overtime

Judge and the panelists of Tuesday's (1/20) Halftime Report sure talked up some boring stocks.

We wuz kinda scratching our heads when Josh Brown delved into the latest Best Stocks in the Market (and basically indicated he didn't want them).

Brown said AEP is on the Best Stocks list, but he wouldn't actually buy it. He said NEE is "fine" as long as it's above 78. He said SRE is his favorite of the 3 and "probably goin' to a hundred bucks."

Brian Belski touted NEE and asserted "at the end of the day (we don't hear that nearly as much as we did 10 years ago), uh, utilities are a great AI play."

Josh made an extensive case for TTAN and said he'll be adding to it, as it has tumbled in a week. Josh also talked up TOST again and said it's had a "stupid selloff."

Josh called SHAK a "misunderstood growth story." (Like TOST, it's a stock he talks about frequently.)

Joe Terranova said Tuesday's gain in EQT was weather-related and he doesn't advise buying nat gas names on the weather boost.

Joe said TKO is a "buying opportunity."

Belski talked up SO and the "old-fashioned" utility plays. Liz Thomas predicted energy stocks will "decouple from oil prices generally."

Belski touted SCHW and Joe touted IBKR and the space in general. Joe said "catastriphic (sic) (snicker)" regarding TRV before correcting himself.

For whatever reason, Judge asked Belski several questions about working for Merrill.

Joe called his Final Trade of TBT a "hedge."

Judge is ‘not a lawyer’

On credit card interest caps, Joe Terranova on Tuesday's (1/20) Halftime Report predicted there will be a "resolution that'll push that deadline out into the future."

Joe suggested not selling the credit card stocks.

Judge admitted "I'm not a lawyer" and said he's "not sure if there's legal authority to do this by executive action or otherwise."

Joe noted, "To be a Judge, you have to be a lawyer, right?"

Judge said, "I don't know, might've gotten a special appointment."

Brian Belski mentioned the "noise" and said he doubts that the cap is going to happen.

Regardless of whether NFLX gets WBD, once it’s over, the stock maybe gets going

Josh Brown on Friday's (1/16) Halftime Report said he only has a "very small position left" in NFLX; "I'm very bullish on Netflix long term," he said, but he has "no interest" in the Hollywood battle that's going to take place over the next 6 months. (This writer is long NFLX.)

We think Josh (and others on the show who have made similar comments) is on to something. But he could go further. It seems like the market is not very jazzed — in either direction — about the prospect of NFLX owning WBD. On the other hand, it seems like, once this matter is decided — whichever way it turns out — is when NFLX perhaps will start moving up again.

On Fast Money, Julia Boorstin previewed NFLX earnings. Mike Khouw said there's been "above-average call volume" that's implying nearly an 8% move. Steve Grasso said the WBD bid is a "definite pivot in what investors appreciate from Netflix." Tim Seymour said reasons for the deal are clear, and, "I think it is time to buy Netflix."

If a big tax bill more than offsets the joy of a big gain, then what’s the point?

Honestly, some things we hear on CNBC's Halftime Report are head-scratching.

Jenny Harrington on Friday (1/16) said her cost basis in META is "$116 a share." Great. Jenny's got a big gain.

But then Jenny said, "When you have that big a capital gain, it really changes your calculus on if you're gonna get cute and play an earnings season."

Well, Jenny doesn't need to "get" cute we gotta wonder why someone would ever sell a winning stock, according to Jenny's logic.

It sounds like Jenny is speaking of this bizarre Catch-22 for apparently many stock market investors: Your goal (presumably) is to get a capital gain ... but another goal is avoiding big tax bills ... and those 2 goals can be at odds with each other.

If, as Jenny suggests, holders of META with a big capital gain simply avoid selling it during earnings season, fine. But when are they ever going to sell it? Don't they have to sell it some time if they're going to realize the reward of their great stock-picking? Or is the plan to hold it forever and eventually bequeath it? (Tip: The bequeathee has the same issue of needing to sell it in order to get the cash.)

Whatever. Addressing one of Jim Lebenthal's favorite stocks, Josh Brown said he "dove into the dumpster for a little bit of Adobe ... I was stopped out like within 10 days."

In an enthusiastic call, Josh said "CrowdStrike is, is selling fur coats ahead of an ice age." Stephanie Link said we're in the "2nd inning" of cybersecurity M&A.

K-shaped sighting

Jenny Harrington on Friday's (1/16) Halftime Report said she's feeling good about her portfolio, but not the overall market or economy. "I really am worrying about the future," Jenny said.

Stephanie Link pushed back on Jenny's concerns about the labor market, which prompted Jenny to mention "the K-shaped economy" (ding) in the 6th minute.

Josh Brown said we started kind of a new bull market in late 2022, and now "it does feel late cycle."

Jason Snipe said he's remaining "patient" with MSFT but is aware of the "issues" surrounding the stock.

Stephanie sold ELAN; she said it was up 86% last year. (Congrats.) She bought ZTS and mentioned TAM (ding) for the animal care space.

Josh sold INVH; he said "it's been terrible over the last year" but he had a "decent, uh, percentage gain."

Josh said CBRE is "breaking out" and on the Best Stocks list. Jenny said "it's just a rebound" because the sector was so bad last year.

Fast Money, unfortunately, for about 3 years running now is obsessed with these ridiculous trader acronym portfolio names.

Bill says his team was ‘way ahead’ of NFLX’s slump and sold at 115; suggests $130 (eventually) silver

On a quiet Halftime Report on Thursday (1/15) guest-hosted by Frank Holland, Bill Baruch said if NVDA gets above 193 or 196, then "look out above."

That prompted Frank to ask/clarify with Bill about 3 times whether he thinks NVDA would make a run at new highs. Bill indicated that's a ways away.

Bill actually mentioned the multiple. But Malcolm Ethridge suggested NVDA could be "super range-bound" for a while. Bill got Jim Lebenthal briefly excited about possibly liking software stocks until Bill admitted he's "not very excited about software."

Bill said NFLX has an "ugly chart" and he's "not interested in adding," but he did sell it at 115 in one of his portfolios that was "way ahead of this" (congrats). Frank asked Bill if NFLX buying WBD is a "good deal," which was a great question on Frank's part. Bill said he doesn't "have a strong opinion" but the market says "it's not." (This writer is long NFLX.)

Bill sold TMO and said it hasn't been "exciting." Frank asked if telecom is exciting. Bill pointed to T's year last year.

Bill bought LNG, XOM and SLB. Frank said natural gas is known as the "widowmaker" trade. Bill tried to assure Frank that U.S. natural gas prices don't affect LNG.

Malcolm said he'd buy the big banks on pullbacks. He bought JPM and MS. Malcolm revealed, "I've had to come around to this Joe Terranova idea of buying high and hopefully selling higher."

Bill said JPM is a 2.7% weight in his portfolio so he's not looking to buy more.

In an interview during the A Block, the CEO of COIN, Brian Armstrong, talked to Emily Wilkins about Washington politics. He'd rather see no deal than a bad deal.

Jim sees "bright things ahead for CRH."

Malcolm admitted SPOT has been "a hard one to own" for the last 6 months, but it's reaching a "really attractive entry point," and it's "kind of a pair trade" with NFLX (we heard that from Joe all last summer). (This writer is long NFLX and SPOT.)

Bill affirmed he sees precious metals as an "investment" rather than a trade. "I think silver can get to $130," Bill said, but he doesn't think it'll be a "straight line."

Jim yet again made a bull case for CLF; there's never been a bear one. Now he's saying some recent deals had "hair" on them and maybe that hair gets "cut down."

Jim again made the case for LMT.

On Closing Bell, hosted by Santoli, Stephanie Link said "K-shaped."

Kari on NFLX bid: ‘I don’t get it’

In a quiet episode of the Halftime Report on Wednesday (1/14) led by Frank Holland, panelists found a lot of common ground, especially as it pertains to NFLX. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Steve Weiss said he thinks NFLX was down Wednesday because of the "market overall." Weiss reiterated that he'd prefer NFLX let PSKY make the WBD deal and let PSKY "sink" under the cost.

Weiss said he's debating whether to exit, and it would be because it's "dead money."

Kari Firestone said, "I don't really undersand this deal." Weiss said he's "100%" with that view; "I don't get it."

Joe Terranova agreed with both and said he can't get out of NFLX but would if he could.

Row, row, row your boat ...

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (1/14) Halftime Report said the market's getting the "consequence of elevated volatility."

Kari Firestone said there's "fear and concern" about the "rhetoric" in Washington.

Steve Weiss made an analogy to everyone in a rowboat being on the same side (which is all these people talking about a great investing environment). Weiss said the market is realizing that "Washington's not that helpful" and actually "attacking capitalism."

Kari indicated she wouldn't "rush in" to bank stocks after such a big year. Joe mentioned CME.

Shannon Saccocia talked up the importance of cybersecurity.

Kari bought LIN, a trade spotlighted by guest host Frank Holland. Kari said "it's a cyclical company, for sure."

Joe affirmed he sold UBER personally and said it's just been in a range. He said we need the "next story" of what the company's about. Weiss said robotaxis are "more competitive." Weiss has trimmed some UBER but said it's "dead money" and will continue to be.

Frank asked Joe about the gold rally. Joe called it a "momentum play that's being embraced by the retail community."

Shannon Saccocia said historically, you wouldn't be thinking about commodities in an era of "expected disinflation," but there are "drivers" now.

Joe said he's getting exposure to oil prices through VLO and OIH.

On Fast Money, Steve Grasso mentiond "Strait of Hormuz," which is ahead of its quota of needing to be mentioned about once a quarter. Karen Finerman said "there's a ton of value" in oil-related stocks.

Tim Seymour questioned how it's OK for members of Congress to make so many stock trades. Steve Grasso pushed back that at least we have transparency about the trades that are made.

‘Houston has the Oilers ... the greatest team of all ... and when you’re talkin’ Houston, you’re talkin’ Super Bowl ...’

On Tuesday's (1/13) Halftime Report, discussing DAL's money from the front of the cabin alone, Josh Brown said, "They're spending with abandon," adding "K-shaped" in the 4th minute.

Judge said "K-shape" in Minute 5.

Jim Lebenthal bluntly stated that the market doesn't need rate cuts.

Jim suggested it's possible that there's "tremendous fiscal stimulus" from the budget bill and possibly even tariff refunds depending on the court ruling, which would be an "absolute waterfall of money" into the economy.

Jim, who made a fashion statement with a sharp tie, reiterated that he thinks concerns about software being "disintermediated" by AI are "overblown," and he's "tired" of defending ADBE but is doing it again; Jim thinks the market's "getting it wrong" on ADBE.

Joe Terranova said if he had "discretion," he'd trim MU and similar stocks, but he doesn't have that kind of discretion in the ETF. Joe calls MU "extremely extended" and "certainly vulnerable."

The whole reason why Steph is bullish is because Steph is always bullish

Jim Lebenthal on Tuesday's (1/13) Halftime Report kept stressing that the market is shrugging off the Jay Powell news for the short term, but he agrees with Bernanke/Yellen/Rubin that "this does make us look like an emerging market economy."

Jim stated, "In the long run, it is a very bad idea to bring the chairman of the Federal Reserve under investigation."

Stephanie Link then made a stark assessment of the central bank: "I just want them to get rates right ... they haven't gotten it right in so many years ... in terms of rate cuts or rate raises."

Judge demanded, "Who, the Fed? What do you mean they haven't gotten it right in so many years? The whole reason why you are bullish in part on the- the picture right now is because you can make the argument that they may have gotten it wrong in the beginning but they've certainly gotten it right since. Inflation's low and the economy's good. What more do you want?"

"And I think that they can cut," Stephanie explained. "Because we don't have a housing cycle. We need housing to recover. And if you don't have a housing cycle, you don't have an auto cycle."

Joe Terranova claimed, "in 2025, we had a paradigm shift (snicker)," a chance to invest in "non-appealing type of assets."

Judge brought up Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren talking about credit card fee caps, a subject that got a lot of chatter. Josh Brown said, "Elizabeth Warren is not the last phone call Trump's gonna have."

Joe said "What you don't want to do here is a January 20th deadline" though "everyone agrees, this issue needs to be addressed."

Stephanie would buy COF with ‘2 hands, 2 fists’

Josh Brown on Tuesday's (1/13) Halftime Report said materials are now among the Best Stocks of the market, such as MLM and VMC. (It's a list you can kinda front-run simply by checking the 52-week highs.)

Josh said CRH "already made a big move" and might consolidate, and the other 2 are better. Jim Lebenthal called CRH a "stellar long-term holding" and said it's "actually the name to own" in the space.

Judge got Joe Terranova to admit "I made a mistake" in selling the GLD recently. (Bill Baruch also fell for the "froth" argument last week.)

Judge made an elongated Deepseek pun.

Stephanie Link made a new buy of CVX. (Zzzzzzz.) Josh bought XOM as an "exemplar" of the space. (Zzzzzzzz.) Joe bought OIH. (Zzzzzzzzzz.)

Stephanie bought the EWZ.

Stephanie's Final Trade was emphatically COF, saying she'd buy with "2 hands, 2 fists."

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman and the rest of the crew seemed to find NFLX's apparently willingness to adjust its WBD bid to be a bit of a head-scratcher, though Guy Adami is predicting it could pop on earnings. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Weiss sees ‘similarities’ to 1929

At the top of Monday's (1/12) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova noted the bond market and overseas markets were "calm."

Amy Raskin said the market keeps getting political headlines and "looking through them."

Steve Weiss said the market is discounting all these headlines "individually." Weiss said Jay Powell will stay until May but after that, it's "perhaps troubling."

For now, Weiss decided, "Basically the bears are coming to a gunfight with a knife."

Judge said the market's got "broadness" (snicker).

Bryn Talkington said the consumer "in aggregate" is fine and the "catch-up trade, you know, has legs."

Bryn said the Powell-DOJ news is "disturbing and probably a big waste of taxpayer dollars."

Joe said, "The hedge really right now is in the precious metals market."

Weiss said bitcoin fans who thought it was an inflation hedge or store of value "have seen lie put to that, to that narrative." Weiss said he's "a third of the way" through 1929, and there are "definitely similarities" to now.

Judge says Donald Trump ‘expects this Department of Justice to operate in many different ways than traditionally it has’

Eamon Javers on Monday's (1/12) Halftime reported on the statement from former Fed chiefs defending Jay Powell's independence.

Judge said of Donald Trump, "He may claim to know nothing about it, but Eamon, what- what we've seen is that, he expects this Department of Justice to operate in many different ways than traditionally it has in other administrations, is that fair?"

Eamon didn't disagree and said Bill Pulte had been pushing since last year the notion that Powell had "lied" to Congress.

Joe Terranova said caps on credit card interest is a "warranted conversation." Joe predicted that the Jan. 20 deadline will be extended "3 to 6 months." Amy Raskin said this interest rate demand "causes some confusion."

Judge asked Bryn Talkington about Donald Trump's XOM comments. Bryn said, apparently referring to Darren Woods (though we're not sure), that "he" made a "fair assessment."

Amy pointed out where the S&P was in late October vs. now and said it hasn't been a "rip-roaring" market in the last few months.

Whatever happened to DOGE

Bill Baruch dialed in after the A block on Monday's (1/12) Halftime Report to talk about trimming the IJR (Zzzzzzzzz). Bill bought the IYM after talking last week about how important it was to trim the "froth" in precious metals.

Bill bought TSLA. He said it went "straight up" since he sold it in November.

Steve Weiss said he's surprised that both AAPL and GOOGL weren't up more on Monday.

Weiss said MSFT is "just dead."

Bryn Talkington said she's owned ALB for a while and is "still down" on the position; "I would not be putting a new position on this."

Bryn said FCX "probably goes higher," and she expects to get called away.

Bryn offered COF for her Final Trade. Weiss is back to recommending UNH again.

Bryn’s not emphatic enough — it’s Texans all the way (as Cris and Mike provide curious playoff analysis)

Friday's (1/9) Halftime Report included a little segment from the CNBC Sports team, which doesn't have updated NFL team valuation estimates but does have an Alex Sherman chat with NBC/Peacock announcers Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico.

(Which is curious. Because supposedly the argument for SpinCo/Versant/VSNT was the ability to make alliances with non-NBC properties, so there's no reason, on paper, that Sherman couldn't also have spoken with PSKY's Tony Romo or FOX's Tom Brady or DIS' Joe Buck.)

(Some things never change.)

Anyway, Sherman got to talk playoffs with Collinsworth and Tirico. Alex's curious question was whether this is a "wackier" or "nuttier" season with "parity" (how is there more parity this year) and "wide open" playoffs.

Cris said there's a "new group of young quarterbacks" who have gotten the top seeds and there's veterans like Josh Allen determined to show them how it's done. (Which really is saying ... absolutely nothing.)

Then Mike really went off on a tangent in stating, "I don't think kids are afraid anymore" and likened QB success to ordering things on AMZN that arrive tomorrow. (AMZN is broadcasting the Saturday night game; maybe Judge can ask Al Michaels if next-day delivery is a factor in NFL QB success.)

Later in the show, Bryn Talkington's Final Trade was INFL, which has nothing to do with the NFL. Judge said that symbol made him think of the NFL playoffs and he asked Bryn about the Texans' chances. Bryn said "pretty good," which is understating it. Bryn also said "Go C.J. Stroud; 24 years old, he's young." That's fine, but Stroud is not the reason the Texans will win the Super Bowl — it's a defense with 3 potential HOFers that is playing offense.

Kevin gets one of the greatest things in the world — a compliment from Seema

Judge about halfway through Friday's (1/9) Halftime Report said UBS upgraded MO.

Kevin Simpson said "it's a yield play" with a "fantastic dividend."

Switching to fashion commentary, Judge told Kevin, "that kinda looks like a smoking jacket." Kevin said, "If I could get away with it, I'd smoke on the set." Judge asked if Kevin's jacket was "plum." Kevin said he'd say "mauve." Steve Weiss said, "I want to know who makes a material that color." Judge said, "Hey man, gutsy move to wear it on live TV, but he did. Confident in himself." Weiss said, "He must be gettin' paid to wear that."

Judge brought in Seema Mody for the CNBC News Update. Seema said, "I think it's a pretty nice jacket."

Weiss actually says he’s praying for PSKY to make a better offer

Judge on Friday's (1/9) Halftime Report said Goldman Sachs cut its NFLX target to 112 from 130. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Judge read the Goldman statement, which sounded like it was written by a corporate focus group (or some AI program).

Steve Weiss, who has spent the last couple years touting the strengths of NFLX (which this page agrees with), said "I equivocate on this" and some days thinks about selling it; he doesn't think the story is "damaged" but it's "dead money for a while."

Taking a blunt stance on the WBD offers, Weiss said he doesn't know why NFLX doesn't let PSKY make the deal and "buckle under the debt" that would prevent PSKY from spending "anywhere near" on content as NFLX does. Kevin Simpson noted, "That could still happen." Weiss said, "I pray Paramount comes out with a better offer."

Kevin asserted, "If you don't write covered calls against Netflix, you can't and shouldn't own it." Kevin said he wrote a January 105 call against it.

Jim gets rather melodramatic about selling a few shares of GOOGL

In what became a rather tedious conversation, Judge on Friday's (1/9) Halftime Report politely grilled Jim Lebenthal over the curious practice of trimming stocks that have been winners. (A stock doesn't care whether it's 3% of someone's portfolio or 50% of someone's portfolio, but whatever.)

Jim said he's trimming C because it had grown to be 6% of client portfolios. "This is still a big position" at 4%, Jim explained.

Jim said C is trading "almost 1.3 times" tangible book. Steve Weiss spoke of being partly compensated in stock on Wall Street and said C's ability to attract top talent is "much improved" with the stock's gains. Jim said it's "fairly valued" now.

Judge said, "I don't have a problem inherently with portfolio management. It's kinda like 'No, no you-know-what, Sherlock.'"

Jim said, "I know what you mean."

But Judge wondered, if the momentum continues, why get out of the stock.

Jim said "I love the question," but "inherent (snicker) in what I'm saying" is that "I hate riding stocks up and down. I just hate it. And you know who else hates it? My clients." (Don't they hate the stocks that go down a lot more than the ones that go up and down?)

But Judge asked why Jim trimmed Alphabet (according to disclosures at CNBC.com, Jim is long GOOG and not GOOGL), as Jim's somehow the "face" of that stock on the show (Judge mentioned Eddy Cue in the 14th minute) and maybe the story "has many many more chapters to be written on a momentum scale."

Jim said, "I'm gonna wear my heart on my sleeve here (snicker). I'm actually, um, proud, flattered, that you've called me out on- that you have called me out on this, OK. And, uh, pride goeth before the fall (snicker), we all know that. We all know that."

Jim said he thought about it a lot, should he trim, but "the right thing to do is put pride aside (snicker) and be willing to get it wrong that it runs to 400, 450, et cetera, and take a little bit of risk off the table."

Jim said he'll find "other stocks to pick" and suggested ORCL might be one.

Weiss said Jim bought Alphabet "when it was in the relative dumpster."

Judge questioned getting out of a stock if you're "afraid" (that's Judge's word, Judge said, not Jim's) of holding it too long. Kevin Simpson offered, "You can't have any emotion." But Judge said Jim made an "emotional move." Jim protested that "somehow the message got messed up there" (not the first time Jim's offered that complaint in a debate with Judge) because Jim actually was "trying to take emotion out of it."

Kevin said if you keep a maximum position, "you have to trim it." Kevin keeps a maximum of 5%.

Jim said "ultimately where I get my compensation, both emotionally (snicker) and monetarily, is from portfolio performance. And these moves are about portfolio performance."

Kevin finds consensus scary

Kevin Simpson said near the top of Friday's (1/9) Halftime Report that the only thing that scares him is the market "consensus" that everyone seems to have.

Steve Weiss said there's broadening but the tech trade is just "more selective" and there's "exhaustion" and that some people were just waiting to January to sell. Weiss bought XLI last week as a "placeholder" until he gets into specific stocks.

Judge said Hartnett is advising "maintaining" the Mag 7 without adding.

Kevin bought W, calling it a "story of efficiency." He said it's a "momentum trade." Weiss asked for short interest, and Kevin said he didn't know but "not as much."

Bryn Talkington said NVDA and AVGO are down for the year and there's an "overhang" of AI. But Bryn wouldn't "count tech out," it's taking a "breather" rather than a "retreat."

Just eyeballing the chart, we don’t see how anyone could’ve made 10% in SLB just this week

On Friday's (1/8) Halftime Report, Kevin Simpson said he bought FDX and spoke of several reasons why he thinks it'll go higher. Steve Weiss said he'd love to buy FDX but apparently can't because one of his companies has a connection to it. Weiss pointed out that having to ground some of its plane fleet didn't wreck earnings.

Kevin bought SLB. He bought Tuesday and thinks it's up 10% since then.

Bryn Talkington said you have to "pick your spots" in the energy space. (That seems to be the Halftime Report message with every single stock this year.)

Jim Lebenthal said sentiment in energy is still negative.

In one of the least exciting mentions, Kevin sold a 113 call in MRK.

Judge said Berenburg upgraded CRWD and pinned a $600 on it. Bryn said this could be a good entry point to buy.

Judge said Morgan Stanley actually upgraded CLF with a $17 target, up from $12.80 (snicker). Jim said steel prices are going up and auto sales are strong. Jim said "there's a lot of moving parts here" but "most if not all" are "aligning positively." (Which is what Jim says EVERY time he is asked about CLF.)

On crypto, Bryn said, "There's been a tremendous amount of technical damage," citing MSTR's odyssey. Bryn said the bitcoin recovery could be "V-shape," but it'll take a "minute."

Thomas Peterffy has some good arguments ... but betting on climate change and the deficit???

A big chunk of Thursday's (1/8) Halftime Report was devoted to a special remote appearance by Thomas Peterffy.

According to Judge, the Interactive Brokers chieftain took issue with comments by Josh Brown on Dec. 19 sort of knocking the predictions markets that are gaining presence in CNBC commentary. Judge said Thomas accepted an invite to appear on the show.

Thomas said that 10 years ago, he wanted to put forward yes or no questions that would be reliable as "economic and climate indicators" in an "attempt to teach Interactive Brokers customers about the probabilistic nature of the future."

He said others "picked up on this idea" and came up with things like "romantic life of celebrities" type of questions. Thomas said, addressing one of Josh's comments, that predictions can go to zero but so can options.

Judge, sitting next to Josh at Post 9, said maybe Tom and Josh don't disagree "on the key point," that "some of the original ideas behind these have been somewhat corrupted."

Thomas said in prediction markets, "only 49.5% of the people make money. And 50.5% of the people lose money." Josh said his point was that it's "fine and valid" to place bets, such as on climate change or whether "Marty Supreme" wins an Oscar, but "that's not going to be larger than the stock market anytime soon, maybe ever."

We saw that 12/19 episode, and it actually was Steve Weiss' point that the predictions market isn't very large and is simply commoditized.

Josh agreed with Weiss and didn't so much question the value of predictions but likened the sector of predictions markets to cannabis stocks, which are all "down 95%," according to Josh, and that number is probably correct.

Thomas insisted that climate change is a "very, very serious question" and if it should "speed up," then "people should know." He also mentioned elections.

OK, in terms of evaluating stocks that might be plays on the business of running predictions markets, we agree with Josh (and Weiss). Other than sports markets, there's not enough binary and un-riggable events out there that are conducive to betting. And multiple platforms could end up hosting that wagering, as happens now in sports betting.

Thomas has a quality point about how predictive markets do provide a clear picture of perception — but the usefulness of that information is limited because the marketplace doesn't know who will win, it only knows who the bettors THINK will win. Somehow hedging a financial position based on climate change wagers seems impossible. So it will be a novelty pastime for people to have fun with.

Still, Thomas made eloquent points, even as he was seated at kind of an awkward angle in the IBKR TV room.

Judge questioned betting on "military action." Thomas said the CFTC requires Interactive to check for manipulation, and questions about wars are supposed to be prohibited.

Despite Josh's assertions, Thomas said predictive markets will eventually be "much much larger" than the "securities market." Josh said he agrees that there will be "huge betting volumes" but tried to draw a "distinction" that, basically, stocks are an investment for the long term vs. going from "one bet to the next." Thomas said subjects like the deficit are very important and said you can get interest on longer-term bets.

For whatever reason, Judge quickly closed the interview without asking Thomas about 1) the stock market, 2) the Trump administration, or 3) whether IBKR would be tempted by the prospect of being acquired by a big financial company, as has been suggested in the past year on the Halftime Report.

Bill says Q1 could be about the only time to make money in 2026

Thursday's (1/8) Halftime Report opened with Bill Baruch trimming the IJR (Zzzzzz). He said he doubled his exposure in Q4 but is just "raising a little cash."

That might not have even gotten a mention here, except for what Bill said next: "You need to make your money in the first quarter" because "the year could really level out from April to November."

That's one of those comments that comes into play about 11 months from now in the Call of the Year/Bust of the Year type of conversations.

Jenny Harrington said she's been "enjoying the rotation" and it's "nice to finally have stocks that are in favor." Jenny said the winners of the last couple years "should take a pause."

Then, we got one of the show's most tired refrains: "You have to do the work this year. You have to think about valuations," Jenny asserted.

Josh Brown pointed out the differences between the IJR (includes speculative companies that may not be profitable) and IWM (profitable companies) and said it's a matter of whether we're in a higher-risk market. Judge wondered if we're in a higher or lower risk market, which is a great question. We don't think Josh or anyone else really answered that question, but Josh said the peak of Mag 7 vs. the Other 493 was in December 2024, so this year is only following through on last year. Josh said the rally in "other stocks" has been building since September/October.

Judge said some including Tom Lee are bullish but saying it won't be a "linear" year. Sarat Sethi said it's "the quality play."

Then Judge said panelists have been saying so far that 2026 will be a "much more tactical kinda year." (He didn't say that that's what panelists say at the beginning of just about every year.)

Anyway, don't throw darts at a board. (But actually, it would be funny if someone did throw darts at a board for 2026 and beat out some of the Halftime Report "tactical" money managers.)

Jenny apparently was criticizing people last May for buying GOOGL

Judge on Thursday's (1/8) Halftime Report said GOOGL is "knocking on the door" of $4 trillion.

Bill Baruch said it's his largest holding at 7%, and he said Jenny Harrington gave him "a lot of heat" when he was buying it last May. (Jenny basically gives anyone heat for buying a tech stock, unless it's META in December 2022 like Jenny bought when everyone was selling.)

Bill said he thought AI could be a "tailwind" for GOOGL rather than a headwind. Josh Brown said Google eventually made a "very bold" decision to go all in on AI, but as of now, it's already gotten "a lot of the credit for that."

Jenny claimed "the problem with 2025" is that "the story of a stock drove the share price." (OK, so now all the banks and health care and great rotation stocks are just story-telling.) But Jenny said Alphabet has "more story" than others.

Jenny likes META best in the Mag 7 because it has the "most assured earnings growth." Josh said it's the "worst AI story of the group."

Bill sees ‘some froth’ in silver, gold

Addressing current events, Judge on Thursday's (1/8) Halftime Report asked Josh Brown about INVH and its "bit of a meager bounceback relative to the pullback yesterday" on Donald Trump's housing tweet.

Josh shrugged that it's been "basically, uh, listless for over a year." Josh stressed that tweets are different than policy.

Judge said Bill Baruch trimmed GDX and CEF. Bill insisted he's "not negative" on metals and miners but there's "some froth" in the space. Blil said for the next 3 weeks, there could be a "consolidation phase." He said his commodity fund bought copper futures and he thinks 5.70 is support.

Jenny Harrington sold NGLOY but said it's not a call on metals but simply "portfolio management."

Josh gave an update on energy stocks that he says are among the Best Stocks; he said VLO is his favorite among the refiners. He also talked up BKR. Sarat Sethi touted CVX and XOM, which he owns.

Jenny was talking about UBER and buying it years ago at 22. (Because it's always about the cost basis.) Sarat tried to make a point about UBER but had to talk over the rest of the panel talking; Sarat said he'll get concerned about valuation when it gets above $100. Bill Baruch said it's a "free cash flow story" and once it gets over $90, it'll draw cash flows.

Bill bought more LDOS; that was his Final Trade.

No one, including Judge, mentioned VSNT. (It did actually gain, after it dipped down to a 31 handle.)

Karen’s VSNT buy is possible contender for Bust of the Year

It didn't come up on Wednesday's (1/7) Fast Money.

Nor did it come up on Wednesday's (1/7) Halftime Report.

But it did come up on Monday's (1/5) Fast Money — that being, Karen Finerman's announced buy of VSNT, the former SpinCo spinoff that is now CNBC's parent company, on its first day of trading.

Karen cited 3 reasons for buying: 1) She's supporting the "home team," 2) that it's now in charge of its own "destiny," and 3) that there was huge volumes of forced selling by all the funds that own CMCSA but can't actually hold VSNT.

As Karen spoke, VSNT was 40 bucks. As of Wednesday, it was already $33.

Gasparino's already writing about how the performance of this stock may be swinging the balance of power in the WBD takeover battle.

This page is NOT rooting against CNBC, the rest of VSNT or anything to do with the "home team." As always, we'd like to see success.

However, we've never quite understood why this collection of assets belongs together in a standalone company or what kind of investment thesis would make any sense here other than "Let's hope a Hollywood studio or Mag 7 name buys us out" (which they could've already done for a LONG time but have not).

And, frankly, we've heard a lot of the same type of corporate-speak about this company that, when it's from other companies, wears thin and gets called out on programs such as Squawk Box.

As of 1/7, Karen remains long VSNT, according to disclosures at cnbc.com.

AMZN, META ‘screaming buys’

It's not every day that you hear "screaming buy" on the Halftime Report, but that's exactly what viewers Wednesday (1/7) got from Stephanie Link.

Link said, "I think that Amazon and Meta are screaming buys for 2026 ... I think it's a reversion-to-the-mean trade."

Jason Snipe said CES "did not disappoint" and said Jensen "does deliver" and NVDA looks like a "good buy."

Joe Terranova predicted AAPL will "deliver in '26" and "north of $300."

Stephanie finally sold ETN though she's "done quite well." And, in the 21st minute, she also mentioned GEV. Joe said the JOET bought ETN in July at 380 but "it's now a losing trade."

Meanwhile, on the broader market, Joe said, "The market's not running away from risk."

Stephanie said we've had "11 consecutive weeks of loan growth" (Zzzzzzz).

Liz Thomas is "cyclically bullish" and likes materials and health care.

Stephanie pounded the table for financials. Jason said the "major theme" is that "Banking fees were up 42% last quarter."

Joe said there's a "tremendous opportunity" to own exchanges.

Stephanie bought more ZTS and NTRA.

Joe says DIS is ‘right at the bottom’ of stocks in the JOET

Judge on Wednesday's (1/7) Halftime Report said MoffettNathanson claims DIS is "next up" as the biggest winner (snicker) of the WBD sweepstakes, which, quite honestly, is beginning to seem like a bunch of people in a neighborhood bidding up a 12-year-old used car for some reason and then starting to wonder why they don't just go buy a new one. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Joe Terranova told Judge about the MoffettNathanson call, "I'm not sure about that." Joe said if you were ranking the 125 stocks in the JOET, DIS is "literally right at the bottom" because revenue growth hasn't been great but it got in because it "had a surge in the 2nd quarter."

Asked about COST, Joe said, "I did a horrible job, uh, advising the viewers on what to do with this stock." Joe said the JOET bought it in 2024 and "it delivered," but it hit a "ceiling" in Q2 of 2025. Joe wondered if it handled tariffs differently than WMT did. Jason Snipe said "the multiple obviously was also a little bit of a story."

Joe said FSLR has worked because it's shifted production to the U.S.; he said to watch the 100-day and to "maintain a bull bias."

Joe gushed about owning APH for "entirety of the ETF."

Stephanie Link actually bought more EL. (This writer is long EL.)

In the show's final minutes. Eamon Javers reported on Donald Trump's new homeowning agenda. Judge demanded, "What power does the president have to do anything about this, at all, Eamon."

Pippa Stevens was back, doing the CNBC News Update.

VSNT looks like a disaster; Judge doesn’t mention

The star guest of Tuesday's (1/6) Halftime Report was Brad Gerstner (which means there wasn't time for hardly anything else, like catching up on the trading in Versant).

Brad joined shortly into the program and claimed, "This is gonna be a stock-picker's market, it's not 2023 or 2024, where we were early in the supercycle and we were recovering from the pullback in 2022." (OK, we'd like to see proof that people were saying in 2023 and 2024 that you don't even have to be a stock=picker; anything you buy will go up.)

Brad said his biggest bet is "AI infrastructure." Brad defended CRWV after Judge mentioned it being "in that group" that got pressure including ORCL (and Judge mentioned the ORCL CDS in the 17th minute).

Judge said he noticed Brad isn't long META. Brad said META is in a "tough transition."

Brad admitted that Alphabet has done a great job since he expressed skepticism last year but said the multiple has grown. Brad said the multiple for software stocks is at a "generational low."

On the rest of the show, Brian Belski stated, "Year 3 of the bull market is usually the worst in the first 5 years, OK. I think we're probably gonna have the Year 3 of the bull market in Year 4." Belski talked up several sectors but especially touted "small midcap."

Joe Terranova said there are "plenty of tactical opportunities here early in the year" and then mentioned a buncha different things.

Josh Brown said anything can happen this year, as it's only Jan. 6, but "Banks are an AI winner" as they won't need as many "bodies at desks."

Belski said he likes CVX. Joe said BA and MRK appear to be breaking out.

Josh talked up PNC and FITB for his Best Stocks and apologized for looking like the guy in green behind the screen in "The Wizard of Oz."

Shannon Saccocia, who was at Post 9 but had a quiet show, made IYC (Zzzzzzz) her Final Trade.

Karen Finerman buys VSNT,
says it’s ‘one for the home team’ (but doesn’t mention that Rotten Tomatoes belongs on her own Worst Corporate Names list with Dress Barn and Athlete’s Foot)

The first day of Nasdaq trading of CNBC parent VSNT on Monday (1/5) was, um, a little underwhelming.

Which apparently prompted Fast Money panelist Karen Finerman to actually buy some shares. (Remember in the old days, when every CNBCer had a bunch of GE stock?)

Here was Karen's explanation on Fast Money: "Several reasons that I did that ... one for the home team. I want to do that ... I do believe that when you are in charge of your own destiny, as Versant is now, that you do a much better job, you're very focused, right ... there's a technical issue to this trade that I think is really important. Which is that, most of Comcast is owned by mutual funds that are tied to, let's say the Nasdaq Composite. So, they need to mirror that. Versant will not be in that. So if you're a mutual fund and you own Comcast, you will get 4% of the number of shares that you own in Versant stock. You can't own it. You must sell it. Regardless of price. ... Often people begin to sell it immediately, so, you saw a ton of volume today ... I love the dynamic of when you have someone selling who cannot own it, regardless of price, they have to sell it. And so I'm also somewhat intrigued by, the media space has gotten a lot of attention ... however Warner ends up, we might see somewhat of a comp to look at ... the balance sheet's in decent shape ..."

OK ... lots to mull here ...

Karen's main argument, that this is forced selling by funds that may otherwise want the stock, is a strong observation. But it's an observation made earlier in the day on the Halftime Report and probably other CNBC shows, and nobody was jumping in to scoop up this stock.

If that's the best argument for buying, it seems like just a flip.

More to the point — What exactly does this company do? It's a collection of media properties that have no connection to each other. What, like they're gonna get someone to read a movie review on Rotten Tomatoes and sign up for Jim Cramer's Stock Club in the process?

Karen also made the argument of "in charge of your own destiny." That's only because no one's dying to own it, including Comcast. CNBCers have been making Karen's argument for more than a year, that CNBC profits get scraped over toward streaming projects and other things. That's fair. Is Karen suggesting that Mark Hoffman would've done all these groundbreaking things if he was in Versant instead of GE/Comcast?? He gave a nightly news hour to Shep Smith.

Finally, there's the Hail Mary argument, which is that maybe cable assets are suddenly going to be in demand because Warner Bros. Discovery seems to be really in demand. How in the world are people going to revert to ordering up cable packages and ditching YouTube and all the free stuff that surfaces there by the truckload every day?

About all Mark Lazarus can say (at least in the clip on Fast Money, below) is that VSNT has "vertical scale" that can "differentiate" the company's assets. What's "vertical" about it? It's a group of cable channels that only make money as part of bundled packages that are rapidly falling out of favor.

Carter Worth advised viewers "avoid" CMCSA.

Monday's Fast Money experienced a setback when Jensen didn't finish his CES event fast enough to appear, as promised, on Fast Money; Jon Fortt said they'd get to him eventually and viewers would see clips Tuesday.

Jim claims ‘we know’ who is going to be Iger’s successor (But what he doesn’t mention is that, in this scenario, Bob will be chairman)

Judge on Monday's (1/5) Halftime Report said CFRA downgraded NFLX. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Revisiting some of his Not-So-Greatest-Hits from last year, Joe Terranova said he doesn't know what gets NFLX going and mentioned, kind of laboriously, what it's like owning dog stocks such as recent NFLX and SPOT personally as well as in the JOET. (This writer is long SPOT.) Joe said "Netfix" (sic pronunciation) is just "bumping at the bottom."

The funny thing about that is, when NFLX is having its moments of surge, everyone always complains about how the valuation is too tough to buy ... and then when it slumps as it's been doing for a while, no one wants it.

Judge said B of A reiterated DIS a buy with a 140 target. Jim said succession is important but not the "main thing." Jim said, "I think we know who it is ... it's gonna be a heckuva surprise if it's not a co-CEO between Josh D'Amaro and Dana Walden."

Hoo boy. That got the Spider Sense tingling around CNBCfix HQ. If we're talking DIS has 2 starting quarterbacks (or 1 starter on a snap count and 2 backups), people are really gonna be wondering who's calling the shots there.

Jim said DIS is "undervalued," but he's got "fatigue" in this name.

Late in the show, Judge and The Dominator, Dom Chu, reported on how Versant (that would be VSNT) is down in its Nasdaq debut. Dom explained how index-related selling may be partly responsible.

Jim has gotten a new title of Chief Market Strategist.

Jim asks a fantastic question (though it doesn’t really seem to have any bearing on whether to invest)

Joe Terranova affirmed on Monday's (1/5) Halftime Report that he sold UBER personally.

Joe said, "80 has been strong support for this stock," but he thinks it could break 80 in Q1. Steve Weiss said "it's still on my sell list." Weiss said "clearly the overhang is robotaxis," though that'll take "a little while." (But somebody's gotta clean those cars and get them serviced.)

Jim Lebenthal said transports have rallied but UBER hasn't and asked Joe and Weiss whether UBER is an "AI stock" or "software stock," which is a great question.

Weiss said "it's a consumer stock." Judge said there's a "competition for autonomous." Weiss said you can "directly correlate" UBER's stock decline to robotaxi announcements.

Someone’s keeping records of Santa Claus rallies

Judge on Monday's (1/5) Halftime Report said Krinsky says the market needs to close over 6909.79 (snicker) to avoid 3 straight negative Santa Claus rallies. (Steve Weiss pointed out last week that people have figured it out and gotten ahead of it.) Joe Terranova claimed Monday it has something to do with the equal-weight trade.

Weiss questioned if the "overhang" on ADBE will disappear, but he doubts it will because he doesn't see "finality" to the AI concerns about software. Weiss noted MSFT is "dead money since July."

Joe unloaded TWLO.

Weiss pointed to TTEC's 5-year chart and said "Call centers are just not needed."

Jim Lebenthal gave a speech about valuation in tech and conceded valuation is not a good short-term indicator but said it makes him rather own AMZN than AAPL.

Weiss: Oil ‘already in oversupply’

Joe Terranova on Monday's (1/5) Halftime Report said Monday's market isn't a "referendum" on the whole year but an "extension" of 4th quarter sentiment.

Steve Weiss backed the bank trade and spoke of a backlog of IPO and other transactions not getting to the market; "I think the floodgates do open." (That's fine, but people including Weiss have basically been making that argument for 4 years.)

Jim Lebenthal said he's recommending equal weight S&P 500 (Zzzzzzzzzz).

Weiss discussed Venezuela oil and said the world is "already in an oversupply situation," and now there will be "more oil coming to the market."

Jim pointed out that it'll take "years" to get a "flood" of oil out of Venezuela. Judge said there's been "hyperbole" from Washington. Jim pounded the table for XOM as a "place to start" if you don't own energy.

The best (and worst) of 2025 on CNBC’s Halftime Report, Fast Money and beyond

It's that time of year ...

With thousands of stock market predictions being made on CNBC television in the course of a year (particularly on the shows Halftime Report and Fast Money), determining the best and worst takes some serious culling. We can't account for everything. Undoubtedly, people have recommended stocks that surged 100% or more, and we barely noticed if at all.

So relevance is a very important factor. We review the headlines on this page over the course of the year but also take a look at the specific stocks, sectors and news events that drove the conversation. And that provides a good starting point.

So we took an extra-long look at the reactions to Liberation Day, Eddy Cue Day, ORCL's rocketship day and a certain car company that remains perhaps the market's most reliable "trading stock." Frankly, a lot of big moves were missed and/or only noted after they happened, such as INTC (barely mentioned on this page), or Tim Cook's visit to the White House. One trade that seemed like a big winner, bitcoin, perceived as a Trump trade, was great from April to October, bad the rest of the time. We had trouble finding as many original calls as usual, maybe because the S&P was "only" up 16% on the year — not as big as some other years, and many of the strongest stocks were the same as in previous years.

Anyone who announced during 2025, "Play the AI trade all year, play most of the Trump trades, bail out before the big tariff announcement, get back in immediately after, stay out of bitcoin in the 2nd half and oh by the way pick up some precious metals and as always stick with TSLA" would've been a shoo-in for Call of the Year.

Nobody actually made that exact statement.

There were a lot of great ones though. Panelists and guests expertly reacting to political events and news events and technology events. There were also some busts. Sorry. Have to include the bad with the good. (And you'll get a chuckle out of many of them.) Here goes ... First, we have to start with the busts:

THE BUSTS

15. Jenny Harrington says 7% for 2025 would be a ‘massive win’

On the Sept. 2 Halftime Report, Jenny Harrington stated, "If we were to end 2025 at up 8%, or up 7%, I would consider that a massive win." Jenny concluded, "I don't see how we go from up 10% on the year now to up 20%." Jenny had also said on July 18, "I don't see how we end up up 14% on the year. I don't think we have another 7% in the 2nd half."

14. Joe Terranova and Jim Lebenthal on Sept. 10 seem to think ORCL is going to keep going higher

It wasn't a terrible call. But it was incorrect at a key moment in time. Sept. 10 was sort of "Oracle Day." Halftime Report panelists for days would talk about how they bought ORCL shares in the past so much lower. On Sept. 10, Joe Terranova said "parabolic moves are very tempting" for shorts who expect a "mean reversion," but Joe advised, "You should not be outthinking yourself" and don't try to short it. Jim said he doesn't see a pullback "anytime soon."

13. Judge nearly throws Weiss off the set

On Feb. 24, Judge asked Steve Weiss about Weiss' exposure to Chinese tech stocks. Weiss at first called it an "unfair question," then really got under Judge's skin when saying, "I'm gonna answer it more intelligently than you asked it." Judge even used the term "dude." Weiss said it was a "leading question." Judge went on to explain, "Everybody up here is tired of that B.S., OK. If you can't have a civil conversation ... without insulting people, then just be quiet ... And just move to the other chair. Just move to the other chair. ... Just slide down 1 chair. Or outside. Go there. Or over there." (This was definitely kind of cringeworthy, but honestly, shows need a bit of excitement like this sometimes.)

12. Marianne Lake’s Q&A at the Goldman Sachs conference causes knuckleheads to hand a gift to opportunistic JPM buyers

During Santoli's Midday Word on the Dec. 9 Halftime Report, Judge said JPMorgan was presenting at a Goldman Sachs conference for financials, and it seemed to be affecting JPM and perhaps the market. Santoli said the "CFO" (sic not the correct title) was talking about consumers being "a bit fragile." The screen text, and Judge, said the person making the "fragile" comment was Marianne Lake. Judge pointed out how JPM shares and the overall market had turned lower.

11. Judge insists Joe’s wrong about TSLA’s ‘1 month’ return without clarifying the 1-month timeframe

This one was a mess to write about and also a mess to recap. On the Aug. 4 Halftime Report, Joe Terranova told Judge, "1 month, Tesla, 1 month Tesla is actually- I don't believe it to be negative." Judge insisted, "It's negative by 2.3% over 1 month." Joe said they've got an "issue" over the data. Judge demanded, "What do you mean, you disagree with me" and asked the "control room" to verify that TSLA is "down" in the last month. Judge actually stood up at Post 9 to gesture while wondering, "Are we talkin' past each other?" Joe said "I think we're disagreeing on this." After the A Block break, Judge admitted there's "conflicting stuff all over the place" when in fact, it's as simple as defining what "month" you're measuring. Finally, Judge rather clumsily said that a viewer pointed out something Judge should've been cognizant of, that if the TSLA 1-month calculation starts with the June 30 close (317), it's a different result than if it starts with the July 1 close (300). (There again, he still didn't specify whether the endpoint would be exactly 1 month (presumably 31 days in this case) or 1 month plus the first few days of August, when the show occurred.) Given a 3rd try after another commercial, Judge explained that "Tesla is in fact down 2.3% over the last month if you use the closing price on July 3 ... to today." Joe said a "1-month time frame" will show a "5% return" because "they are taking the opening price of Monday, July 7th, the 4th was a holiday, the 4th was a holiday, and from Thursday's close on the 3rd to Monday the 7th, Tesla had that big decline. That's the difference." Joe added, "I guess it's how you define '1 month.'" Judge shot back that "Most people would define it by the actual month."

10. Brad Gerstner complains to Judge about ‘fake news’; Jim Lebenthal says some news reports are just a ‘rumor’

On April 3, Brad Gerstner disappointed Judge by claiming there's been "fake news" reported about CRWV; Judge sort of got Brad to backpedal. On Oct. 8, Jim Lebenthal said he was buying ORCL (price in the 280s) (#ouch) and dismissed the news report in The Information, cited by Judge, about margins. "Who did it come from?" Jim said, before saying, "OK, it came from a news report that suppose- supposedly, they saw an internal document. It was not a release by Oracle." "That's far different than a rumor," Judge said. "It's not far different. It's not far different from a rumor," Jim protested. Many news headlines should be met with skepticism — let's not fault the messenger.

9. This page predicts a 3-peat of the Mag 7 — and Kansas City Chiefs

This page isn't really in the market-call business, but if we make a prediction and it's a bad one, it has to be acknowledged. Sometime during the 2nd weekend of January 2025, this page foolishly put up a post titled "It's a 3-peat: For the Chiefs, and the Mag 7." Yes, it was a massive bust, and please know that the embarrassment is still felt here. We honestly can't fathom what happened to the Kansas City Chiefs since the AFC Championship Game of January 2025. We do think we were half right.

8. Paul Tudor Jones’ insufferable ‘quacks like a duck’

On Oct. 6, CNBC relentlessly aired Paul Tudor Jones' Squawk Box commentary about how right now seems like October 1999 (OK, it's fair for him to draw that comparison) and then regurgitating Paul's obnoxious quote "So it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. It's probably not a chicken, right?" throughout the day. And whatever happened to Carl Icahn's Day of Reckoning?

7. Brian Belski cuts S&P price target to 6,100 on April 9

During a week of stock market turmoil, a couple days after hectoring Brian Belski over Brian's 6,700 S&P target, Judge on April 9 said Belski has "now revised" that target, to 6,100. So basically Brian resisted lowering the target at the onset of Tariff Nightmare, then caved when it was already time to start buying. The correct response was to not change the target at all.

6. Steve Weiss on April 28 says recession ‘well on its way’

It wasn't even his strongest commentary of the month, but on April 28, Steve Weiss stated, "I believe the economy is going to recession" and is "well on its way."

5. Steve Weiss claims Trump ‘will not be good for markets’

OK, we hesitated about putting this one on here, because this page is not making a political statement here. But as a matter of record, Steve Weiss on April 4 was taking what any objective measure would be calling a too-early victory lap on a Trump presidency prediction, as Weiss said that apparently people looked "side-eyed" when he said "since he was elected" that "Trump will not be good for markets, will not be good for the economy. That's in fact turned out to be true." Whether Trump has been good for "the economy" is surely debatable. And in fact, it also could be debatable whether the S&P's gain this year should've been much higher. But the S&P 500 is up 16%-plus this year, which is a healthy return by any standard, so if you followed this bit of Weiss advice, you missed out.

4. Steve Weiss on April 2 says TSLA brand damage is ‘permanent,’ stock around $282

Bill Baruch on the April 2 Halftime Report argued that there isn't permanent brand damage to TSLA from Elon Musk's DOGE stint. But Steve Weiss argued that there is, and Dan Ives sounded somewhere in the middle. The chart indicates TSLA was about $282 on that day, and it DID fall immediately after as a tariff nightmare hit the markets, but 4 weeks later, it was back over $282 and basically never looked back.

3. Steve Grasso on Jan. 24 predicts a bitcoin double ‘in short order’

On Jan. 24, Steve Grasso declared, "Bitcoin will probably double from here — in short order." It closed at $104,000 that day, according to Yahoo Finance. But he wasn't done. Grasso on July 14 said some people think bitcoin will get to $200,000 this year; he wouldn't say if he's one of those people, but he does think it goes "much, much higher from here." Karen Finerman apparently agreed with everything Grasso said.

2. Judge’s Burry Bubble

It started, apparently, on Halloween. As annoying as Paul Tudor Jones' "quack," except it went on for weeks as Judge fell for it hook, line and sinker. It was the spree of Michael Burry (the dude who dials in trades while lying on the floor, it's really cool) comments in which Judge concluded, "Um, he thinks we're in a bubble. I mean I think he's made that pretty clear from his postings on, on social media." On Nov. 18, Judge said Burry says he's long MOH stock and long PLTR puts, which according to Burry, "like peanut butter and bananas." The Halftime Report hasn't mentioned Mike since.

1. CNBC’s new logo

The old CNBC logo with peacock was great. Everyone understands the business realities of why it had to change.

But the end result is flat, generic, colorless and obviously focus-group/consultant inspired and approved.

Stock market colors are green and red, not blue. The letter "N" in CNBC's acronym is insignificant. And in the way that our eyes play tricks on us, something about the new N can make the logo appear that it's crooked.

The obligatory statement that hosts had to read on the air — "embrace a distinct identity that aligns with our future as a brand" — was no better.

Melissa Lee, asked for an opinion on air, said she likes the new logo; "it's clean, it's modern, it's inclusive."

Judge was not asked.

And 2025 Halftime/Fast Money Call of the Year countdown ...

12. Kari Firestone buys UNH ‘right at the bottom’

Unlike TSLA, which Halftime panelists generally won't touch, UNH is a stock that everyone at some point in time seems to own. We checked the chart. It was a horrible stock to be owning through April. Since May, in general, if you happened to buy in late July or early August, great; if not, it's kinda meh. In May, Halftime Report panelists were tripping over each other to announce the super-high levels in 2025 at which they had sold UNH. There WAS, in mid-May, a really sharp plunge and bounceback that took place in a matter of days, only to have a plateau/slide again.

Several panelists — mainly Steve Weiss but also Stephanie Link and Kari Firestone — talked constantly of buying UNH. The nod here for (apparently) coming closest to catching the bottom goes to Kari. Stephanie and Weiss seemed to have some good buys and other falling-knife buys. Weiss announced purchases and sales of this stock so many times in 2025, we lost track. Kari did admit on May 21, after trumpeting UNH, that the "bad news" in the stock wassn't stopping. But on June 16, Kari told Judge she "bought some more right at the bottom," even though Judge grumbled, "The stock looks like it's at the bottom." On Oct. 29, Kari trumpeted that UNH is up "55% I think from the bottom," which evidently was around the time that she bought. Weiss did announce a UNH buy in August on Berkshire Hathaway news that apparently was up 25% in about a week. Guy Adami made a trading call on UNH earnings in July that proved a bust (it went down instead of up), but give him points for trying.

11. Steve Weiss calls Middle East headlines buying opportunities

It's not the most original call. But given how the financial markets really do react in sort of big ways to skirmishes in the Middle East (usually it has something to do with the Strait of Hormuz), month after month, year after year, it's important that someone set the market straight. Steve Weiss on June 13 said, "Look I've been in the business almost 35 years. We've seen a number of flare-ups in the Middle East. Every single one of those being a buying opportunity."

10. During week of Tariff Nightmare, Josh correctly touts Jessica Chastain to play Jenny in a movie

On the April 8 Halftime Report, Judge asked Jenny Harrington to talk a little about her new book. Josh Brown suggested "Jessica Chastain" could play Jenny in "the movie." That is easily one of the show's BEST suggestions of the year and should be getting more attention. "That's very sweet of you," Jenny told Josh.

9. Steve Grasso on Feb. 27 predicts NVDA, then 120, 90 before 150

Steve Grasso in the first half of 2025 cited Deepseek as a big headwind for NVDA (which actually was a bad call), suggesting NVDA's customers won't spend as much as anticipated; on the Feb. 27 Fast Money, a day NVDA fell from 131 to 120, he predicted 90 before 150. By April 7 (a day that involved other market headwinds), NVDA did indeed find 90 — actually 86. NVDA bulls of course can rightly claim that as Grasso was expressing skepticism about the stock from January through May, any time during that span was actually a great time to buy. But a "90 before 150" that actually proved correct about a juggernaut stock is a great call.

8. Brian Belski on April 21 likens TSLA to AAPL 2003

Halftime Report (and basically Fast Money) panelists have just never fully embraced the TSLA story, always deeply skeptical. (This writer has no position in TSLA.) The regular TSLA advocate of the Halftime Report, Bryn Talkington, is more enthusiastic about the stock than most others, however, even Bryn for a couple years running has been labeling the stock as range-bound and seems most excited about selling out of the money calls against it. So it's Brian Belski who will get the credit here for championing this name — NOT at the start of the year, which isn't much different than the price it's at now (which is why Bryn's sell-the-calls strategy for this name could be considered the superior call), but after Elon Musk did the DOGE thing and the shares were walloped in April and people were talking about permanent brand damage. Brian on April 21 twice said "at the end of the day," and, "I really think that Tesla is to right now what Apple was in 2003, 2004." Quite simply, love it or hate it, TSLA is the ultimate buy-the-dip stock, something not to be dismissed. Steve Weiss responded to Belski, "I gotta move to Naples, man, they're putting something in the water there that's unbelievable."

7. Bryn Talkington calls the Liberation Day tariff chart less than impressive

It was a simple comment on April 4's Halftime Report when Bryn Talkington said "whoever made that board that Trump had out should be fired," and it seemed to very effectively convey what Wall Street has been thinking about this whole endeavor. In May, Bryn said members of Congress are not going to let the administration "torpedo the economy for some Peter Navarro isolationist viewpoint that none of us in America have."

6. Guy Adami makes first Fast Money ‘live event’ in February a smashing success

The seating is a little awkward, and later versions of the Fast Money "live show" seemed to have less buzz. But when Guy Adami made a Donahue-like trip through the fans at the Nasdaq on Feb. 27, it was a great show of support for all the viewers who keep CNBC chugging along each day.

5. Joe Terranova and Jason Snipe both make AMD Final Trade on June 25

The stats are clear — somewhere near the top of this list, there has to be an AI trade. NVDA and AVGO were fine stocks (again) and excellent picks (and 2 very similar charts). The thing is, it's their 3rd big year in a row, and multiple people recommended them constantly. AMD was actually down in 2025 and appeared to be out of favor for a while. As its comeback took place, on the June 25 Halftime Report, Joe Terranova and Jason Snipe each chose it for their Final Trade. Which is why we paid attention to it. AMD shares were 143 that day.

4. Karen Finerman buys DKS in mid-May, probably in the 160s

Yes, DKS did actually finish 2025 in the red. But it finished comfortably above the hit it took in May when it announced a deal for Foot Locker. Karen Finerman on Friday's (5/16) Fast Money said she bought DKS a day earlier, when it plunged. And during Final Trades on that show, it sounded like she also bought it at the end of the day Friday, but we're not sure. Retail is a very tough space for stock calls (M and KSS had big years); this one was significant because Karen, as she pointed out a year earlier after the CRWD glitch, noted that DKS lost more in market value than what the Foot Locker deal was worth. Karen also said "I would much rather own Dick's here than Foot Locker at the same price on the hopes of a higher bid for Foot Locker." (This writer owned DKS for a time after Karen's comments.)

3. Bill Baruch makes the case for gold miners July 9

On the July 9 Halftime Report, Bill Baruch was given a segment to discuss a portfolio he was building of gold miners. Bill said there's a "tremendous supercycle" in the space that will last a while. Bill mentioned a group of names, including AEM, CDE and B. Barrick was around $20 then. (This writer is long AEM and owned B for a time after Bill's presentation.) Kevin Simpson also touted AEM and some panelists (Joe Terranova) at times may have recommended gold. But for whatever reason, no one — aside from Bill on July 9 — pounded the table for gold despite its sensational year.

2. Jim Lebenthal fends off Judge’s ‘existential threat’ concerns about GOOGL

May 7 on the Halftime Report was Eddy Cue Day, which Judge fell for like a ton of bricks. Judge said "the story of the day" was GOOGL's drop. Jim Lebenthal, long Alphabet, said he's inclined to "hold through this" and is "careful about knee-jerking one way or the other." Jim pointed to when there was a problem with Gemini a couple years ago and the stock got "absolutely clobbered." Judge said that was a "bit of a different incident" and not like the "existential threat" that apparently is in the works today. It wasn't just Judge trumpeting the significance of Eddy's comments. Joe Terranova said the news is a "big deal." Josh Brown said it's "extremely significant" and "Joe is right" and "Jim will eventually come around to this point of view." Josh added, "It reminds me of PayPal, but on a much bigger scale." Judge told Jim that the "headline story" is the "definitive usage drop" in Google search, and Judge told Jim that Jim shouldn't be "flippant" about the gravity of the situation. Jim again said he doesn't "knee-jerk" his reactions and he's actually more concerned about the ramifications of the news to AAPL, not GOOGL. ... Now, you may wonder, why isn't Jim's steadfast defense of the stock during this perilous time an obvious choice for Call of the Year? Because 1) Jim was NOT calling the stock a table-pounding buy, he simply said he wasn't selling; 2) The really big move came later from the Justice Department antitrust case; and 3) Just because Judge and some panelists got carried away with a ridiculous market headline, and someone else didn't, isn't enough oomph for the Call of the Year.

1. Marked by an X — Steve Grasso makes the Fast Money/Halftime Report Call of the Year

To anyone actually paying attention, this one has been telegraphed on this page since basically Q1.

X is no longer a publicly traded stock. That's because it was finally acquired by Nippon Steel after two presidents of different parties both said we couldn't possibly tolerate such an acquisition. (Then they changed the terminology a little bit and realized someone had to come up with some money for this company and Bingo, we had a deal.)

Steve Grasso on Fast Money had been calling X a buy at least as far back as December 2024. On Jan. 7, with the stock at $33.30, Steve predicted, "I think you'll see a bailout." On Feb. 7, with the stock having dipped to $36.98, he said X has a "chance" to reach 50. In June, the deal closed around the $55 price, maybe a few pennies off. (This writer was long X during much of the first half of the year). Other stocks may have had bigger gains in 2025. Steve's incredibly accurate assessment of the political scene, and the ceiling on this stock, and the fact it concluded before the year was even half over, ran away with the Call of the Year.

As always, we conclude with our standard refrain: Viewers of CNBC (and the readers of this page) are the best audience in the world, they're informed, they get it, and they don't mind a review of the proceedings. We're here because you are. Happy 2026 ... and Happy Trading!

Jenny can (and should) make fashion observations Any. Time. She. Wants ...

Bill Baruch was not a panelist but dialed in to Friday's (1/2) Halftime Report, apparently to reaffirm his bullishness on gold and silver. Bill started to say there may be a "little bit of froth" and "technical stuff," then his connection gradually started cutting out, so guest host Courtney Reagan had to move on to something else. Kevin Simpson said he's long AEM and touted its 2025 performance. (This writer is long AEM.)

Responding to a couple of BTIG top picks, Malcolm Ethridge backed ZS and NTSK.

Jenny Harrington said "K-shaped economy" in the 50th minute while touting remaining long MAR.

Steve Weiss said he still likes CAT.

In a curious segment, Courtney asked panelists for a New Year's resolution.

Kevin's resolution is to "own fewer higher-quality stocks" and "get rid of some of the clutter." That's an excellent point at any time, we think.

Jenny's resolution is to let the winners "run longer." That's fine and good but sounds much simpler than it actually is. (For example, last year, if you let SPOT and NFLX keep running after June like one panelist in particularly often suggested, you ended up burning a nice gain.) (This writer is long SPOT and NFLX.)

Malcolm's resolution is to get a shopping list for episodes of market volatility, and not to hesitate. That sounds like a reaction to 2025's April 2 Liberation Day.

Honestly, when it came time for Weiss' resolution, this page could sort of predict what he was going to say. Weiss said his resolution "is not to have a resolution" but rather to "keep doing what I've been doing."

Which we can't really argue with.

Late in the show, Weiss for some reason directed tipping jabs about Kevin and Malcolm and then asked Courtney to make a fashion call on the Friday panelists. Jenny cut in to say she'd "pick on" Weiss on Friday while praising Kevin's pocket square.

"I really wanted to take that one," Jenny told Courtney.

(Honestly, we can say that anyone would be honored for Jenny or Courtney to provide a wardrobe appraisal.)

As Courtney introduced Seema Mody on the News Update, Seema said they could ask Weiss "if he wants to do the News Update." (Ouch.) (Actually, that would be kind of interesting.)

If Weiss keeps scoffing at people making new-year calls, why does he keep appearing on the show in the last week of a year and first week of a year?

Friday's (1/2) Halftime Report was guest-hosted by Courtney Reagan, with only Jenny Harrington at Post 9 while Steve Weiss, Kevin Simpson and Malcolm Ethridge took part remotely. Jenny began by predicting "real shifts, some real broadening and some real changes in the new year."

Which, to be honest, kinda sounds like the stuff we hear every Jan. 2 on CNBC.

Jenny said the "pure consensus" that 2026 will be a good year is what "spooks me a lot."

Jenny advised, "I think you should take risk off the table," though that "doesn't mean I'm super-bearish." (No, just the usual Don't-you-dare-buy-a-tech-stock bearish.)

Kevin said Jenny's comments have "a lot of value," but he's not sure "we're there yet."

Malcolm said he's been watching bitcoin, calling it a "barometer" of where investors are. He said there's been a lot of selling by long-term bitcoin holders, which Malcolm called "very telling." He said it may indicate that 2026 isn't the "party" of the last few years and might be a time for "derisking."

Courtney said Tony Pasquariello thinks it'll be a "wilder year," citing tight corporate credit, high P.E. ratios and "quantum leaps" in technology. Weiss said Tony could've made the same comments "last year." Weiss insisted that the calendar changing has "no impact" on market conditions, it's just a "narrative."

Weiss said he sees the market playing out "almost as it's played out in the past year." Weiss again touted TSMC.

Weiss says ‘most of the country is smarter than New York’

Steve Weiss on Friday's (1/2) Halftime Report predicted we won't get a "Mamdani thing spreading through the country," because "most of the country is smarter than New York." Jenny Harrington chuckled, "That's true."

Kevin Simpson thinks MU keeps working and thinks AMZN will finally get going. Malcolm agrees and suggested automation could increase for AMZN (seems hard to believe it could get that much more automated).

Jenny again touted FI and its "very talented" new CEO and said "don't look too much at the past."

Jenny said her top pick for the year is SBRA. Malcolm's top pick is V. Weiss in kind of a lengthy speech said he likes financials.

Kevin talked up buying more BA.

Weiss said FTAI has been great and still under the radar; you could ask 10 people about it, and they'll have "no idea what you're talking about."

Kevin owns INTC, but with a "short leash."

Weiss: BRK-A a ‘show-me stock’

On Wednesday's (12/31) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal and Joe Terranova praised Warren Buffett's stewardship of BRK and indicated the company will be fine.

Steve Weiss was less optimistic, saying, "This is slightly better at this point than a true show-me stock," explaining that the company has "lost Buffett," and Charlie Munger died in 2023.

Weiss said "It's the most significant change you could possibly have with the company." Weiss said he'd rather own a "combination" of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Later in the show, Santoli said of BRK, "It's the only conglomerate that's really working anymore."

Couple thoughts here ... Weiss is actually correct that Berkshire is experiencing the "most significant change" possible for any company. (Yes you could point to airlines during the pandemic, but that's temporary.)

However, Weiss is incorrect that, as of now, Berkshire has "lost Buffett." Clearly, Buffett is doing less and less. But if, heaven forbid, there's another 2008, Warren will be fielding calls all day for a line of credit, which was basically his most successful trade of this century, as far as we know. For that reason, BRK-A deserves a premium. And anytime he wants to make a market call, he can.

Pork chops, and apple sauce — remember when Peter Brady changed his personality?

Steve Weiss on Wednesday's (12/31) Halftime Report said the notion of a new year bringing a "fresh start" to the whole market is bogus; "the calendar has nothing to do with it."

Guest host Frank Holland for some reason protested that sentiment has changed recently (which is separate from the point Weiss was making, which is that the sentiment didn't change because of what time of year it is). Weiss asked Frank what that means. Frank said it means "different winners," such as health care. Weiss said health care gaining "has nothing to do with January, or 2026."

Joe Terranova said "the personality of the market" (snicker) has changed this quarter. Weiss said the season of changes is just a "sideshow."

Jim Lebenthal mentioned being on all 3 days this week (as well as last Friday with The Dominator) and mentioned the "signal to noise ratio" (snicker).

It’s a ‘foolish mistake’ for your awareness of recent market moves not to be ‘elevated’

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (12/31) Halftime Report said Q4 brought a "very clear pivot" to "defensive positioning" (Zzzzzzzzzz).

Joe said it's a "foolish mistake" if your "awareness" of this is not "elevated."

Steve Weiss said the reason there isn't a "Santa Claus rally" is because "everybody's wise to that game" and positions for it, so "it just doesn't happen." (And we can't disagree with that at all.) Weiss said as far as year-end takeaways, there's no volume, so the trading is "meaningless."

Jim Lebenthal bluntly stated, "This is not an economy that needs rate cuts."

Joe was still talking about the trading in precious metals earlier this week that apparently has left a major imprint on him. Joe said you have to "temper your expectations" about CVNA and "most of these high-beta plays, momentum plays that really worked well in '25."

Weiss says energy markets ‘rigged’ by the ‘big players’

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (12/31) Halftime Report affirmed he's bullish on EQT (Zzzzzzzz) going into 2026, citing "momentum" as a top reason.

Jim Lebenthal insisted "natural gas is strong" and is "basically what the energy sector has been riding on all year." (Oh my. It couldn't have been a very exciting year in the energy patch, then.) (And when are we going to export all this gas to Europe that's going to bring us oceans of money.)

Steve Weiss said he doesn't know why people "waste the time" investing in energy, he said to look at the long-term charts.

Weiss even said he's not saying there's "anything illegal," but energy markets are "rigged by those big players and where they want it to go." Weiss said if you compare the XLE chart with the S&P or Nasdaq, you'll see a "stark" underperformance.

Jim ‘kinda’ wishes he didn’t own AAPL

Steve Weiss on Wednesday's (12/31) Halftime Report said TSMC is his largest position. Weiss acknowledged, "the biggest risk of course is a Chinese invasion." (It's that time of year.)

Jim Lebenthal's top pick was QCOM, a stock he's basically endorsed for 10 or 15 years now.

Jim said he's long AAPL because you kind of have to be because of its presence in the S&P 500, but "I kinda wish I didn't own any of it."

Jim said ONON is "clearly a winning brand."

Santoli was talking about some "Mystery Broker" that he revealed a day earlier that we've never heard of anyway. It's one of those predictions about the market having another big couple years, then look out.

Weiss said he's staying in FTAI. Joe Terranova said the TWLO turnaround is "unfolding."

Jim got to talk about C again, something guest host Frank Holland kind of jabbed.

Goldman Sachs trimmed its HOOD target. Joe said HOOD is "maturing" for sure, but it still has a "correlation" with crypto.

Jim's Final Trade was ADBE. Weiss said BABA and Joe said GS. Joe wished all viewers "health and happiness in 2026." Weiss, who had on that awesome gray sports jacket, jabbed "my friend Jeff Kaplan; keep it to yourself, I'm wearing this jacket again."

It used to be that the Dec. 31 Fast Money included traders wearing tuxedoes to the Nasdaq. That doesn't happen nowadays and it seems like the show's biggest energy this month went to the studio audience thing. Sully guest-hosted on Wednesday and gave it the ol' college try.

This is the time of year when you constantly hear about China-Taiwan on CNBC

It's a quiet trading week, and Tuesday's (12/30) Halftime Report did not have a whole lot of new info (and Jim Lebenthal was on for the 3rd straight business day; how many new fresh opinions can anyone have at this time of year), but give credit to guest host Frank Holland and the crew for putting together a crisp show.

Josh Brown, who went to great lengths to detail all the stocks/sectors that have worked this year, said "the only thing I could find that's down is bitcoin."

Josh explained, with some degree of hyperbole, "What we're really talking about is a wealth-creation atmosphere of enormous magnitude."

Josh suggested AAPL "has won by not playing" in the AI space and referenced "The Kobayashi Maru" of "Star Trek," a reference hailed by Frank Holland and Jim.

Jason Snipe said Mag 7 names have "not traded as a monolith." Jason thinks the "spread the wealth" story in tech continues next year.

Frank opened asking about the Fed minutes (Zzzzzzzz). Jim shrugged that the Fed minutes would just be "a lot of noise." Jason Snipe said the Fed's focus "clearly is labor."

Josh Brown said the Fed is the "least important chess piece on the board."

Frank noted PANW seems to "continue to lag." Jason suggested its acquisitions have held back the stock. Josh pointed out how well CRWD has done in the AI era. Josh said he likes both CRWD and PANW.

Josh in his Best Stocks feature touted HLT, which he said is "asset-light." Josh said travel just hasn't let up. Jim, as he always does, touted DAL.

Frank actually brought up the "Dogs of the Dow." Jason addressed UNH and wondered "what is not in this stock." Josh said the one that interests him is NKE, which is down either 5 or 4 years in a row. Jim said "Quite often with these stocks, what you see is, you get the dividend and nothing else."

Jim said "chomping (sic) at the bit" and "chomping (sic) on the bit" rather than "champing."

The Fast Money gang, helmed by Sully, was talking about "saber-rattling" regarding China and Taiwan.

Gotta ask ... why weren’t the tariffs originally levied with ‘much stronger legal standing’

At the end of every strong year in the stock market, everyone always predicts that the following year won't be as great.

That wasn't specifically what the panelists of Monday's (12/29) Halftime Report were saying. Their choice of word was "volatility." (Translation: Even if the market does go up a lot in 2026, there's going to be some rocky selloffs.) (Which is basically what already happened this year. But whatever.)

Joe Terranova said Monday's selling was simply "profit-taking." But Joe said 2026 figures to be more of a "rental" market, and then he noted the "parabolic move and reversal in precious materials," particularly in silver, something he talked about several times on Monday's show.

So the price of silver is back to ... where it was a couple weeks ago?

Bryn Talkington said the area where we'll have a "bunch of volatility" in 2026 is the Supreme Court decision on tariffs, which would be "incredibly chaotic to undo."

Jim Lebenthal made surely the most relevant prediction of the show: "I find it hard to believe in any way that there will be a recession in the next 12 months." And without a recession, Jim doesn't see "anything other than a positive return" in 2026.

However, he does expect a "lot of volatility" (cue the loser music from "The Price Is Right.")

Jim said if there are tariff refunds, trade uncertainty will "shoot up again," then they'll "institute other tariffs" with "much stronger legal standing" that will lower the uncertainty. (Which they evidently could've done the first time, but didn't.)

Joe said the market's sending a "subtle message" in December in rewarding health care while "pulling back" a bit on the AI trade.

Jim said he's held off on trimming GOOGL and C because it's the last week of December, and "I don't want to take that tax hit now," so he expects "some trimming" in January.

Bryn gushed that higher volatility brings higher premium for selling calls.

Bryn bought silver 14 years ago at $44

After the A Block on Monday's (12/29) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said he sold the GLD, a "small winning trade."

Joe said it was intended to be a short-term trade, and then explained how you have to react to moves such as what happened overnight. The message is to "reduce positioning," Joe said. (Just a week ago, 12/22, Joe was talking about how he bought high and it went higher.)

Bryn Talkington explained how she bought a "bunch of silver" in 2011 "around 40 to 44 dollars." In September, Bryn said, it got back to 44. The message being, silver isn't the greatest trade of all time. Bryn gave Joe "kudos" for taking profits.

Jim Lebenthal said oil is "asymmetrically priced to go higher."

Whew — Frank didn’t ask Joe to predict the December market

Guest host Frank Holland on Monday's (12/29) Halftime Report said 2nd years of presidential terms since Reagan have brought average returns of only "about 3.3%."

Joe Terranova explained that there's a "consistency" in midterm election years, going back to 1939, if you bought the market on the date of the November midterm date and held till June 30 of the following year, you never have not made a profit. (That means it's always gone up, if we understood Joe correctly.)

Joe suggested some of the sleepy software names of 2025 may be having a "reawakening." Jim Lebenthal of course brought up ADBE and said it didn't get a "mauling" in December like some might've thought.

Joe sold SPOT, a stock he talked up early summer. (And KEPT talking up, for a while.) (This writer is long SPOT.) Joe conceded it's been in a downtrend since the end of June just like Netflix, "and over the last month, Spotify has not worked." And where did he ever get that notion.

2 Monday panelists, Bryn Talkington and Jim Lebenthal, were also both on Friday's (12/26) show, which is curious; how many more fresh thoughts could they have in 2 consecutive business days during a holiday stretch. (Then again, a lot of panelists may be unavailable.)

‘They just let flash mobs come in, just steal everything’

Santoli on Monday's (12/29) Halftime Report said 17 of the 20 top S&P stocks this year were down Monday.

Jim Lebenthal said he's got a position in APO that isn't that big. As always, Bryn Talkington said those stocks are a way to do the private equity trade without getting directly into private equity.

Jim said it's "too early" to take a position in LULU despite some of the corporate activity going on. Bryn said one of LULU's mistakes was a "no-confrontation policy where they just let flash mobs come in, just steal everything, um, very much of like a Target-type of policy."

Bryn said she'll keep NKE through the summer, if it just gets "less worse," it could reach 75 "easily."

Bryn suggested OTF as a Final Trade, which Joe enthusiastically endorsed.

On Monday's Fast Money, Guy Adami and Steve Grasso kept talking about how they're so sure that a China takeover of Taiwan is going to happen.

Bryn talks up NVDA’s P.E.

Bryn Talkington on Friday's (12/26) Halftime Report said "of course" NVDA has more legs for 2026 and touted its P.E. ratio, which is curious, because Bryn typically is one of the panelists who (correctly) says that P.E. ratio is not a valid indicator or stock direction.

Bryn said NVDA's acquisition of GROQ is a "great pickup on talent."

Kevin Simpson bought more BA; he thinks it has "turned the page" (which is a famous Seger song) (not quite the exact words).

Bryn said, "I think we're gonna continue to have $50, 50-ish oil." Jim Lebenthal said the "first stop" for anyone buying energy stocks should be XOM.

Kevin Simpson bought more AEM, noting what a great year it's had. (This writer is long AEM.) He thinks the gold trade continues into early 2026.

Bryn said "you have to hold your nose" when buying crypto.

Kevin said he's "absolutely" a buyer of health care. Jim said you have to be selective in health care and mentioned UNH as one he doesn't want to be in.

The Dominator, Dom Chu, ran a crisp show in Judge's absence.

‘I don’t really understand why it’s national security to have tariffs on Nike shoes’

In a curious buy, Bryn Talkington on Friday's (12/26) Halftime Report said she bought NKE as well as ONON.

Bryn thinks the NKE CEO is on track to turn the company around; it just needs to get "incrementally better."

Bryn said she bought ONON to have some exposure in case the Supreme Court rules against tariffs, which would make those stocks "fly."

Guest host Dom Chu said Jefferies analyst Randy Konik has a sell rating on ONON. Jim Lebenthal said he doesn't understand that rating and called it a "hot product" and a "hot stock." Jim said he's not ready to buy NKE; he wants to see more of the "uptrend."

Bryn said, "I don't really understand why it's national security to have tariffs on Nike shoes," but it would be a "mess" to do tariff refunds.

Bryn says cutting rates will cut the interest on the national debt

Guest host Dom Chu, The Dominator, asked Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (12/26) Halftime Report what the "biggest driving force" has been in this year's market gains.

Jim said it's "earnings" more than anything. Jim said the Fed doesn't need any more rate cuts, though he's aware of "the politics that are out there."

Bryn Talkington said it's hard to be "overly bearish."

Kevin Simpson cautioned, "We have to worry about inflation."

Jim said we've got 2 "really big" Supreme Court decisions next year, including one on tariffs.

Steve Liesman said the market isn't pricing in a massive rate cut next year and said the Fed chair still needs to get other votes, which suggests the possibility of Waller because he has the "best chance of really bringing the committee with him toward a more dovish stance because he's part of the system now."

Bryn said that lowering rates is "very meaningful on reducing the amount of interest we as Americans pay on, on U.S. Treasurys" and also is "incredibly beneficial for housing."

If financial managers actually wanted $20,000 accounts, they could have them

A very interesting debate took place kind of unexpectedly on Tuesday's (12/23) Halftime Report.

Josh Brown curiously was taking a victory lap for human financial advisors, saying WLTH, a robo-advisor, is "actually doing pretty well," but more than half its money under management is in "money market" or "cash management products," which is "more banking than anything else."

In fact, human wealth management advice is having a "renaissance," Josh explained.

We figured, who on the Halftime Report panel would possibly object to someone hyping up human wealth advisors.

So we were surprised when Jenny Harrington said "I'd love it to be true," but "I wonder if it's way too early to actually call victory on this because we're in such incredibly early innings with generative AI."

And that's a quality point.

Jenny said it's possible that within 2-5 years, the generative AI might be "really amazing."

Josh was far from convinced. "Yeah. Rich people don't talk to robots, Jenny. You know this better than anyone," Brown said.

Jenny said, "You bring up a very good point ... it always makes me sad that we can't serve the same way that we serve someone with 2 million dollars, we can't serve all the people with 20,000, and the people with 20,000 and 150,000 frankly need that relationship more but there is an efficiency issue."

That one got the Spider Sense tingling.

"Efficiency issue" translates to "they don't pay us enough money."

Josh agreed it's a "shame" that wealth management is focused on millionaires, but "the reality is, I have 4,000 clients, and 2,000 of them have less than a million dollars," and people still find, "I need to talk to somebody."

Which is dodging the subject.

People who work for NBA teams probably lament that folks who can only spend maybe $50 for a ticket don't have enough money to attend the games.

So charge only $50 for the tickets then.

Joe Terranova pointed to April's market, or whenever someone has a life change, as times people need a human, a fine point.

Back to the debate, Jenny insisted "we don't know enough yet" to be sure that AI can't compete here and it's "too early."

Josh responded by mentioning TurboTax launching "30 years ago" and claiming articles called for the end of accountants (we don't recall that ever happening), and now we've got an "accounting shortage."

Jenny said, "I just don't think it's one or the other."

As for her initial point, Jenny outdueled Josh. However, we are not going to fault Josh for his enthusiasm for human advisorship, which is admirable.

However, it's way too early to claim there's a decisive victory against robo-advisors. Sure, much of current AI is garbage. If we're going to claim (as most Halftime panelists do) that all of this stuff is in only the 2nd or 3rd inning (or even "2nd or 3rd batter of the 1st inning," as some say), then we need far more time to evaluate this scene beyond what some stock we've never heard of is doing in 2025.

Jenny suggests homebuyers need to ‘suck it up’ and accept a 6% mortgage

Judge on Tuesday's (12/23) Halftime Report said Tom Lee is "as bullish as anybody" but actually thinks the first half of 2026 could be "a little bumpy."

Jenny Harrington said it's a "great time" to "reposition a little."

Joe Terranova said, "We are seeing, uh, higher rates around the world."

Stephanie Link conceded higher rates don't help the homebuilders but insisted there's "enormous pent-up demand" for the housing market.

Jenny said that when "all of us bought our first house, mortgage rates were about what they are now," and she disagrees with Stephanie in that we don't need rates at 5%, but if people "suck it up" and starting accepting a "6.2% mortgage now," then "maybe things can move before rates get there."

Judge said, "That's all fine and good, tryin' to tell people who are in a 3-handle mortgage that, 'Hey, just suck it up and, and go at 6 and a quarter.'"

Josh Brown pointed out that bank investors aren't "necessarily" rooting for cuts; "these banks make a lot of money with where- where rates are right now."

Judge impressively harps on serious flaw in Jenny’s argument

At the end of Tuesday's (12/23) Halftime Report, Jenny Harrington rattled off her top dividend plays for 2026, which would seem to be a simple and straightforward segment.

But Judge brought his A game and tripped up Jenny on a statement that really didn't make any sense.

Jenny offered 4 dividend stocks, those being AMCR, BMY, ENB and VICI.

Jenny gave detailed descriptions of each — too detailed, actually, in the category of Saying Too Much When You Don't Have To.

The first 3 raised no eyebrows. But then Jenny got into VICI. She said it owns casinos and maintained "100% occupancy" even during the pandemic. Jenny said "it's on sale right now" because people are saying "Vegas isn't doing well."

Judge wondered about the "disconnect" between the slump in VICI and the casino stocks, which have "done great."

Jenny said the disconnect is "silly" and insisted that there's been "conversation about weakness in Vegas" and maybe VICI had run up on expectation of a gaming license in New York City that didn't happen.

Judge said "if there was a negative feeling on Vegas," why would casino stocks be doing great.

Jenny said, "Don't you hear people talking about Vegas volumes are down." Judge said, "No." Jenny said, "You don't? I do. Everywhere I turn, Vegas is down, international travelers are not so great."

Joe Terranova acknowledged that the JOET ditched VICI in October.

Jenny has a higher opinion of FCX than Stephanie does

In their 2nd debate of the day on Tuesday's (12/23) Halftime Report, Jenny Harrington touted the 17 multiple for FCX and how it's a "pure play" on copper, while Stephanie Link scoffed that it has that multiple because its "execution is so spotty."

But Stephanie said, "If copper goes higher," FCX and ANTO-GB will go up.

Stephanie bought more ZTS and, in the 23rd minute, mentioned "Total Addressable Market."

Joe Terranova again talked up XBI, his "favorite trade" recently.

Joe said FSLR is a "recent addition" to the JOET; he pointed out its roller coaster week so far and said, "I don't like today's price action."

Josh Brown called LYV a "crown jewel type of name."

Stephanie likes the "setup" for EL. Judge said Jeffries raised its EL target, but only to "a hundred bucks," so "maybe they're non-believers." (This writer is long EL.)

Josh again said he thinks FDX "gets through" 300-315 this time.

CNBCfix review: Sydney Sweeney in the overly gaslit ‘The Housemaid’

Michael Burns, the longtime Lionsgate vice chairman, took a seat on Monday's (12/22) Fast Money.

Burns, who has been an occasional Fast Money guest for a long time (which Guy Adami mentioned about 15 times during the episode), first discussed the Warner Bros. situation without really expressing any opinion or providing any scoops.

Then he was asked by Mel for a movie recommendation.

Burns told Mel, "I think 'Housemaid' is terrific." Burns then made clear, "I don't love all of our movies."

Burns went on to explain, "The movie will shock you at times ... and the performances by the, the lead actors is, is extraordinary."

Burns even said, "And I'll send you your 20 bucks back for a movie in New York if you don't like it."

Steve Grasso clarified, "Not to the viewers," apparently meaning that Burns will only refund the 20 bucks to the crew on Monday's Fast money.

"You will really, really, really like it," Burns assured.

Well, hmmmm ... "really, really, really like it."

Let's not get carried away.

But Burns has opened the door for this page to put together a long-overdue movie review. We do that because, to be frank, Judge doesn't have the brass to do even 5 minutes on Halftime about movie criticism.

"The Housemaid" is one of those movies based on a popular book that is actually very good at one thing and then spoils it by being true to the book.

It's a star vehicle for Sydney Sweeney (who's in a new movie every 3 weeks nowadays) and also stars Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar.

In the first half of the movie, Sydney plays an extremely vulnerable character while she seemingly receives a huge break. This is very appealing. As Sydney attempts to blend in to elite society, it even draws parallels to "Pretty Woman." (It is NOT the same plot as "Pretty Woman.")

Unfortunately, the really important drama of the movie has all happened offscreen, and the "action" portion of the film turns into gaslighting gone berserk, accompanied by a gardener character whose presence has no point and makes no sense whatsoever.

A few scenes are bound to make most people cringe.

There are better options at the theaters.

Worse ones, too.

Steve Grasso predicts WBD outcome will be an ‘Ellison win’

Karen Finerman wasn't on the show, but Fast Money on Monday (12/22) wasted no time in getting to the WBD/PSKY/NFLX news of the day. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Steve Grasso stated, "First of all, I think Trump has played this really down the middle of the fairway. I can't tell who he wants at this point."

But Steve concluded, "I do think it's gonna be a- an Ellison win, even though, up until about a week ago it was probably 60/40 Netflix's way. There's a good shot that Ellison and- and- and Skydance takes it, uh, from here."

Steve added that of the 2 bidders, NFLX may be the more "competitive" company in 5 years, but, "I don't like it for Netflix's stock."

(Despite that outlook, during Final Trades, Steve said that if PSKY doesn't win WBD, it will be looking at LION, which was Steve's Final Trade.)

Julie Biel said, "I think Paramount is in a lot of trouble if they can't get this deal."

Guy Adami suggested that it may be a nice deal for NFLX, but PSKY needs it more.

That seems true. This page honestly doesn't know whether NFLX longs should want this deal to be won by NFLX. However, it does occur to us that if Steve and Julie and Guy are correct, Ted Sarandos is basically the person who will decide how much Larry Ellison is going to pay for this gambit.

Liz is talking about the leader in the clubhouse

Joe Terranova on Monday's (12/22) Halftime Report opined, "The personality of this market, it's becoming more discerning."

Joe said there might be "more rental opportunities" next year, which would require "the 493 to participate."

Liz Thomas said the AI trade can get beyond the "bubble banter" because when everyone's talking about it, it "rarely happens." Liz said we need AI enthusiasm for market "sentiment" but it may not be, in a great sports analogy, "the leader in the clubhouse" for next year's returns.

Steve Weiss said it's a "critical question" as to whether the market has "confidence" in the new Fed chair. Weiss predicted the AI trade will "continue" and that the "land mines" are more on the private side.

Josh Brown though said the answer to the broadening question is that "none of these AI stocks look good going into year-end, and the stock market looks amazing."

"I don't care which Kevin is the Fed chair," Josh said, only that earnings are growing.

Joe said he doesn't think the market is "reliant" on rate cuts in the 2nd half of 2026.

Josh said PLTR and MU are not acting like AI is "unraveling."

Judge said Yardeni predicts a rotation into the 493. Joe insisted, "The broadening out is underway."

Judge goes another episode without mentioning ORCL credit default swaps

Judge on Monday's (12/22) Halftime Report said a CNBC market strategist survey shows 7,629 as the "average" S&P target for 2026, with 11% upside from Monday, and 8,100 as the highest (Oppenheimer) and 7,100 lowest (Bank of America).

Judge said for many, that lower number, if it happens, would be a "disappointment."

Liz Thomas said it's a "safe range" and that after 3 years of big returns, people recognize the "likelihood" of another 15-25% is "really low," so they're just saying "average" (which other people point out, almost never happens).

Steve Weiss said he's optimistic because rates typically have played an "outsized role" in market performance, and we've seen the market "move up" through high interest rates.

Judge said Wells has a 280 on ORCL, or 45% gain, so if that happens, it's hard to believe tech's not going to lead next year. Weiss said they're not stopping building data centers; they just can't get the "skilled labor" to build them. Weiss said he likes financials and will buy C or MS.

Joe predicts ‘substantially’ higher volatility next year

Joe Terranova on Monday's (12/22) Halftime Report said he sold APA, calling it a "terrible trade."

Joe to his credit revisited his recent lousy prediction that nat gas would break out over $5; if we had a dollar for every time someone on CNBC in the last 17 years has predicted a nat gas breakout, we'd be Warren Buffett.

Joe said he did buy GLD at the high and that one's higher and he thinks it goes even higher. Liz Thomas likes gold more than silver, calling silver more "speculative" than gold; Liz said gold has more of a "floor" and silver is "up a little high for me, a little fast."

Joe suggested owning insurers for 2026, saying they have worked off some of the "overbought positioning."

Judge said Krinsky says January is the best month for China tech, or the CQQQ. Steve Weiss bought more BABA and said he didn't have Krinsky's opinion "in mind" when he bought. Joe made a lengthy statement saying that when momentum outperforms, "China outperforms along with it."

Josh Brown offered CSX and hung a "low 40s" on the name. Josh also predicted FDX "will break out" after battling with 300-315 for the last 5 years. Joe suggested the rails and PLD.

Joe sold CBOE (he owned it personally). Joe said over 6 weeks, it's underperformed other exchanges and the financial sector. Joe predicted volatility increases "substantially" next year.

Weiss' Final Trade was UBER; hopefully he took it "seriously."

Jim actually seems to think DIS will go up when one of the underlings is announced as CEO

This week, Judge admonished one of his Halftime Report panelists (and basically the whole group) to take Final Trades "seriously."

Evidently, Jim Lebenthal was doing just that on Friday (12/19) when he offered up DIS.

Jim claimed, "There's been this strange, almost inexplicable momentum over the last month. Maybe the Bob Iger succession announcement is coming soon." (Note: If you're trying to see the Friday Final Trade video clip on CNBC's website, it doesn't work.)

Ummmm ... OK ...

First, this page is highly skeptical (see below, many places) that there's going to be anything but a 3-year extension.

But if there somehow is ... does Jim actually think that the market is going to like whichever name is announced?

The market has long since decided that while Iger is a long-term lame duck, any successor is just going to be Chapek 2.0.

Now, what if it's a "rock star" hire ... imagine if DIS lands Brian Niccol, or Tim Cook enters semi-retirement to take the DIS job, or Jamie Dimon wants to make "Star Wars" movies, or Jensen Huang wants to devote himself to theme parks.

We could see a short-term pop. After that, meh.

Steve Weiss' Final Trade Friday was BABA. Judge stressed, "OK, but you bought it, right."

"I owned it; I added to it today," Weiss clarified, telling Judge, "Thanks for the prompt."

Jenny claims it’s ‘easy’ for ‘anyone’ to ‘compete’ in the sneaker or athleisure space

Her colleagues were dismissive.

But Jenny Harrington made some provocative points about the business world on Friday's (12/19) Halftime Report.

It started when Jim Lebenthal stated, "I don't really know what to say about Nike. I sold this 2 years ago. It was literally twice what it is now. It's not a pat on the back."

Judge showed the 5-year NKE chart and called it "nuts."

Josh Brown said "it's really historic the degree to which they've destroyed this company" and, as far as possibly buying the dip, there's "10 other turnaround stories" with "easier answers" and "more obvious fixes."

Josh added, "The new stars of the NBA just do not sell shoes."

Steve Weiss said, "That chart defines complacency."

That's when Jenny got going. "I don't think it's complacency," Jenny said, but it's "Business School 101," which is that "anyone can compete in the sneaker space, anyone can compete in the athleisure space. Those areas are easy."

Weiss said, "No it's not easy," while Judge was also saying, "No it's not. No. No it isn't. No it isn't. It's not. It's not."

Jenny insisted "it is."

"Judge said to "look at Under Armour's chart." Jenny said, "My point exactly."

Jenny asserted, "It's easier to build a multibillion-dollar athleisure retail/sneaker brand than it is to build another bank. Or another Apple."

Weiss, "Go do it if's that easy. Go do it."

Jenny said "I don't want to."

Weiss said, "You don't want billions of dollars?"

Jenny added, "How easy is it to go change from JPMorgan ... if you're annoyed at people there, over to Citi. It is a pain in the neck."

Judge said "That one's a little apples and oranges."

Jenny continued, "How easy is it to get rid of your Apple cellphones ... I wanna wear Hokas ... instead of Nikes, easy switch."

Josh Brown joined in, stating, "Jenny, this is suicide ... they told Dick's and Foot Locker, we don't need you anymore, we're going direct to consumer, that created a vacuum. What did they think Foot Locker was gonna do? Nothing? They filled it with On. ... It's not easy. Nike handed it to them." (Well actually, if Nike is handing away its market share, than it does actually sound kinda easy.)

Jenny concluded, "It is easy. How many sneaker brands are there. How many cellphone brands are there. How many sneaker brands are there. How many big banks are there. That's the answer. It's easier to compete in sneakers than it is in larger retail brands- like larger brands like Apple and (we think, hard to hear) JPMorgan."

OK. Who won this debate.

The big flaw in Jenny's "easy" argument is NKE's 40-year chart. If it's so "easy" to compete, why was NKE a juggernaut all the way up to 2021? And why aren't Reebok, Puma, Converse and Asics massive juggernauts?

Part of that gain is due to the "rising tide" ... Since about the mid-1950s, Americans' clothing choices simply get more and more casual by the day.

If NKE were in the suit business, the 40-year chart would look the opposite.

But NKE has succeeded in 2 big areas, only one of which was suggested Friday, by Josh Brown: Marketing. For whatever reason, "Air Jordans" took off like few other products. And nowadays, there's no (even remotely) similar pop from today's young athletic stars.

The other NKE success is being able to mass-produce gobs and gobs of shoes, of reasonably good quality, in overseas factories fairly cheaply. Everyone has bought a shoe at some point where there was a rip around the toe within about 2 weeks or the sole began separating after a month or the laces either broke or just plain sucked. Making these problems as rare as possible is a big key to success.

Jenny's argument about JPM and AAPL isn't really relevant; when those companies were started, they didn't have any moat; they only gained it through many decades of success.

Jenny does make a quality point — the barriers to entry to shoemaking (at least until they start adding smart chips) are technically quite low. But making a quality shoe at a profit that brings repeat buyers, and remains a hip brand for many years, is a very high bar. So her colleagues are more right. But the best observation is that this is simply a tough space, and NKE has lost its edge.

Josh likens prediction-market space to cannabis stocks

Late on Friday's (12/19) Halftime Report, Judge talked about updates in the "prediction mania" markets.

Steve Weiss shrugged, "I just personally don't think the market is that big," and Weiss predicted "similar" results as with DraftKings in a "commoditized" space.

Josh Brown said he's "with Steve," and it's "like cannabis stocks ... every one of them is down 95% ... I don't even know if there's one left that, that even would qualify it for the Russell 2000."

Josh pointed out that predictions isn't the same as buying stocks; "if you're wrong on a prediction, it's zero."

Weiss joked, "It'll be easy (sic) to create a predictions market than to build a shoe company." Jenny Harrington said, "I agree. ... It's a low competitive barrier to entry."

Judge said Bernstein gave CAT a 630 target. Weiss said it's one of the "picks and shovels plays" for AI.

Judge noted C, one of Jim Lebenthal's longtime favorites, hit a 52-week high.

‘What the market seems to like are surprises’

Jenny Harrington opened Friday's (12/19) Halftime Report saying, "The bitcoin rebound today seems very unreliable to me" and that the stock market seems "desperate to rotate."

Judge said, "Since 1928, the S&P has risen 75% of the time in the last 2 weeks of December."

Judge said Hartnett says U.S. stocks just got their "2nd biggest" inflow ever. Steve Weiss said observations from "credible people" like Hartnett are "useful," but to Weiss, "they're just noise ... sign along the roadway." Judge said people like Weiss have to "cut through" the noise.

Weiss said he's not selling anything based on Hartnett's observations.

Jim Lebenthal said we've only had a "little squall" and not a "major storm," and there's a "sentiment shift today."

Jim said he's not big on calendar trading, but it's a "fact" that at this time of year after strong market years, "people want in."

As for supposed broadening, Josh Brown told Judge, "I'm not an 'I told you so' guy and I get lots wrong too, but we had this conversation last week. I told you, the most obvious trade is the the one that's gonna work. ... They're buying the biggest, most liquid stocks."

Jenny, though, contended in a curious comment, "What the market seems to like are surprises. I think there's more room for surprises in the 493 than there are in the Mag 7 next year."

Weiss questions where the ‘marginal buyer’ is for NVDA stock

Steve Weiss on Friday's (12/19) Halftime Report said he's "OK" if there's a "yawn" about NVDA earnings.

Jim Lebenthal jabbed, "I love how we're yawning at Nvidia up 34%."

Judge said "Stacy Rasgon is not yawning" but Stacy's team would be "buyers" for next year, citing how cheaply it's trading. Weiss said the issue for NVDA is not fundamentals but with the "marginal buyer," an argument we've heard from time to time about AAPL since about, oh, 15 years ago. Jenny Harrington said, "Right."

Judge suggested they should be talking more about AMZN than NVDA. Josh Brown again made the case for AMZN, as he's been doing all year, saying it's put in "3 consecutive higher lows" and is due to eventually break out past 238.

Weiss suggested the issue is that AMZN is a "consumer" story. Judge said "the consumer's been hanging in there." Weiss said it's a "wait and see." Judge wondered, "Why is it such a wait and see."

Jenny explained, "It's a wait and see because it's only 11% earnings growth next year and it's trading at almost 30 times. Vs. something like Meta, which trades at 22 times."

Weiss said this is a "momentum market" and contended, "The biggest risk actually to this market to me is OpenAI."

Jim though predicted, "I think 2026, Amazon is gonna do what Google did this year and what Apple's done since May." Jim said "I don't care about the numbers and the valuation right now," rather, it's that no other company has "as many pistons." Jenny said she'd rather own NVDA than AMZN.

Josh warns of how autonomous fleet operators are going to have to stay on top of ice cream cone spills in the back seat

In a short but very interesting segment of Friday's (12/19) Halftime Report, Phil LeBeau provided updates on robotaxis and whatever TSLA's latest announcement is.

"Waymo's clearly well ahead," Phil said.

Phil credited Josh Brown, who was on Friday's show, for saying "a number of times" that people will simply summon rides from "who's closest."

Josh said he only cares that the car is "clean" and "shows up quickly." Josh said removing the driver cost in autonomous cars is significant but then conceded that the cars have to be clean, for example, what if the previous rider smashes an ice cream cone on the back seat. (Even though Weiss was on the show, and Weiss has often stated that UBER has an advantage in that drivers have to service their cars, Friday's show did not include what would've been an interesting debate as to whether it's more financially viable to pay a driver to do the driving, cleaning and servicing, or not pay a driver and instead pay crews to do the cleaning and servicing.)

Josh pointed out how much Waymo's cars cost and how many rides will have to be given to be profitable and again suggested fleets will be owned by private equity.

Bertha is retiring

Bertha Coombs delivered the CNBC News Update on Friday's (12/19) Halftime Report.

Judge said, "Bertha, since we're celebrating you today at the network, please allow us to wish you well and the very best in the years ahead."

Bertha said, "It's been such a wonderful privilege to work with everyone here ... I didn't go to grad school but I feel like, being here for the last 20 years, I've learned so much from so many smart people."

Judge said, "It's been our privilege and our pleasure. Bertha, be well."

Judge fell for the head fake

Halfway through Thursday's (12/18) Halftime Report, Judge said the market was "softening within the last 15, 20 minutes or so." (Maybe Marianne Lake was doing a Q&A at a Goldman Sachs conference.) Judge pointed out that bitcoin was giving up gains.

Later, Santoli told Judge the mid-show market dip wasn't attributable to any "incremental news item."

Josh Brown talked up NDAQ, calling the stock a "great risk/reward" and praising the developments in the company this year. Josh said the 200-day is "textbook" support.

Josh said 23-hour (23, according to Judge; 24 according to Josh) trading is "inevitable" and we'll just have to "get used to it." Bill Baruch owns ICE and said it's in "rebound mode" and said it's actually a mortgage play. Josh pointed out how the exchange companies have a lot of operations outside the U.S.

Late in the show, Judge said COIN is adding "prediction markets" to stock trading. Stephanie said they want to be "everything to everyone." Josh said "Robinhood beat them to this."

Hopefully, everyone on Thursday's panel took their Final Trades (Josh: TOST; Bill: ISRG; Stephanie: DKS) seriously (see below).

Sounds like Bill isn’t really ‘worried’ about ORCL even though he didn’t really give Judge an answer

Judge opened Thursday's (12/18) Halftime Report saying Krinsky says it's "premature" to say the "top" is in for AI, but what's happened is "more than just a speed bump."

Josh Brown said the pullbacks in AI stocks have been "kind of breathtaking," which is evidence this isn't a "true bubble," where everything always goes up, and in fact it actually makes him "really bullish" on this trade.

Stephanie Link said she's added to META and said the drop in multiple in AVGO is "crazy." Stephanie said some stocks are offering "really good looks," but "Oracle is not a look" because it doesn't have the free cash flow; Stephanie was mentioning the ORCL credit swaps in the 5th minute.

Bill Baruch said he still owns ORCL and "trimmed it above 300." Bill said he thought it may bottom around 180, but that hasn't happened yet.

Judge asked Bill if he's "worried about" his ORCL position. Bill said "not right now," it's only "about a 1 or 2% position."

Judge said "I don't care about the size of it, honestly"; Judge just wants to know if Bill is worried about it, whether it's "candy-bar size" or "the whole thing." Bill didn't really answer but said it needs "positive price action" and if it can't bounce this week, then ... who knows.

Judge pointed out how MU has surged. Bill claimed he's been "really pushing" this name and it's a 3% position for him and it's "9 times forward."

Josh said one of the signs of a bull market is that it "takes out its own trash" and pointed to MU's chart as an example, in contrast with SMCI.

Josh brings up Sydney Sweeney

Judge on Thursday's (12/18) Halftime Report said "according to reports" (it's The Information, according to the screen graphic), OpenAI is discussing raising "tens of billions of dollars at a 750 billion dollar valuation."

Josh Brown chuckled, "That's like when your friend calls you and says, 'Oh, we're, uh, I'm discussing going to Hawaii with Sydney Sweeney.' Really? Who are you discu- who are you discussing it with? The- the- the mirror? I don't know if I- I don't know if I believe that one."

Judge said SpaceX is talking about $800 billion, so it was "only a matter of time" that OpenAI would throw around a number; it's the "arms race in the private market."

Sydney Sweeney did denim ads

Stephanie Link on Thursday's (12/18) Halftime Report bought GAP (used to be GPS ticker symbol) and cited "product momentum."

Josh Brown said we're in a "denim cycle," which he said happens every 5-7 years.

Josh said CMG is trying to break a downtrend, but he doesn't "trust" it. Stephanie called SBUX her 2026 "stock of the year." She said it's down 3% since Brian Niccol was announced.

Stephanie bought more EL and attributed success to new management. (This writer is long EL.)

Josh got stopped out of PSX in the "mid-130s." He's long XOM because energy is the "forsaken" sector this year. Josh said stock-picking is least relevant in the energy sector, where stocks tend to move together.

Bill Baruch said if crude drops below 55, we'll start to see "production come off." Stephanie said oil giants such as SLB, which she tends to mention a lot, are "extremely cheap." Josh stressed that XOM has been having "higher lows."

Judge brought up JOBY, which Josh likes; the founder was on Money Movers right before Halftime. Josh said the real story with JOBY is the infrastructure it's building to provide sky rides.

Judge carps about the upgrades that he doesn’t actually have to read

Judge on Thursday's (12/18) Halftime Report started to complain that the Street is constantly issuing upgrades on cyber names, "seems to be all the time," and JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are calling PANW a "top pick."

But Judge said such an upgrade is only "relevant" today because Bill Baruch happened to buy more CRWD.

Bill said he's "leaning into support" in this name. Josh Brown said CRWD may not, as it gets bigger, keep up this huge revenue growth, but it's "on fire" and that "more AI means more cybersecurity risk." Stephanie Link chimed in, "hundred percent."

Judge noted that PANW has been a "nothing burger" this year. (However, as of mid-November, it was having a good year.) Stephanie said it made "2 very large transactions in a 4-month period." Josh said people are using certain stocks for tax losses.

Actually, the moral of the story is exactly opposite of what Judge said

Judge on Wednesday's (12/17) Halftime Report noted that Steve Weiss' Final Trade on Friday was VRT (something we hadn't paid attention to) ... only to have Weiss mention Monday that he was selling shares (we took note of that part).

Judge asked Weiss if he could "just clean that up for me" because it left a "bit of an uneasy feeling with many."

Weiss explained, "Here's what happened: It was my Final Trade. I said it would bounce. It actually did bounce. So if you listened to me, you made money."

Weiss continued, "Weekends for all of us ... are a time of, uh, reflection."

Judge pointed out that Weiss was in the name "for a while" and "the valuation didn't change from Friday to Monday."

Weiss said "No but my thought process did change ... it was not my intention to get out of it Monday when I said that, at all. As a matter of fact, I didn't get out at the highs of the day, I got out at the lows of the day on Monday because I did it first thing in the morning."

Judge concluded that the "moral" of this event is "Take your Final Trade seriously."

Weiss said, "I took it seriously when I made it."

Well, here's the deal ... First of all, kudos to the viewers who noticed/recalled Weiss' Final Trade.

17 years ago, in the early days of Fast Money, and shortly after in the early days of the Halftime Report, this page did take note of Final Trades. They were sort of billed as the panelists' best ideas.

The problem was, the term "Final Trades" includes the word "Trades." And over time, we noticed, a lot of these suggestions 1) aren't exactly "trades" and 2) are the same stocks that panelists already talked up earlier in the show.

There's really nothing wrong with Point 2, other than, we give far more credence to someone making a lengthy case for a stock at the 17th minute of the show than someone casually mentioning an obligatory name at the end of the show when the panelist is required to mention a name.

As for Point 1, that remains a big problem, as people throw out names of companies they like in general but have NO idea whether the stock is actually going up in the next day or next week. (That's often the case for those panelists who aren't even allowed to mention single stocks and can only talk about sectors.) (Which has always made us wonder why those people are on the show.)

Anyway. We used to always include Final Trades in these recaps. Then we were like, Just skip it. Unless there's a notable comment.

Back to Weiss. We checked the tape. On Friday, Weiss said he bought VRT early in the day when it was down so much and actually made the case early in Friday's show, "You can scalp some quick dollars on a trade." For his Final Trade, he said it was due to bounce.

It did climb a little more for a couple hours after Friday's Halftime. In the last hour or so of trading Friday, it started sinking again. By Monday morning, Weiss was throwing in the towel.

It's OK for someone to change their mind. As far as we can tell, Weiss did nothing wrong by selling Monday. He said on Friday it was a trade for a "bounce." He didn't guarantee anyone a millionaire's lifestyle.

However, he probably should've said on Monday's show, "I know I made it my Final Trade on Friday; I think the trade was over by late Friday afternoon."

Weiss also claimed Wednesday that "if you listened to me, you made money." That's a major reach. Just from eyeballing the chart, it does appear that if you bought literally when Weiss was talking up VRT on Friday and sold Monday when he mentioned selling it, you probably came out a tiny bit ahead and didn't lose money. You might've made a few dollars on a $160-something stock. He should've said Wednesday, "If you listened to me, you should've broken even at least."

What viewers should know is that no one should take Final Trades too seriously. Judge's suggestion is almost laughable. 1) The panelists already do take them (somewhat) seriously, as Weiss said Wednesday, and 2) Those "trades" are generally token, repetitive, half-hearted requirements designed to transition the program to the next show and aren't actually a "trade." (Kind of like the "Finally tonight" segment on your evening newscasts, which is either about a "light" story that makes everyone happy at the end of the broadcast, or a not-well-known entertainer's obituary.) Weiss actually did viewers a favor by suggesting something that really was a short-term trade; it may not have taken off as he hoped, but it did not go bust or wipe out anyone during the time span in which he spoke about it.

On Wednesday, Weiss' Final Trade was NFLX. Which was interesting, because that hadn't come up during the program. (This writer is long NFLX.) Weiss said, "I think it's put in a bottom here." Later on Fast Money, Karen Finerman said that with Warner Bros.' board rejecting the latest PSKY offer, she's now thinking, "I don't think Netflix at the moment needs to do anything," in contrast to her recent suggestion that NFLX would need to "bump." Tim Seymour started talking about his own DVD library, which apparently includes "The Warriors" and "Caddyshack." Guy Adami said people should be paying "more attention to" LION.

Joe correctly said he’d ‘regret’ predicting a ‘modest rebound’ in the Mag 7

Judge at the top of Wednesday's (12/17) Halftime Report said Dan Ives is calling this 1996, not 1999.

Joe Terranova said there doesn't have to be a "bubble" in order to have a "correction."

Joe admitted he called for a Mag 7 recovery this week (see below), and Joe claimed it started to happen, but whatever rally was in the works "reversed overnight."

Rob Sechan said he bought more NVDA "the other day."

Steve Weiss said there were "unreasonable valuations" on the way up, including for AVGO. He's not sure the downside has been "reached."

But Weiss backed META, MSFT, GOOGL and AMZN.

In the category of #toosoon, Jason Snipe mentioned "midterms."

Jason Snipe is long ORCL and said it "feels like it goes down every day." Jason recapped the whole recent ORCL story without really saying whether that stock is going to keep going down.

Someone gets a tax loss!

The 2nd half of Wednesday's (12/17) Halftime Report was punctuated by an interview with Rory McIlroy, who extended his GolfPass partnership with Versant; it's a partnership we didn't previously know existed. (We wuz kinda surprised that Judge didn't ask Rory about Oracle credit default swaps.)

Rob Sechan sold WDAY for a "tax loss," which a lot of folks on CNBC seem to like even more than gains. Rob said the sale is "not an indictment" of the business.

Joe Terranova asked for a chart of DDOG and got one (and it looks bad), but he pointed to TWLO as a good one, so you have to be "very specific" in what you pick. (As opposed to all those other times when panelists say you should just throw darts at a board.)

Joe raised some eyebrows in saying, "the entire financial services industry" is "way too bullish." Steve Weiss said we're getting "rational markets" now rather than the "rising tide" type of environment.

Rob contended, "People might be saying they are bullish. The positioning is not reflecting that."

Rob bought DVN. Rob also bought HST. Judge asked Rob about selling VRSK, which Sarat Sethi just announced this week as a new buy. Rob said it has "recurring themes" but "could be a poster child for AI disruption."

For Final Trades, Joe offered TWLO.

Judge says he always likes to address tension in the market

Grasping for interesting things to talk about on Tuesday's (12/16) Halftime Report, Judge began by asking Joe Terranova about "Bank of America's Fund Manager Survey — the most bullish of the past 3½ years."

Joe wanted to talk about "how the market looks" (snicker) and said he'll "probably regret saying this," but he thinks we've been "pretty washed out over the last several days," and he sees the Mag 7 taking the market through a "modest rebound" this week. (Which is interesting, because around the time of Judge's brief hiatus early this month, first Judge knocked Joe for being unwilling to make a market prediction for the month, then Joe mentioned a couple days later how eager he was to finally make the prediction, but Judge ended up not caring anyway.)

Judge then told Stephanie Link, "I always like to address tension within the market." Judge said there's "tension" with a 4.6 unemployment while fund managers are evidently being their most bullish in 3½ years. (How that accounts for "tension," we're not sure.)

Permabull Stephanie actually said "I'm not as bullish" as those fund managers. Stephanie said she's been bullish for 3½ years and was "really bullish" a couple of years ago because people didn't appreciate the strength of the economy. (But what about Marianne Lake's Q&A comments.) Stephanie said she's not sure we get to 15-17% earnings growth next year but thinks 8-10% is doable.

Judge mentioned his favorite term of the week, "run it hot" (snicker), to Malcolm Ethridge. Malcolm said the word that comes to mind when he saw the survey results was "sobering," because of the low cash levels.

Apparently anxious to draw solid conclusions about this market rather than grapple with ambiguity, Judge sort of in a mocking voice pointed out how Tom Lee kept saying in "every appearance" that this is the "most hated rally," but now all of a sudden, "There's too much bullishness?"

Joe said he leans that there's "too much bullishness."

Joe would like to be the Yankees’ GM

Judge on Tuesday's (12/16) Halftime Report said the market's been having an "anxiety attack" about AI stocks.

Stephanie Link said there might be "some indigestion in the short term" because AI stocks are "so crowded" and "so overowned." Judge wondered how long a "pause" would last.

Joe Terranova was talking about ORCL debt going high yield. Stephanie said something not quite hearable about what ORCL wants; Joe responded, "I wanna be the GM of the New York Yankees." (That's an interesting comment. We're not sure we'd want to be a GM. You basically have to recruit jocks all the time. Then if they have a bad year, you're the one who gets roasted on sports talk radio.)

Joe said he's "not 100% certain" that ORCL keeps an investment-grade rating.

CNBC's Dee Bosa said CRWV is a "proxy for those bubble fears." Malcolm Ethridge though said it's more likely "the party will continue" in the Mag 7 trade at least through the first half of 2026; it's the companies with the "borrowing issue" that may have trouble.

Judge suggested in an IPO/Medline chat with Leslie Picker that "maybe we were a year early on the- on the private equity trade."

Stephanie said COIN has "a lot of monetization potential."

‘Literally the worst thing in the world’

Late in Tuesday's (12/16) Halftime Report, Judge said the Nasdaq is seeking a 23-hour trading day 5 days a week (the screen attributed this report to Reuters, which Judge didn't mention). (He did mention the Marketing Department's explanation of the new logo, however, a day ago.) (See below.)

Judge said a Wells Fargo note calls such a Nasdaq move "literally the worst thing in the world" (snicker) and the "epitome" of "making trading more like gambling." Joe Terranova said at this point, it would be hard to go back to the old days of trading.

Meanwhile, Judge said Argus has a 1,200 target on COST. Joe explained that it's rolled over for a "variety of reasons." Joe said the JOET has owned it since 2021, but the momentum has been "neutralized." Stephanie Link said it's "very expensive."

Judge and Stephanie mentioned GEV in the 33rd minute. #check

Sarat Sethi joined late by video to say he bought VRSK, which has 80% recurring revenue in insurance analytics. Sarat sold PYPL, saying it's "time to move on."

Sarat also sold STZ, an interesting stock. (This writer has no position in STZ.) Judge said he doesn't want to use the term "uninvestable," but "trends" on the alcohol space evidently haven't been good. Sarat said if STZ got a lower multiple, he might be interested. Judge asked for the multiple now. Sarat said 15. Judge said it's "below a market multiple already."

Mel calls peacock-less CNBC logo ‘clean, modern, inclusive’

Early on Monday's (12/15) Halftime Report, Judge delivered a statement on behalf of the marketing department of ... the outside consultants paid 6 figures to draw up samples for CNBC, related to corporate imagery.

"As part of our evolution, we have removed the NBC peacock to embrace a distinct identity that aligns with our future as a brand. It's a small visual update as we continue to deliver the same trusted coverage of markets, business and the economy," Judge stated.

Hours later, on Fast Money, Melissa Lee encountered amazingly similar text in the prompter: "Look at the corner of your screen. You may have noticed a new CNBC logo today. As part of our evolution, we've removed the NBC peacock to embrace a distinct identity that aligns with our future as a brand. It's a small visual update as we continue to deliver the same trusted coverage of markets, business and the economy."

OK, let's analyze.

"Evolution" means "still growing." (Though some actually view CNBC as "legacy media.")

"Distinct identity" means "We're not allowed to look like NBC anymore because that's an unaffiliated company now."

"Future as a brand" means "People still care about the 4 letters C. N. B. C."

"Small visual update" means "We're not changing anything you really care about — (yet)."

OK ... Honestly we're not trying to be Debbie Downers here. We kind of doubt most people would've even known the answer to the question "What does CNBC's logo include?" prior to Monday.

We get that this kind of logo has to be small with little room for detail.

But it just looks kind of generic.

It's also a lot of blue. Curious that a network about money doesn't have green in its logo.

There's nothing signifying money or Wall Street. It's like any of those channels you find way down the cable grid.

After Mel's remarks, Karen Finerman had the courage to ask, "You like it?"

Mel responded, "I do. It's clean, it's modern, it's inclusive."

Judge went an entire show without mentioning ORCL credit default swaps (but he mentioned it on Closing Bell)

Judge asked Joe Terranova at the top of Monday's (12/15) Halftime Report if the rotation trade (i.e., anything but the Mag 7) will continue.

Joe said it's the "right place to start the conversation; I think this is going to continue as we go into 2026."

But Joe said the "near term" would include some kind of return to Mag 7 names. Shannon Saccocia stressed that earnings growth is expected to be strong next year.

In the 6th minute, Steve Weiss said the consumer is "bifurcated." (He's a little out of step; the current term in favor is "K-shaped.")

"I'd be surprised if we saw a strong rally into year-end," Weiss said. Judge protested that it can't just be the "high end" supporting the Shake Shacks and Brinkers. Weiss said the consumer's resilient but next year you'll have to "be very careful" about the consumer.

Much later in the show, Weiss said he unloaded VRT to "lessen my exposure to the, uh, AI infrastructure," and VRT was a "natural casualty" (snicker). Judge questioned if it doesn't have momentum. Weiss said the sale is a "market call" on AI stocks, and the stock has an "aggressive" valuation.

Weiss also said late that he thinks BABA is "OK" and mentioned "there are really 2 economies (snicker)" in China, one is the "AI economy" and the other is the "general economy." Joe's in YUMC and said it's "possibly bottomed." Shannon said there could be "profit-taking" in China stocks. Joe said India stocks haven't been working.

JPM up about 7% since Marianne Day

Judge on Monday's (12/15) Halftime Report said financials are the best sector this month.

Steve Weiss said he sees "a lot of juice" still in GS and MS and C. Weiss said "private equity has been held at bay."

Joe Terranova mentioned Marianne Lake's comments (snicker). (Obviously those were really game-changing revelations (in a Q&A) about the American consumer.) "There's plenty of room to build positioning in financials," Joe said, citing deregulation, valuation and strong trading activity. He did express some concern about "regional banks in the energy regions of the country," specifically Texas.

Joe reiterated that he likes UBER long term but not its short-term chart.

Judge finds that people are more optimistic about the economy when stocks are going up

Stephanie Link joined Monday's (12/15) Halftime Report remotely to say she bought UNP (Zzzzzzzz).

Judge asked Stephanie about the "run it hot" (snicker) trade and the possibility of a "policy error" (snicker).

Steve Liesman said a survey shows that if you've got money in stocks, you're likely to spend more during the holidays than those who don't. Judge and Steve agreed that "if we were in the middle of a big nasty bear market," the numbers of people being enthusiastic about stocks would be "depressed."

Joe called LVS the "right casino name to own" and said sorry to Jim Lebenthal (regarding Jim's backing of WYNN), though Jim wasn't on Monday's show; Judge and Joe traded jabs.

Joe said "Costco does not look good" and has had a momentum breakdown. Joe said it doesn't have the "degree of traffic that Walmart has" and has also struggled with tariffs. Shannon Saccocia said "renewal rates have come down" at COST and it's done "essentially zero advertising." Steve Weiss said he doesn't think the COST story is over, and neither does Shannon.

Joe agrees with KeyBanc's TT upgrade.

Joe said momentum in NOW doesn't look so good. Judge requested a YTD chart on the screen.

On ETF Edge, the Dominator, Dom Chu, asked Ron Baron and Michael Baron about Baron Capital launching 5 actively managed ETFs.

Kevin, Weiss say however WBD turns out, NFLX wins ‘either way’

Contrary to some of the rhetoric on Fast Money, Kevin Simpson and Steve Weiss on Friday's (12/12) Halftime Report both seemed to think NFLX comes out a winner of the WBD process either way. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Kevin said he wrote covered calls on NFLX, citing Josh Brown's recent comment that it could be "in a box." Kevin said that's "possible," but he thinks "it's gonna work out really well for Netflix" because even if the offer doesn't succeed, NFLX gets "$2.8 billion" for "doing basically nothing."

Kevin sold a January 105 NFLX call for $3, and he thinks he can "keep clipping coupons." He said Polymark says it's 49% that NFLX does not get WBD. "I think I win either way," Kevin said, but he believes a deal would be a "phenomenal marriage" (without, as is often the case on CNBC recently, explaining what advantages NFLX gets from this aside from a library of Harry Potter films).

Weiss agreed, "I think they win either way," even though it's a "coin toss" as to who gets WBD. Weiss said NFLX may be "dead money," but he hasn't sold, and he thinks the deal is "absorbed in the market" and "either way, the stock pops," but he likes the deal for the long term.

During another part of the show, Judge said JPMorgan is calling SPOT one of its best ideas for 2026 and gave it an "805" target. Kevin said, "If we compare this to Netflix, 805's a reality." (This writer is long SPOT.)

Kevin didn't delve into how Joe, who wasn't on Friday's show, constantly mentioned in spring and early summer how SPOT and NFLX are like tandem stocks (that part was OK) and kept talking about how they were going to rebound together from their midyear stumble when they didn't actually rebound and Joe's call ended up on the "bust" list before he gave it up in autumn.

Kevin on Friday said SPOT's had some "fits and starts," but he's "excited" about the stock.

Oracle’s AI gambit is the (fictional) equivalent of David Ellison giving Arch Manning a billion dollars in expectation of winning Super Bowl 63

Judge and Steve Weiss agreed at the top of Friday's (12/12) Halftime Report that no matter the reason, any reported delay in data center buildouts, even for valid reasons, isn't good for the market.

But Weiss said, "If people sold META because of their capex, this is should be- this should be attractive to them." Weiss said he made a "quick trade" buying QQQ because the selloff is "wildly overdone."

Brenda Vingiello said it's a "healthy development" to sort of keep market AI expectations in check.

Judge turned to Seema Mody for ORCL debt reporting; Seema mentioned ORCL credit default swaps in the 6th minute of the show. (#gotthatoutofthewayfast)

Jim Lebenthal said he's hanging on to ORCL, but it's a reason why you don't "just own 1 stock" (snicker) but "blend" (snicker) it with others that are "more stable."

Jim said of Larry Ellison, "He has frankly to be quite honest risked the company many times before ... but he does have a long track record of success."

Weiss indicated that ORCL's past success may not matter because it's a "different company now than it was ... and they have mortgaged part of the company."

Weiss said ORCL using debt isn't the issue but the "end market" of OpenAI is questionable. Weiss said there's many other ways to make an AI trade than picking a "falling knife."

Jim countered, "It's not a falling knife because I've been in this 3 years, so I've had a triple in it already."

Um, it's a falling knife. Check the chart. (This writer has no position in ORCL or ORCL credit default swaps or anything ORCL.) Stock charts couldn't care less what Jim's cost basis is.

Jim conceded "real risks" with ORCL and stressed that it's a "speculative stock," but if it works, it'll get to $300 "kind of in the blink of an eye."

Weiss asked what the market needs to see for that to happen.

Jim said, "It's gonna take some time. And by time, I mean, another quarter or 2."

OK. So it can get to $300 in the blink of an eye ... but it's also "gonna take some time."

Got it.

(The only thing that matters is that Jim's got a triple in the name already.)

Judge questioned Jim, "You really think a, what, next quarter or 2; that seems completely unreasonable."

Jim admitted, "What's really vexing me right now are the credit default swaps. And as Seema just pointed out, that may well be the banks hedging in advance of financing that's gonna come in over the next quarter or 2."

But Jim said if the "pressure comes off of the credit default swaps," then ... apparently good things will happen as he trailed off. Kevin Simpson said to Weiss' point, ORCL CDS is a "proxy not just for Oracle" but as a "way to hedge the AI trade." "Exactly," Weiss said.

Judge agreed, "This whole thing is a proxy for the AI, uh, everything, almost."

The Time cover is probably a year late, and watered down

In continued AI-stock discussion on Friday's (12/12) Halftime Report, Judge asked Brenda Vingiello about names such as ETN, PWR and others taking a hit Friday.

Brenda said the fundamental story is "still good" and she'd be more inclined to buy the weakness than sell.

Steve Weiss acknowledged that VRT was falling also but said he doesn't think all the data center potential is reflected yet in the stock. Judge said maybe we won't know the outcome until 2028.

Brenda said AVGO's slide is "all about guidance" and not raising it for the full year. It's an "expensive stock," but the fundamentals are strong, Brenda said.

Kevin Simpson bought MU; he said he hasn't owned it since the '90s. Kevin also bought AMAT.

Judge said Time's Person of the Year is "Architects of AI" (snicker) and impressively showed a close-up of the cover so viewers could see the faces.

Weiss gushed about what AI can supposedly do, such as making health care "more accessible, cheaper" (yeah, right). "So, I'm all in on AI," Weiss declared.

‘K-shaped’ (check) in 20th minute

Judge claimed on Friday's (12/12) Halftime Report that "the story of the week" has been the "Russell," Dow and equal weight and "how tech has continued to lag."

Judge late in the A Block said Hartnett on Friday mentioned "the K-shaped economy" and predicted that 2026 will be the "run it hot economy," or "Main Street over Wall Street."

Jim Lebenthal allowed that the 493 catch-up has been predicted for the last year and a half, so it has to come through for the trade to work.

Jim said C is "no longer cheap" and even a "slight premium to tangible book value." Jim said he'd have to think about trimming at 120 or 125. Kevin Simpson said trimming GS back to a 5% position after its gains is simply "portfolio management." Weiss said he's not "restricted" by bigger position sizes with GS; "I'm just gonna let it run."

Brenda Vingiello said V figures to remain a "strong player."

BA actually ‘doing everything right’

In a program chock-ful of stock commentary, Kevin Simpson on Friday's (12/12) Halftime Report said he bought ISRG and cited the aging baby boomers' need for surgery.

Steve Weiss said LDOS has been a "great stock" for him and he has "no interest" in selling, as Citi gave it a buy rating. Kevin said BA is "doing everything right" and the run is "not over."

Jim Lebenthal said the issues for LMT are all in the "rear-view mirror" and he again talked up the F-35, as he does about once a month.

Weiss again talked up Brad Jacobs and QXO, as he hasn't done as often recently.

Jim sees ONON going higher.

Mizuho gave CVX a 206 target — from 204. Brenda Vingiello said CVX is getting back to capital discipline.

HAS meaning Hasbro (not Kevin Hassett as a Federal Reserve commodity)

In a curious Halftime Report discussion Friday (12/12), Kevin Simpson said he "basically got stopped out of" LIN because of "portfolio management" and technical reasons.

Judge said, "Citi says it's goin' to 520." Kevin said, "It could."

Jim Lebenthal volunteered the recent investment theory behind LIN; Judge said it's having its worst quarter since Q1 in 2020. Jim said it's a "value stock" now, but 520 seems "a bit of a pipe dream."

Judge and Jim and others chuckled about the description of either Jim as a value investor or LIN and its "industrial gases" (we're not sure why the chuckles).

Near the end of the show, Judge and Steve Weiss took up CAT. Weiss said he wants to play the "picks and shovels"; he's not selling now but maybe at 650.

Jim talked up what he sees as too-low earnings estimates for DAL. Kevin said he caught U "at the right time" but it's a "high-risk trade."

Brenda Vingiello said PH still has a strong outlook. Kevin suggested the market overstated tariffs' impact on HAS.

Judge asked Kevin about RKLB and ASTS surging this month. Kevin said RKLB is "quietly becoming a massive competitor to SpaceX." Kevin said ASTS is "carrier agnostic" and a "really cool story."

In Final Trades, Kevin said to look at the forward P.E. of MU.

Josh says autonomous vehicles ‘ultimately’ will be owned by private equity

Viewers of Thursday's (12/11) Halftime Report were treated to a feisty and productive UBER debate.

Stephanie Link, who wasn't on the panel, joined remotely after the A Block to report selling UBER. Stephanie said it's a great long-term story, but there's a short-term "overhang" whenever Waymo or robotaxis make an announcement.

"I was up on the name, so I did take some profits," Stephanie said.

Josh Brown was at Post 9 and said, as he always does, "The people that are saying Uber has to catch up have it precisely backwards" before issuing a provocative forecast.

"I think ultimately, autonomous vehicles will be owned by private equity firms. They will be a dime a dozen, they will be everywhere, all over the roads, and what Uber will have is the only profitable network of both autonomous and human-driven vehicles on the roads," Josh said. "This is a huge market misunderstanding."

Stephanie cut in, "They missed on EBITDA last quarter."

"Oh no," Josh said.

"Yes they did. Yes they did," Stephanie said.

"So what," Josh shrugged.

"That's why the stock fell ... that's why the stock hasn't done that well," Stephanie explained.

Stephanie said UBER is going to have to spend to keep up with rivals' technology. Josh said UBER isn't building a fleet of Jaguars with cameras; what is UBER spending on?

"They're still spending a lot of money," Stephanie insisted.

Bill Baruch said UBER has sentiment issues but "it's a name brand," a common bullish argument for the stock going back perhaps a decade, and one thing that won't change is picking up a phone to summon a ride.

But back to Josh's prediction. Autonomous vehicles seem like a strange endeavor for private equity. The costs for maintenance, cleaning and insurance are always going to be significant. Which is why Weiss' regular argument, that Uber's drivers take care of all the maintenance, is maybe the strongest one in favor of the stock.

Getting sick of Sam Altman and David Ellison

Josh Brown opened Thursday's (12/11) Halftime Report pointing out how the RSP, the equal weight S&P, is at a high, indicating "nobody is down" in the "overall" stock market trade and that there's broadening.

Judge quickly moved to ORCL. Malcolm Ethridge said he sold ORCL at the market open, saying he had "2 questions" for the earnings call that weren't answered, one being "where's the ceiling?" Malcolm said management said they couldn't say, but Malcolm mistakenly said "OpenAI" instead of "Oracle," which Judge called a telling "Freudian slip."

Malcolm continued with his 2nd question, which is, What if OpenAI's spending doesn't come through as promised, can ORCL cancel some of its spending, but management only got a "little bit into the weeds" of answering that question.

In the 6th minute, Judge mentioned ORCL credit default swaps and showed the chart, as is seemingly his daily obligation.

ORCL long Jim Lebenthal, however, is "sticking with it" and "not giving up." Jim said it's not about $500 billion or whatever from AI but earnings and the multiple (he said "27").

Bill Baruch said there's a "lot of support" for ORCL at 180, and "260 is a great place to look." (Those numbers are kind of far apart.) Bill stressed that the ORCL rally began with "the June report," when it broke out over 180, so "the whole story makes a round trip."

Judge said Tony Pasquariello is emphasizing Mag 7 earnings growth, since 2005, vs. the S&P 500 (and those are 2 wildly different charts). Josh said "Yardeni said the opposite today ... next year is about the 493, not the 7." Judge said, "That's the tension within the market. The tension of Pasquariello vs. Yardeni. (snicker)"

Bill said the Mag 7 could fall out of favor for a couple months, but "I'm extremely bullish in through (sic) April," and maybe the Mag 7 would lead February to March.

Jim actually bought more ADBE (as you knew he would) in his personal account. Judge hilariously said ADBE has "not been a horse. Been a horse's ..." Judge explained, "It is cable, but, sometimes you leave things to the imagination, and everybody knows what you mean anyway."

Jim said of the earnings and reax to ADBE, "You have no idea how much of a win this is." Jim stressed that there's been an AI overhang for 3 years while ADBE continues to perform. Josh said it's "ridiculously oversold," and he bought on technicals, but he won't hold it as long as Jim.

Marianne Lake comments and Eddy Cue comments seem to the contra-indicators of the year

Josh Brown on Thursday's (12/11) Halftime Report again stressed that there's a breakout in XOM and he thinks it's finally powering past 120.

Judge cut to Breaking News with Phil LeBeau about ... a Rivian AI chip.

After Phil's report, Bill Baruch said he owns XOM and likes the name and noted how it's holding up while the price of crude is slipping. Judge then played Jeffrey Gundlach's bullish comments on commodities a day earlier, the first Gundlach clip played Thursday. Bill said the commodities index is heavily driven by gold and silver with a "high weighting," but the "positive thing" is that gold is "usually the leading indicator."

Josh pointed out that owning commodity stocks is a way of guarding against what commodity spikes can do to certain companies; Josh said airline stocks would get "wrecked" if crude starts climbing; "This is how you hedge that."

Josh makes startling pledge

Josh Brown on Thursday's (12/11) Halftime Report announced that he'd show up "naked" when the Dow hits 50,000.

For "Best Stocks," Josh lukewarmly talked about insurers, first shrugging about HIG and then the name he really wanted to talk about, MKL, which he said some see as a "baby Berkshire." He said it's in a breakout. Josh stressed that ideally this is more of a long-term stock and not a trade.

Bill Baruch though said "I like Berkshire actually."

Josh said the Todd Combs exit from BRK won't be a "big deal to shareholders" because "the key key key people, operationally, are staying."

Judge said UBS upped MU's target to 295 from 275. Bill said he has liked it a long time, and he claimed it's got a "13 forward multiple." Bill sees "a lot of upside."

Josh owns PL, a stock we're not sure we've heard on the show. Josh said Thursday's gain is great, but it's a "multi-year play."

Bill said there's "a lot of upside" in ISRG over the next 2 years.

Santoli kinda sounded like GS may be getting ahead of itself.

Judge promised Tom Lee's 2026 outlook on Closing Bell. We heard it, and it wasn't that exciting. He has a 7,700 S&P target and cautioning there could be some trouble.

The Fast Money gang did what we think is their 3rd show this year with a studio audience. Another fine effort, but late in the production, Guy Adami apparently thought his segment was over and there was a moment of dead air, then shortly after, a commercial briefly interrupted Guy's eliciting of questions from the audience.

Karen on NFLX: ‘I think they want it, I think they will bump’

It wasn't until the final minutes of Wednesday's (12/10) Fast Money that Mel's crew took up the NFLX/PSKY/WBD battle. Fortunately, Karen Finerman got a chance to make extended remarks. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Mel said PSKY just sent a letter in the "last hour" to WBD owners. According to Mel, Karen had "pored through this letter" before they started the show (which would've been at least 50 minutes earlier, which means either a super-quick read by Karen, or maybe the letter wasn't new in the last hour).

Karen said, "I thought it was really directed to retail shareholders" (Translation: Amateur hour).

Karen added, "I thought a lot of it was misleading," including NFLX's stock portion supposedly "buried" in the 8-K; "it was not buried ... at all." Karen said the letter also says it'll take NFLX 2 years to get this done; "I don't know where they came up with that."

Karen said the letter also says "'Tender your shares right away.' That's not gonna happen. Why would you do that," if anything you'd say, "30 isn't enough."

Karen opined, "I do think Netflix is trading down because people think Netflix will counter their already-winning bid." Karen concluded, "So Netflix I think is down because they have to bump. If they want it, I think they want it, I think they will bump."

Tim Seymour chimed in, "And WBD goes higher, and higher." Tim said he "sold half" of his WBD calls. Tim stressed that NFLX "loses if it wins" but then suggested that if it loses WBD, it might also lose. (So NFLX supposedly could lose by buying it, or by not buying it, at the same time.)

Honestly, this is a very interesting New Economy situation. The gut feeling here at CNBCfix HQ is that the only reason this would make sense for NFLX is for untapped theatrical potential, like DIS with Lucasfilm, but Iger was gifted that property because George just wanted to cash in and put the company in the most responsible hands. Theatrical goes against NFLX's mindset. They've outsmarted the industry before. Maybe they'll do it again.

Jeffrey Gundlach again was on Closing Bell with Judge after the Fed press conference; Jeffrey likes to identify the "word" or "term" of the press conference, and he said it was obviously "well-positioned."

Dee on Waymo: ‘I feel safer than having a driver in an Uber or a Lyft’

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (12/10) Halftime Report said he personally sold UBER for "clarity" (snicker), as it's also in the JOET. He said he sold it Wednesday because it again bumped into resistance in the low 90s.

Joe several times mentioned concerns that the stock would fall through 80. Jenny Harrington said Waymo is a long-term concern but shrugged that a 10% pullback is not "unique to Uber" and she's letting her UBER position "ride" for longer.

Dee Bosa said Waymo just reported doing 14 million fully autonomous rides in 2025 and called the numbers "really astounding."

Dee said, "It feels just as safe. And, in many cases, personally, I feel safer than having a driver in an Uber or a Lyft, you don't know how long they've been driving, what time of the day it is." (Actually, you would know what time of the day it is; Dee means that you don't know how long the driver's been awake and on the road.)

(This is where Josh Brown usually comes in and says that every time there's a Waymo or robotaxi announcement, a bunch of knuckleheads sell UBER. But Josh wasn't on Wednesday's show.)

Joe said that analyst ratings and price targets on UBER are still fairly high, so if the stock pulls back, there could be downgrades.

Everyone at ULTA is ‘with their mother’

Echoing one of Pete Najarian's favorite slogans, Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (12/10) Halftime Report said ULTA has done "a (sic) absolutely phenomenal job" in "marketing to the younger generation." Joe said TJX and ROST are also retailers that are working.

Kari Firestone marveled at the "new market that Ulta's created," which Kari said is "girls under the age of 12 ... everybody is there with their mother."

Jenny Harrington owns REGN and backed Wolfe making it a top pick, "a reasonably cheap stock." Kari likes BKNG. Joe said GD technically is in a "great place" to buy.

Steve supplies Judge with questions for Jeffrey Gundlach

Judge at the top of Wednesday's (12/10) Halftime Report asked Liz Thomas if a 10-year at 4.25% is a "line in the sand" for stocks. Liz agreed that 4.25 is "technical resistance," but Liz thinks 4.50 would be the real issue for stocks.

Joe Terranova said "the most important thing" isn't so much the yield but the possible return of "elevated bond market volatility."

Joe said a hawkish cut is "priced into the market."

Joe said the market's recently been in a "very tight trading range" and that the market is eyeing October's 6,920 intraday high.

Kari Firestone said what's not in the market is potentially disappointing guidance of ORCL or AVGO. Jenny Harrington agreed that the reports from ORCL and AVGO are "way more important ... than anything the Fed says."

Steve Liesman said Kevin Warsh is apparently the first of the Fed short list to get an interview. Steve offered a couple questions Judge could ask Jeffrey Gundlach later in the day, which are, Why exactly are rates higher, and Which Fed candidate is Gundlach most "comfortable" with. (This review was posted before Gundlach's scheduled appearance on Closing Bell.)

Price targets that get mentioned on business television (cont’d)

Jenny Harrington owns FI, which got an "outperform" from Mizuho, according to Judge on Wednesday's (12/10) Halftime Report.

Jenny said the 110 price target on FI is "really interesting," so it would be "almost a double." Jenny said Mizuho is at least "directionally correct."

Joe Terranova asked Jenny if FI management has done well at "navigating the challenges." Jenny said the new management team was like "Whoa," and she thinks they "kitchen-sinked it this time."

But Jenny's "not so sure" about that $110 target. Jenny said some of her accounts have still made money in FI, but a couple times, Jenny mentioned having a "tax loss" (which for some people is more important than actually making money).

Leslie Picker was back at the Goldman Sachs conference on financials, with conference host Richard Ramsden, who told Leslie he was "a little bit surprised by the market response" to the JPM remarks a day ago, but it seems like it just wasn't expected.

Sarat Sethi joined Halftime late by video to tell of buying WCN. He sees it as the "leader" of a "big addressable market." Curiously, Sarat said the company "got rid of a bunch of bad customers." Granted, "bad" customers aren't good for anyone, but getting rid of customers generally isn't a positive catalyst. Kari Firestone said it's "definitely" an attractive stock.

Joe actually made SPOT, one of his busts since the summer, his Final Trade, saying its "correlation" with NFLX has "broken down." (This writer is long SPOT.)

Santoli botches a title

During Santoli's Midday Word on Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report, Judge said JPMorgan was presenting at a Goldman Sachs conference for financials, and it seemed to be affecting JPM and perhaps the market.

Santoli said the "CFO" was talking about consumers being "a bit fragile."

The screen text, and Judge, said the person making the "fragile" comment was Marianne Lake.

So we assumed Marianne is the CFO.

She's not.

And neither Judge nor Santoli pointed that out — or even explained what Marianne's title is.

According to JPMorgan's website, Marianne is the CEO of Consumer and Community Banking.

Evidently, Jamie Dimon wasn't speaking. (Translation: This is a big conference ... but not THAT big of a conference.)

Stephanie Link shrugged that banks are the most overweight sector in her portfolio. Joe Terranova said he bought JPM personally a week ago. Judge then brought in Leslie Picker and said it seems like Marianne's use of "fragile" is what "annoyed the market." Leslie said other speakers at this conference were more "upbeat." Santoli pointed out that market moves on the days of Fed decisions have "really diminished" in recent months.

Ticket-scalping, Hollywood-style

Judge on Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report said Needham "reiterated buy" on NFLX but is "bearish on the WBD deal though," which is kind of curious positions to take. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Brian Belski said Warner, in the late '70s and early '80s, was what NFLX is now. Belski said the 2 companies being together makes "a lot of sense." Belski said Needham is "understating the importance of the content" of Warner Bros.

We're not sure about that.

On the other hand, we do gotta wonder ... we've listened to David Ellison ... does this guy even know what he's doing?

Perhaps the goal of buying Warner Bros. is to get double the allotment of tickets to the Oscars. (Yes, there's a precedent for that.)

Yes it's nice to have unlimited money and buy up every available asset in some financial sector. We gotta think Seth Rogen's "The Studio" (that's on Apple streaming) is going to get plenty of fresh material here.

Josh claims the media is ‘practically begging’ to report that the consumer’s in bad shape

CVNA has made Josh Brown's Best Stocks in the Market list; like we always say, you can front-run the list by simply checking the 52-week highs.

Judge on Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report for the 2nd day expressed amazement that "from the depths of '22," thinking CVNA would be in the S&P by the end of 2025 would've been viewed as "crazy."

Josh said "they somehow pulled it out" because customers have "appreciation (snicker) for the way Carvana sells cars." Joe Terranova said "sustained higher rates ... helps this company" by pushing people into the used-car market.

Josh said he likes EXPE a little better than DAL; he thinks DAL eventually gets through 70 but EXPE is "buyable right now."

Josh said, "The media wants for there to be some confirming evidence that the consumer is faltering ... practically begging for it." Josh pointed out the Dec. 1 TSA "all-time record" screening level. Brian Belski said his portfolios own both EXPE and DAL.

Josh: Mag 7 outperformed the S&P 493

Judge on Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report brought in Steve Liesman to say that Donald Trump's insistence that the next Fed chair cut rates is "usually not a spoken criteria" and a "departure from the norm."

Steve said the CNBC survey finds that Waller is actually the most popular choice for Fed chair.

Judge noted that Steve's survey shows "9 in 10" believe AI stocks are overvalued. Josh Brown agreed it's interesting but questioned if it's "really surprising." Josh said "the Mag 7 once again outperformed the, uh, S&P 493."

Josh said it sounds like "one more year of people that are underinvested in the AI theme" who are saying to themselves, "'I'm smart, therefore, those stocks must be overvalued.'" Josh then wondered if that description was "too smart-assey." Joe Terranova said most people who are saying overvalued are staying in those stocks.

Josh gives a 3-minute, 10-second speech about a stock no one’s heard of to open the show

Judge opened Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report asking Josh Brown about buying TTAN (Zzzzzzz).

Josh said he was at the NYSE when TTAN went public and made a joke at the time that Josh's landscaper, Frank, "should take a look at it" because it would help "streamline his business."

In a lengthy description, Josh said he's been watching the company for a year; it's one of those "vertical software companies that come to dominate a specific niche." It doesn't make money yet, Josh said, but it's in "crazy growth mode." Josh said it's a "subscription business" and a couple times called the company a "category killer."

Josh said it's a "very similar concept" to TOST.

Judge wondered if the market might be "skeptical" of TTAN given that it's up 4% this year. Josh said it's a "great question" and the stock is "not cheap" and that some people will wait for it to be "earnings positive." But "right now, it's a land grab."

"Good stuff," Judge said.

Greatest hits in the A Block

Early into Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report, Judge for some reason quibbled with Stephanie Link, whose voice was scratchy but still appeared (daily) on CNBC regardless, over consumer holiday spending.

Stephanie bought more COF, saying betting against the consumer is always a "bad bet."

Brian Belski sold DECK; he said, as Judge suggested, he was just sick of it but also likes ONON more. Belski also trimmed TGT; trimming that stock probably shouldn't even get a mention on the show anymore.

Belski bought more WFC and JPM.

Joe Terranova said the show's initial comments, including Josh Brown's speech about TTAN, demonstrate that "the broadening is real."

Joe said "idiosyncratic" in the 11th minute while trumpeting ULTA and TJX and ROST and said "it's a healthy market."

In the 20th minute, Stephanie talked about GE Vernova, which she mentions in every appearance. She also mentioned Eaton, which she mentions in almost every appearance. That was followed by Judge mentioning the ORCL credit default swaps, which happens about every day.

Josh sold MMM, saying it's having trouble technically with the 170 level. Josh said there's "absolutely nothing wrong" with the company. But Stephanie said there's "more room to go here."

Kelly hears what Judge says at the end of the broadcast

Josh Brown on Tuesday's (12/9) Halftime Report admitted SHAK has "had a really tough 2nd half of the year" but the stock tends to overreact in each direction and he's sticking around.

Josh added to ZM and predicted it's "about to break out," and he can see it at 100. He bought more TOST because he thinks the market doesn't "understand" the potential.

Joe Terranova said INCY has been working off some "overbought conditions" recently and he likes the company.

Brian Belski backed Goldman's buy-TMO call.

Stephanie Link said the "guide" is what was taking TOL lower. She'd buy it on "further weakness," DHI too.

Joe made APP, a stock he has mentioned off and on, his Final Trade; "it's gonna make a run towards the all-time intraday high" of "745."

Judge mispronounced "Southern Company" as "Southern Comfort" and chuckled about it. Belski bought more SO.

In the final seconds, Judge asked to show a chart of HD, "do we have time to show that real quick." He got the chart. But this time, unlike a day earlier, Judge closed by saying, "The Exchange is now." Then viewers heard Kelly Evans saying, "There's always time. We're in no hurry. Scott, thank you very much."

Karen expects better NFLX bid; Joe would sell NFLX; Judge spends more time on CVNA than on PSKY/WBD/NFLX

On Monday's (12/8) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said he owns NFLX personally, and it's also in the JOET. (This writer is long NFLX.)

For that reason, "I am uncomfortable getting out of Netflix personally as the stock is on the decline because it's still in the ETF," Joe explained, as he has explained previously regarding different stocks.

But Joe said he "absolutely" would sell NFLX if not for the ETF. Joe said he agrees with Josh Brown's view and asserted there will be a "lot of friction" regarding NFLX. Joe said it'll take a lot of "mental capital" (snicker) to invest in NFLX now and figure out what the collection of assets means.

That was all we heard about this story on Halftime. On Fast Money, as Mel helmed an excellent discussion, Tim Seymour said he added WBD calls last week when he "sensed" this would be a "bidding war."

Tim bluntly stated he thinks the PSKY offer is "clearly superior."

Karen Finerman observed that the arbs don't like this situation because "The time to close is so long," and there's a "bunch of" potential antritrust issues for either side.

"I don't think it's over," Karen said, questioning PSKY's approach. "I don't know why they didn't come up with their best and final at the time where all the bids were due," Karen said.

Karen said of NFLX, "I think they come back with something," such as a "wider collar" or "more shares."

Contrary to Joe Terranova, Guy Adami suggested "Netflix is the play," and that concerns of NFLX getting in a bidding war are "more than in the stock now."

Tim predicted an "overhang" on NFLX, but he said, if the deal suddenly went to PSKY tomorrow, "Netflix is a buy tomorrow."

Courtney Garcia said the value of the cable channels is key to determining the better deal.

Karen said the debate last week was whether NFLX's bid was offensive or defensive, and the determination was "somewhat of both."

Indeed. There will be healthy debate for a long time as to whether WBD figures to be an important part of, or simply irrelevant to, everyone else's movie business.

Even though there are some great assets in play here, we're not sure why NFLX needs them. It's kind of like a guy who already has a car hearing that his neighbor is willing to sell his $30,000 car for $20,000 and figuring, Why not?

Karen said that if Ted were to announce that NFLX was out of the bidding, "The stock I do think would pop from here." But then there would be concerns about a bigger competitor emerging.

Karen said there's an "element of ego" to owning a Hollywood studio. Apparently, there's an even bigger ego about owning 2.

Bryn predicts tax refunds in 2026 will be ‘above average’

Judge presented the most interesting news on Monday's (12/8) Halftime Report right at the beginning, when he said Oppenheimer has an 8,100 on the S&P for next year.

Bryn Talkington said there's a "good backdrop" for 2026, including, curiously, "above average" tax refunds, but it'll be "pretty choppy."

Joe Terranova said the "trading community" (snicker) wants to know when the rate-cut cycle will end.

Shannon Saccocia predicted the Fed will "cut a couple of times in 2026."

Joe again said you can buy ORCL using the November 185 low as a reference.

Bryn likened ORCL's backlog, which Bryn said is "almost 70%" related to OpenAI, to a homebuilder who has to "go build 4 million homes," but the people planning to buy them "don't have the money yet." Judge showed the ORCL credit default swaps chart again, as he does every day.

Joe and Amy Raskin sparred over how confident Hock Tan sounds on the AVGO earnings calls.

Bryn said AAPL is "poised for a pullback." Amy said that for AAPL, AI is a "red herring."

When was the last time you heard someone say Greg Abel is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Amy Raskin on Monday's (12/8) Halftime Report said Berkshire has a "very deep bench" (snicker). But Amy said BRK shines when "things start to go south," not in a "momentum market."

Joe Terranova, though, contended that BRK has been a momentum stock and is "waning" now.

Judge stated, "The market's just gonna have to get its arms around Berkshire Hathaway after Warren Buffett. It's no more complicated than that." Well, isn't that what the market's been doing?

Bryn Talkington is buying ethereum. Joe said the 12-month target on MSTR (apparently the collective number from analysts following it) is "$473" and is "ridiculous."

Joe suggested you have to "sit and wait" with UBER.

Joe said he'll be "candid"; he admitted he was skeptical of CVNA when the JOET bought it, but "it's up 43% since we made the purchase."

Amy is buying ASND.

In closing, Judge merely told viewers, "I'll see you on the Bell." Nevertheless, in the transition to The Exchange, Kelly Evans said "Thank you very much, Scott" ... even though Scott didn't do anything for The Exchange. Which means either 1) CNBC has low standards for gratitude (although not as low as David Muir), or 2) Kelly doesn't actually hear what's being said on the Halftime Report as her show begins.

When has anyone ever — ever — on CNBC said that the lower-end consumer is going gangbusters.

On Friday's (12/5) Halftime Report, Jenny Harrington stressed, "I'm starting to worry about the consumer."

Judge shrugged that people like Jenny say they're worried about the consumer, "And then they go to Black Friday and they spend hand over fist. ... Somebody's spending, and it's not just the top end, either, by the way. It's just not."

Jenny pointed to the MCD CEO saying "3 weeks ago" that low-end customers are "15 or 20% lower than it was last year."

Judge said Jenny is just making a case for why people will buy Megacap Tech, "that's exactly the point."

Jenny then claimed a "really interesting example" from her screening a day earlier. Jenny said Bath & Body Works (several times, she started to call it Bed Bath & Beyond) and Best Buy are "2 totally different consumer bases, I think." And Bath is "purely discretionary," whereas people with broken laptops have to go to Best Buy. (Which is kind of a strange example; how many people suffer a "broken laptop"?)

Judge said, "All I'm saying is you could sit there and have a debate with yourself for 3 hours over Bath & Body Works vs. Best Buy, and try and determine whether you're gonna buy that stock, when the other person would say, You know what, I know where the- the pudding is being made in the, in AI and, and hyperscalers, and I'm gonna buy, to Josh's point, the selloff in X, or the selloff in Y or the selloff in Z."

Jenny said you can look at AAPL or take a look at Best Buy. Jim Lebenthal said "a lot of other non-Megacap Tech stocks" are working, such as GM. Judge scoffed about Jim touting GM, "You sold it like a long time ago when you were worried about the tariffs." Jim stressed health care and financials.

Josh Brown said Jenny is "right" to express consumer concerns, that there's "less hiring" and "more layoff plans." But Josh wondered why BBY would be a trade on it. Jenny said "I'm not buying Best Buy," it's just something she's "looking at."

Josh and Judge in the 15th minute said "K-shaped," the current slogan for this popular line of chatter.

Kevin says Josh made a mistake selling NFLX

Josh Brown on Friday's (12/5) Halftime Report said he cut his NFLX position by 85%. He said it's a "portfolio management decision," but he doesn't want to "sit for a year" and watch this "political football" tie up capital. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Josh said the stock now "represents a tremendous value," but he doesn't think the stock "will be able to get out of its own way."

Josh said he likes that the deal keeps Warner Bros. "out of the hands of somebody else."

Judge read analyst notes from Huber and Baird about the NFLX-WBD deal. Kevin Simpson said of NFLX, it's "incredibly, um, wonderful to see them go on the offensive." Kevin said Warner is an "IP play" and predicted there will be a "hostile" bid from Paramount SkyDance.

Kevin said the deal can take Warner's franchises to a whole other "stratosphere." Kevin even dubbed Josh's sale a "mistake," and Kevin would be more of a buyer now, and "if the deal does get blown up, the stock will go higher," and Kevin can "write covered calls against this."

Josh asked Kevin if he doesn't think the company's in a "box." Kevin said it may not be accretive "for 2 or 3 years," but he doesn't expect the stock to "just level off."

A little later on Kelly Evans' The Exchange, James Stewart said the deal is "great for Netflix" and that the market will "eventually wake up" to the benefits.

Chris Marangi of Gabelli Funds was also on The Exchange Friday and mentioned the strategy of Versant, which owns "this network, which is probably undermonetized."

Jenny is disaggregating the consumer

Jim Lebenthal at the top of Friday's (12/5) Halftime Report predicted a "Santa Claus rally" and thinks eventually we'll get a "springboard higher" to a record.

Jim suggested we'll eventually have a bubble, but "We're pretty early in the inflation phase."

Jenny Harrington suggested "maybe you change your playbook within your equity allocations," though she stressed she's not saying get out of stocks.

Jenny said "in aggregate," the consumer is "fantastic." But once you "disaggregate," it's a "very different picture underneath." (Which is basically what some used to call "bifurcated" or the "2 Americas" but is now "K-shaped").

Josh Brown though contended that managers who are trailing will be looking for the Megacap Tech names that are "far off their highs." Josh added, "Every year, it's the same old story."

Kevin Simpson said he agrees with the prediction of a Santa Claus rally.

Judge spent time on the "Hartnett" note from Bank of America suggesting a "dovish cut" would actually spook the market about inflation.

Judge said "hyperscalers" in the 6th minute.

Kevin not impressed by DKNG

Judge on Friday's (12/5) Halftime Report said BTIG raised its DKNG target to $45. Kevin Simpson said he'd be thrilled if it got to 40, let alone 42 or 45. Kevin said he likes HOOD better than DKNG and FLUT.

Kevin sold HON; "No one cares about the stock." Kevin bought TJX; "hitting on all cylinders."

Kevin bought NU but said to be careful following him into it.

Judge asked Jenny Harrington about Microchip and Teradyne. Jenny said she owns Microchip preferred, or MCHPP, and it's "still a fair price." Jenny said she has owned TER since 2013 and has a "1,200% return on it," but it's kind of gotten caught up in the AI trade.

Jenny said this is probably a "great time" to own SHEL if you think oil will hold in the upper 50s.

Kevin said he'd "tread lightly" in U though it's got a lot going for it.

Josh Brown again talked up how RKT is going to handle "every step" on the mortgage/homebuying process.

Josh claims ADBE should be an original ‘case study’ at Harvard

Josh Brown on Friday's (12/5) Halftime Report touted AME as among the Best Stocks in the Market. Josh requested a 10-year chart, which is impressive. He predicted it breaks 200 and suggested 180 or 182 as a "reasonable stop."

Judge described Josh's description as "passion" and then in deadpan delivery restated Josh's assessment.

Santoli only had to deliver his Midday Word (and not take over hosting duties for the latter half-hour).

Late in the show, Judge announced a "Trade Alert." Josh said he made a small trade in ADBE, a name Jim Lebenthal seems determined to hold. Josh conceded a "relentless downtrend" but said the stock wants to "snap" it. Josh said, "This is the original company to be a case study at Harvard for reinventing itself," given its 2014 transformation into subscription model.

Jim Lebenthal, who had a quiet show, conceded the AI overhang but insisted again that ADBE outperforms on earnings for "quarter after quarter for years."

Judge returns — and picks up where he left off (sorta)

After missing the previous day and a half, "Judge" Scott Wapner returned for Thursday's (12/4) Halftime Report, and a couple hours later, Closing Bell.

It was a welcome sight for viewers, who undoubtedly wondered what might be going on with Judge to cause him to bolt halfway through a program, as happened on Tuesday's (12/2) Halftime.

About the only mention of Judge's absence in the previous show and a half came from Joe Terranova during Final Trades Wednesday (12/3), when Joe stated, "I can't wait for Scott to get back into town; I'm gonna have an answer for him where we go," meaning where the market goes this month, as Judge had asked of Joe on Monday without getting much of an answer.

But on Thursday, it seems Judge couldn't really have cared less about this particular subject.

After a somewhat combative A Block (see below), Judge said Joe bought more XBI while the screen text said Joe bought JPM.

Regardless, Joe made good on his stated desire of the day before to explain his prediction for December's market.

Joe told Judge, "The other day, it was Monday I believe, you asked me where I thought the market would go through the end of the year. And I had an inability to give you an answer. The reason was, there was nothing showing me any evidence of which direction we could go. I think what has happened over the last 48 hours (is that Judge departed the set halfway through the program and took 2 days to return with no explanation) and I'm pretty confident on this, is that you're seeing the return of a lot of systematic trend-following algorithms back into the market once again. ... They're either trend-following or they're mean-reverting. Now they're back to being trend-following. So I think we are now pushing back towards the all-time high."

Joe continued that "it's things like, uh, biotech and financials and real economy stocks" such as GM.

Judge didn't opine on Joe's statement and simply asked Kari Firestone about trimming HQY. Kari said the valuation was at a level where trimming "makes some sense." Joe then mentioned buying JPM and said the JOET sold it in October.

What does the lack of information surrounding Judge’s brief hiatus signal about CNBC in today’s media?

There was relief all around CNBCfix HQ when we saw "Judge" Scott Wapner back on the air for the Halftime Report Thursday (12/4) and also helming Closing Bell later in the day.

This time, he stayed for the whole thing.

(Sorry. Couldn't resist that one.)

We understand people have a right to privacy. We also understand that CNBC personalities, like all other human beings, take time off for all kinds of reasons. Vacations, travel assignments, holidays, family events, medical or other appointments, flu, migraine, bad cough, etc.

But Wapner for many years has hosted 2 nationally televised TV shows daily. He is most certainly a public figure. And if a public figure suddenly exits in the middle of doing his job, it obviously makes people wonder what's going on.

If David Muir had to pass the baton halfway through "World News Tonight" or if Jimmy Fallon had to do the same on "The Tonight Show," we're sure we'd be hearing about it in our news feed.

If a local TV personality suddenly bolts during the 5 p.m. News, almost certainly, there will be a local newspaper story about it, and that person or someone on the station will acknowledge the absence on-air.

Honestly, even some bloke with a 68-viewer YouTube channel is going to post a lengthy follow-up explanation if for whatever reason he couldn't finish one of his videos.

Yet, no one on CNBC for 3 days running has said anything about why Wapner suddenly exited Tuesday. Substitute hosts merely said they were "in for Scott."

And despite numerous internet searches, we can't find a single instance of the "news media" reporting on Wapner's absence.

Which unfortunately kind of raises questions about the reach of CNBC. If this isn't on the radar of the types of publications that regularly report on TV figures, does it mean nobody's really paying close attention.

(Keep in mind, a lot of CNBC's historically biggest viewership days — the ones that prompt prime-time "What Happened?" specials, even on Sunday nights — have come during stock market breakdowns, and it's been a LONG time since we've had one of those, perhaps March 2020. Maybe you count 2022, but that was pretty much just a slow, bad market, not a crisis of any kind.)

We totally — totally — understand that Wapner's absence actually may be a very insignificant event. Or that it could be a very personal situation. And that Wapner perhaps has not even shared the reason with colleagues, and that any colleagues who have made references to it in some forum or another may have gotten their information from someone other than Wapner. We just know that it remains a mystery.

More than anything, like everyone else, we hope Judge is doing well.

Judge accuses Joe of making up other panelists’ comments on AAPL

We were hoping/expecting Judge would be back in form when we saw that he was helming Thursday's (12/4) Halftime Report.

What we weren't counting on was a strangely chippy dialogue about AAPL's AI.

Early in the show, Judge said that according to JPMorgan, out of the Mag 7, retail investors last week bought more of the Mag 7 except for AAPL.

Judge also said several times that it's a "big deal" that META hired Alan Dye from AAPL. Judge suggested the possibility of "product wars" (snicker) between the companies.

Joe Terranova, though, said, "I think you have a pivot" by META, and that Zuck is just "incredibly competitive."

Malcolm Ethridge said the Alan Dye news is a bigger deal than the META spending story.

Judge asked Kari Firestone if AAPL's 6-month move is "justified." Kari punted, saying, "I think the market tells us what's justified."

Judge demanded to know what the move is "based on." Kari suggested it's "a little ahead of itself" and can "take a rest." But Stephanie Link said, "It's only up 12% on the year."

Joe Terranova affirmed he sold his personal AAPL stake last week because "the exuberance has gone a little bit too far." Joe mentioned the Aug. 6 trip by Tim Cook to the Oval Office, which Joe said "incentivized" those who didn't already own the shares to buy it.

Joe then said the "ultimate" question for AAPL is, "Is success in Apple intelligence priced in or not."

Judge wondered, incredulously, "How could you even ask yourself that question?"

Joe insisted, "I have asked others that question who have sat on this desk, and they have said, Yes it is."

Judge demanded, "You're telling me- who have you asked that- on this show that said Apple intelli- all the- their whole AI strategy is, is in the stock. Who."

Joe said, "There have been individuals (snicker), I think Steve might've said that to me."

"I don't think so," Judge said.

"I think Jimmy said that to me," Joe said.

"No I don't think so," Judge said.

"You think I'm making that up?" Joe asked.

"Yeah," Judge said.

"Really? C'mon. That's insulting. That's insulting," Joe said, although he was keeping at least his end of the conversation light.

"I can't imagine that, that somebody on this program said that Apple's AI-" Judge began to say.

Joe cut in, "Jimmy text me if I didn't ask you specif-"

Judge continued, "Apple's AI effort, whatever they're gonna come up with in- for- from AI is in the stock."

Joe answered, "I asked Jimmy during the commercial break last week, Do you think Apple intelligence is in the stock."

Well, while we don't think Joe's recollection of this subject is anywhere near as important as Judge seemed to think it is, we'll note that Joe first claimed he thought "Steve" made this observation to him, then he said it was something he was discussing with Jim during a commercial break (which viewers wouldn't have overheard unless a hot mike had gone crazy).

While this page agrees with Judge that AI is most likely not priced in yet to AAPL, honestly, we're not sure how anyone can prove exactly why a stock moves (that's what makes the market conversations on CNBC), nor do we think it's mind-boggling, as Judge seems to, that Joe would entertain the question.

Seeking to avoid the argument, Malcolm Ethridge simply said, "I don't think it's in the stock" and that the stock was running on "market mechanics."

Malcolm added, "I just think there's no AI story right now for Apple."

"That's my whole point! There is no AI story yet!" Judge said.

"I asked the question! Why are you arguing with me?" Joe asked Judge.

"How can it be in the stock?" Judge wondered.

"I said I don't know. I said I don't know," Joe stated.

Kari Firestone said there's "potential" for an AAPL AI story.

Judge warns of META trading at 666

Judge opened Thursday's (12/4) Halftime Report with META's pivot.

"It's exhausting," Stephanie Link said. As the screen graphic showed META at 666 and change, Judge cut in, "You better get the stock off this price right now though. ... 666."

"Oh ... stop that," Stephanie said.

Kari Firestone said the stock got "ahead of itself," and now there's an "opportunity" for those not in it. Kari pointed out, "666 is the point of the low of the market in March of 2009."

"We all remember that," Judge assured.

Later in the show, Judge said WMT is "another AI story" that not many people are talking about. Judge asserted that WMT doesn't get to a $900 billion market cap without AI.

Joe Terranova said that for months, he's been saying WMT is a "clear leader" in AI as Judge sort of interrupted him.

Joe said "we" bought WMT in October 2024 at 81, for all those seeking a time-machine trade. Joe suggested COST is "behind" WMT in this category. Joe said WMT has a "rich valuation," which may be an "impediment" to future stock appreciation.

Stephanie said she can't buy WMT because she finds it "way too expensive," even though the 2-year chart shown on the screen shows a steady march higher.

Judge said Citi lowered its ORCL target from 415 (snicker) to 375 (snicker). Malcolm Ethridge said it's "really tough" to tell people to buy it here. (But it's not tough for Jim Lebenthal, who wasn't on Thursday's show.)

Stephanie said the SNOW fall (that's a good one) (our line, not Stephanie's) is "all about guidance." Stephanie calls it a "blip," and "I am going to be adding." Then Stephanie called Thursday's SNOW trading a "silly overreaction."

Judge wondered why there's no "takers" on the panel for CRM. Joe again stressed software's "strong relative underperformance to semis."

Eamon Javers reported on the GAO's look into Bill Pulte and how a GAO inquiry isn't feared nearly like a Justice Department inquiry.

‘I wasn’t here,’ Judge says

In the latter portions of Thursday's (12/4) Halftime Report, Judge was still hectoring Joe Terranova.

Joe called HOOD one of the "better exchanges to own." Joe praised "James Lebenthal" for backing the airline story and the "front of the plane" theory.

Judge cracked, "You think he's gonna forgive you for throwing him under the bus at the top of the show if you praise him so many times now."

Joe protested, "I didn't throw him under the bus!"

Joe bought more EQT and APA and said "I think you want to have the exposure to natural gas."

Malcolm Ethridge bought more CRWD after earnings, though he conceded the valuation "scares people." Malcolm also has been buying NTSK; he said he's "comfortable" talking about it because it's "hovered" around the IPO price, though it's not profitable. He said it's probably an "acquisition target."

Stephanie Link again got to talk about GEV, like we said a day ago, she talks about it on every episode. Stephanie and Joe both talked up VRT.

Judge said JPMorgan raised price targets on TOL and DHI. Stephanie said "Kevin Hassert (sic) would be a (sic) welcome news for this space."

During Final Trades, Stephanie offered SLB; Judge wondered if that's "new." Stephanie noted that she mentioned it "on your show" a day ago. "I wasn't here," Judge explained.

Joe indicates Judge will be back at the helm soon

Wednesday's (12/3) Halftime Report took place without Scott Wapner and without any clarification from CNBC — except for a last-second comment from Joe Terranova.

Joe said during Final Trades, "I can't wait for Scott to get back into town; I'm gonna have an answer for him where we go."

Joe was referring to having an answer about where the market's going in December, of which Joe sort of punted when recently asked about it by Judge.

We checked around the internet and noticed a few people, not actual CNBCers but in some cases referring to CNBCers, suggesting that Judge apparently, for lack of a better term, was a little under the weather on Tuesday when he exited midway through the Halftime Report. People are rooting for Judge's return. Panelists' demeanor during the rest of Tuesday's show and Wednesday's show has not indicated alarm. We're hoping/expecting to see Judge back soon.

Bryn dumps CRM

On Wednesday's (12/3) Halftime Report guest hosted by Dom Chu, Bryn Talkington said she's bailing on CRM before the earnings call, saying it's "stuck in the mud."

Jim Lebenthal said he "completely" understands Bryn's move and likened CRM to ADBE in terms of having AI concerns as an overhang, but Jim is still hanging on with ADBE.

Joe Terranova volunteered, "I'm on Team Bryn for this one," pointing out software names that are underperforming.

Stephanie Link stressed that SNOW not only has growth but opportunity. Jim praised Stephanie's ownership of SNOW and went on to defend owning ADBE again. Stephanie said there are "more attractive" tech names.

Bryn touted the BUG as a way to play the cybersecurity trade.

Steve Kovach reported on the report by The Information about MSFT's sales quotas. Stephanie suggested MSFT is a "crowded name" but has all kinds of great numbers. Joe questioned how MSFT shares have responded to Gemini 3. Dom said they could've had the "same conversation" about GOOGL "9 to 18 months ago."

Still wondering about that ‘complete moron’ ex-employee of Weiss’

Guest host Dom Chu on Wednesday's (12/3) Halftime Report said Wells Fargo is giving ORCL a buy rating/280 target. (Which it already hit — in September.)

Jim Lebenthal concedes ORCL is a "battleground stock," though it was his Final Trade a day earlier. Jim mentioned the debt but somehow did not say "5-6%."

Joe Terranova said he's "not sure" ORCL will be in the JOET for long with a debt/equity ratio of "500+%." (Joe also did not mention 5-6% debt.) However, Joe suggested ORCL could be bought with a reference point of Nov. 25's 185 low.

Bryn Talkington questioned whether spending by ORCL and others in the AI world will only benefit those who come in later. "I'm very unclear about how Oracle's gonna pull this off," Bryn said.

Joe says the younger generation outspends their elders on beauty products

Guest host Dom Chu conducted a discussion of retailers on Wednesday's (12/3) Halftime Report.

Jim Lebenthal said it's still not known exactly how strong the consumer is, but there are positive signs.

Stephanie Link said she's been adding to SBUX and DKS. "I would not be chasing Kohl's here," Stephanie added, indicating TGT would be a long-term story.

Joe Terranova grumbled that BURL is "blaming warm weather for traffic declining." Joe said the name he'd watch is ULTA. Joe claimed of the younger generation, "They spend way more on beauty than we did at their age."

Dom said he can't believe how much his 8-year-old daughter spends on beauty products. "Just you wait," said Stephanie.

Forward P.E. sighting (cont’d)

Stephanie Link on Wednesday's (12/3) Halftime Report claimed UBER is trading at "17 times forward estimates."

(When we asked Google Gemini what the UBER forward P.E. is, we got a range of "21.05 to 22.03.")

Joe Terranova said UBER's been in a trading range but ultimately will clear $100.

Stephanie bought SLB, a name she's talked up on the show in previous years. Jim Lebenthal said he's been bullish on energy for a while.

Jim said his shop's analyst points out that VRTX has a "huge number of shots on goal."

Stephanie talked about GEV and said she'd add to the pullback; Stephanie pretty much mentions GEV and ETN every time she's on the show.

Guest host Dom Chu asked panelists for picks for 2026. Bryn Talkington offered APO, suggesting it could "easily" find 160. Jim mentioned LMT. Stephanie offered SBUX. Joe (who's not sure what the markets will do this month) suggested CDNS.

Santoli takes over for Wapner halfway through Tuesday’s Halftime

Tuesday's (12/2) Halftime Report got one of the rarest things in CNBC hosting — a relief pitcher.

It was business as usual as Scott Wapner ran the show through the A Block, though the A Block did conclude a few minutes earlier than usual at the 22-minute mark.

An extended commercial break that was briefly interrupted by a sign of the market averages (as often appears near the end of the show) ran for 6 minutes before Seema Mody, with no intro, delivered the CNBC News Update.

Seema then announced, "Now I'll send it over to Mike Santoli."

Santoli was in the host chair at Post 9 and said, "Welcome back to Post 9 everyone, I am Mike Santoli, stepping in for Scott."

No explanation was provided as of early Tuesday afternoon for the change. Honestly, this has surely happened occasionally on CNBC over the years ... but we're not sure we actually recall such an instance.

It could be any number of reasons. Maybe Wapner suddenly became ill. Or had a coughing fit that didn't stop. Or spilled a cup of coffee. Or maybe he was double-parked.

It's also possible he had some kind of family emergency. The remainder of the program included a lot of light banter among panelists, indicating Wapner's exit wasn't a serious issue.

But we don't know.

Wapner did not appear later in the day on his other show, Closing Bell; that too was hosted by Santoli.

Perhaps the situation will be clarified on Wednesday's program(s).

Josh not at all troubled by — or not even aware of — the ZM price action that bothers Joe

Joe Terranova on Tuesday's (12/2) Halftime Report said he was a little disappointed with ZM's reaction to earnings; he would've expected a "stronger follow-through."

"It's a dollar off its 52-week high," Josh Brown asserted.

"It's $5 off its 52-week high. 5. 5," Joe said.

"What's the 52-week high?" Josh asked.

"91," Joe said.

"88?" Josh asked.

"91," Joe repeated.

"Closing high 88," Josh said. "All right, I mean, I think- I think it's goin' to a hundred bucks."

Joe cites Softbank as an example of the market’s supposed lack of liquidity

Josh Brown opened Tuesday's (12/2) Judge-led Halftime Report saying people are "sick and tired" of Megacap Tech dominating the market, but regardless, "they're gonna buy these Mag 7 stocks." Josh noted these stocks are the biggest and most liquid, and "they're not even expensive."

Joe "December Won't Do Anything And Next Year Won't Do Great But I'm not Saying It'll Be Down" Terranova agreed the Mag 7 is the "right place for the conversation to be." Joe then doubled down on 2026 being "quality, not momentum," and asserted "the Mag 7 is the essence of quality."

Joe said he keeps hearing a "consensus" about the "concentration being a risk," but "I think that concentration remains in place in '26." Joe mentioned Loop's price hike on AAPL and said "A lot of people wanna own Apple right here."

Judge noted that Joe was talking about 2026 and demanded, "What's gonna happen in December??"

Joe admitted that "beginning Labor Day, I said we would have a chase for performance into the end of the year. And I think we'd a- we'd agree, to a certain extent, that we've had it."

Seriously? From Labor Day, there was a plodding climb up to 6,900, then we're down since late October. If being down in the last 2 months of the year constitutes a "chase for performance," we're gonna have to update the CNBC Definitions Guide.

Joe continued, "I have no idea what's gonna happen here in the final 3 weeks of the year where liquidity is coming out of the market, where volumes are getting lower and lower."

Judge said Joe "punted as bad as the Giants kicker last night. ... Joe just put his foot in the ground." Jim Lebenthal suggested, "Maybe it was a punt and not a field goal."

Jim, who during the shutdown kept claiming that shutdown-caused lack of liquidity was pressuring the stock market, told Joe, "I'm on the other side of where you are. I think I just heard you say, and I need to confirm this, that liquidity is, is getting tighter. Because the opposite is what I see."

Joe said, "I'm not talking about monetary liquidity. I'm talking about the liquidity in the market itself."

"They're the same. They're the same," Jim asserted.

"You see what's going on in crypto? You see what's going on with Softbank?" Joe demanded.

Jim said, "OK, so crypto is the aberration to what I'm saying. ... Liquidity has come back to the market," Jim added, citing the "shutdown end."

Jim said there's an "increasing risk-on sentiment."

Shannon Saccocia asserted, "This AI-enabler trade is going to continue into 2026."

Josh said "there's a universe in which both Joe and Jim are basically saying the same thing, but differently." Josh pointed to the RSP equal weight of the S&P, saying it's at a "year high" and "record high."

Josh said Mag 7 will still be in demand and so will others, and that while AI spending may be controversial, "that controversy's priced in."

Do your own Forward P.E. (cont’d)

On Tuesday's (12/2) Halftime Report, after Steve Kovach reported on AAPL leadership, Jim Lebenthal said he owns the stock but finds it hard to put new money into it.

Jim said it's "33 times forward earnings" while the screen text listed a forward P.E. of "34.73." (As always, it's whatever you want it to be.)

MacKenzie Sigalos said the "Code Red" OpenAI scoop was in the WSJ and The Information; remember a while back when Jim indicated that reports in The Information weren't much more than a "rumor." Judge said Gemini "seems to have changed the narrative" about AI. Joe said it "absolutely has."

Josh Brown talked up AMZN as an AI play.

After the A Block and switchover from Judge to Santoli, Josh offered MS as one of the Best Stocks in the Market that's buyable now on a dip, as the mike also caught Santoli or someone else talking. Josh also talked up CIEN and BKR.

Joe Terranova bought TWLO, as he noted, one of his calls from the pandemic (a great call, but he bailed a bit early, but then it went down anyway). Joe said it actually screens "very similar" to the XBI.

Joe said in cybersecurity, he'd focus on CRWD and PANW. Shannon Saccocia asserted, "Cybersecurity isn't going away."

Shannon said "idiosyncratic" in the 52nd minute.

Why do people on Halftime emphasize that it’s OK to disagree; has anyone on CNBC ever declared that everyone in the world has to agree with Joe Terranova???

He refuses to say it's going down.

But he won't say it's going up either.

(Sigh.)

Joe Terranova on Monday's (12/1) Halftime Report was painting a picture of what sounds like The Most Boring Stock Market in History, opening the show with his current outlook: "I'm less inclined to take risk as we move through the course of December ... I don't think you're gonna get this grand crescendo."

Joe somehow got tangled up in a yields debate, claiming, "The things that suggest yields should be going down. OK. But yet yields are not going down."

Judge rebutted, "Well they were going down last week, I mean, so they're up a little bit today. We're makin' a whole statement based on one day's activity?"

Joe said he wants to see yields below 3.90%.

Jim Lebenthal explained, "I'm on the other side from Joe. Which is OK, it makes a market." Jim said the 10-year at 4.09% "doesn't worry me." Jim said, "I'm a believer in a broadening of the rally, and a rally into year-end."

Bryn Talkington said the 10-year "started the year at close to 4.80," and we're now at 4.09, so "yields are going the exact right direction."

Joe said the 10-year may have been 4.80 at the start of the year, but "I don't care where it was at the beginning of the year."

Joe stressed that he's not calling for the market to be "down" in 2026, but "I think we've priced in a lot of really good things in 2025" that will be tough to "replicate" next year. Jim said double-digit gains in 2026 will be difficult given the current market multiple, but he expects a good December.

Jason Snipe said "there's a story to tell about these other names" besides this year's big winners, and those other names could lift the 2026 market.

Joe said "idiosyncratic" in the 22nd minute.

Eventually, viewers got another statement when Joe offered, "Here's what I think about 2026: 2025 was a year of momentum. 2026 will be a year of quality."

"OK," Judge shrugged.

Jim suggested that rather than a year of quality, 2026 may just be a "broadening."

Joe contends bitcoin ‘going lower’ (but he doesn’t actually say he’s ‘late’ to crypto)

Joe Terranova on Monday's (12/1) Halftime Report was simultaneously making a call/taking a victory lap on bitcoin, stating, "I keep continuing to believe that it's going lower, while everyone else keeps telling me 'You gotta buy it.'"

Meanwhile, Judge pitted Joe and Jim Lebenthal in a discussion of casino stocks and hectored Joe because Joe "hates on" the casino stocks, then "hides behind the rules" of the ETF and buys LVS. (Jim of course is a big fan of WYNN.)

Jason Snipe predicted COST will do better in 2026.

Asked about XOM, which hasn't actually been debated much on the show, Jim brought up a notable Halftime figure, stating, "I've had conversations on the desk with people who will not be named but who often irritate me."

"Name them, please. Just name them," Judge prodded.

Jim sighed, "It's your friend and mine, Steve, who says this stock can't possibly go higher even as oil prices go lower."

We didn't know he ever said that, but whatever.

Kelly’s back

Bill Baruch joined Monday's (12/1) Halftime Remotely and said he bought APP and said it's pulled back to the February high. Bill said, "We think we're in a great bull cycle through April."

The JOET has owned APP, and Joe Terranova said it looks like APP held the 100-day at 523 and there's "very strong momentum" in gaming and AI and automation and advertising.

Bill also bought ISRG and thinks it's having a "great consolidation year." Bill even bought SOFI, not a stock that gets trumpeted on the show very often; he said "next year could be a really great year for it." Bill also bought VRT for the AI infrastructure and hung a 200 on it. He also bought MU.

Mike Khouw was the guest on ETF Edge, as that particular feature seems to be more often stocked with familiar Halftime/Fast Money faces, not obscure fund managers.

Santoli said there's an "upside bias" to the market but noted that the Carolina Panthers won on Sunday when people didn't expect it.

After Final Trades, Judge was stoked about introducing the return of Kelly Evans to The Exchange.

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