CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Fast Money/Halftime Report Review Archive — July 2024]

Questions must be too predictable if Jay is using a ‘script’ to answer

Jeffrey Gundlach, the star guest of Wednesday's (7/31) Closing Bell (as he generally is on Fed Day), said he expects deeper rate cuts than the market is probably expecting.

"I think we have a hundred and 50 basis points of cuts coming ... certainly by a year from now," Jeffrey said, adding that a couple years from now, "I kind of believe that we will say that we were in a recession in September of 2024."

Jeffrey said the word he kept hearing during the Fed chief's remarks was "could." Jeffrey compared inflation pre-pandemic vs. now and stated, "There's a lot of room for them to cut short-term interest rates." Jeffrey thinks the market should "enjoy" what the Fed said on Wednesday, which is the opportunity to cut "a lot" if needed.

Gundlach opined, "I think they should've cut today, quite frankly," but he doesn't think cutting now vs. in September would make a big difference. He said the argument that a September cut of 25 basis points would affect presidential politics is "so laughable."

Jeffrey said Jay Powell may have been "overprepared" for the press conference and seemed to be "reading" a lot of remarks and even using a "script" to answer some of the questions.

In a stark assessment of the economy, Jeffrey said "the bottom 40% of the population, they are really hurting on these price levels." He suggested people with the "wherewithal" can help by providing "free food."

Judge's last question was who Jeffrey is supporting in November. "I don't support anybody," Jeffrey said, though he allowed "the Electoral College looks pretty strong for Trump as of July 31st, 2024."

Jeffrey said he wants to take Judge to the Marisol exhibition at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. "I'll see if they'll give me a couple days off. We'll discuss offline," Judge said.

On Fast Money, Steve Grasso complained to Steve Liesman about the Fed, "I think they're trying to be too cute here. They're trying to thread the needle too tight. What's the difference between September, with the same data (pronounced 'datta'), and right now." Steve said that Jay Powell said "several times" that they'll look at "the totality of the data (pronounced DAY-ta)."

Almost certainly, Judge has never heard of Marisol

It was a pre-Fed edition of the Halftime Report on Wednesday (7/31).

Joe Terranova, on a quarterly JOET rebalancing day, waffled on Judge's opening question about whether AMD's report saved the chip trade. Joe said AMD's report "validates" that the correction we've seen is "enough."

As far as the rotation, Joe credited Adam Parker's commentary on Closing Bell a day earlier; "as usual, he said something really smart," which is that the "more reliable earnings growth" is not in the "rotation part of the market" but the AI-tech part. Judge said Adam also said we could get a "sell on the news" of the first rate cut.

Steve Weiss said helping the tech trade and stocks, which were surging in the morning well before Powell spoke, is anticipation of Powell's potential comments on rate cuts, and also the MSFT report; Weiss bought more MSFT and META. "You wanna own this industrial revolution (snicker)," Weiss asserted.

Kevin Simpson shrugged that rate-cut prospects were lifting Wednesday's market, saying it's already been priced in.

Kevin bought HON and V. Joe gave so many stats about financial stocks and their earnings reports; eventually he referred to "Kravis, Kohlberg (sic order) and Roberts" and touted KKR. Joe called $600 "reasonable" for GS.

Joe reiterated that he's "concerned" about UBER making another trip to the low 60s. (This writer is long UBER.) Steve Weiss noted he sold UBER "a couple of weeks ago." He said it was mostly about perceived "weakness" in the consumer and said the California "ratification" of drivers as independent contractors didn't move the stock much. "I just don't see the travel coming back," Weiss said.

Kevin called the 9% drop in MRK an "overreaction" and said he'd buy more. Judge noted Joe selling MRK just days ago before the plunge. "Something about it didn't seem right to me," Joe said Wednesday. It was one of the better decisions — not sure we can call it a "call" — announced on the show this year, but probably not a Call of the Year contender.

Carl and Sara were back on Money Movers; in the transition, Carl impressively said, "Let's get to the Judge!"

Joe made a good decision on MRK

Judge on Tuesday's (7/30) Halftime Report noted another bad day for CRWD and asked Josh Brown what to do about the stock. (Thankfully, Judge didn't ask Joe to outline the difference between trading and investing.)

Josh conceded, "They're gonna have to spend money to make customers whole." Josh suggested that updated company guidance will perhaps be the "final shoe to drop."

Brian Belski said last time "we" were on, he was "widely panned" for talking about tech stocks "priced to perfection."

Josh noted that NVDA doesn't even report this week, but everyone else who is reporting will be talking about NVDA.

Steve Weiss, who had a quieter show than usual, said MSFT expectations are "not as euphoric" as a month ago, but there's some "fluff in the valuation."

Weiss said "hike" when he meant "cut." At least Judge flagged that one and Weiss acknowledged it.

Josh noted the recent small cap surge and how it was probably due, but Josh said "there is no story that makes sense as to why this should be like the start of a brand new trend."

Judge protested that maybe it's simply lower rates ahead. Josh said we've "already" gotten the benefit of that catalyst.

In an informative dialogue on MMM and, broader picture, how long to hang on to a good stock, Jenny Harrington sold MMM and tried to give a speech, which began with her shop's visionary outlook on the stock a while back. Josh still owns it. Josh said MMM is in a "complete reset for the first time in decades, and it's exciting (snicker)." Josh said he thinks Jenny is "leaving in like the 2nd inning." Jenny insisted that, given where the stock is now, "It doesn't make sense for the strategy (snicker)." Josh said whoever bought Jenny's shares will be "in line" for the opportunity he sees.

Judge pointed out that Joe Terranova a day ago mentioned unloading MRK. Brian Belski admitted he's not feeling good about the stock's move on Tuesday but said he bought it at $48. (That's like Joe's argument for why the CRWD slide doesn't hurt much.) Josh is staying in PFE (Zzzzzzzz).

Jenny said she thinks JBLU can get to $7, where it nearly was on Tuesday.

Weiss said there's an article saying AMZN is "undercutting" NFLX on ad pricing. (This writer is long NFLX.) But Weiss said AMZN doesn't have the content, and he still likes NFLX and advises being "patient." Brian likes NFLX too, calling it "the Kleenex of streaming."

Jenny rehashed her call a year ago on WHR and SWK that so set off Josh Brown (who was on Tuesday's show too). This time, Josh didn't respond to it.

Leslie and Sully have to work on their transition from Money Movers to Halftime; this week they haven't even mentioned Judge's name and on Tuesday Leslie only stated, "Halftime Report, uh, is starting now."

Sounds like Joe might be ‘trading’ UBER, but not CRWD

On Monday's (7/29) Halftime Report, For the 2nd time, Joe Terranova said he feels "very badly" for JOET holders in that they have a losing position in CRWD and don't have a 120 cost basis in the name like Joe's got in his personal account. (Note: Joe's implication that a 30% drop doesn't matter when you've already had a big gain makes ... no sense. But whatever.)

"If I was trading CrowdStrike, I would sell it, because that's the right thing to do," Joe explained to Judge.

Judge seemed floored that Joe would sell it "NOW???," noting Cramer "called the bottom today on SOTS (yes, Judge actually said 'SOTS')."

Joe insisted if he was just trading it, he'd sell it, "but I'm not trading these names." Judge wondered, "What does that mean though. ... 'If I was trading it, I'd sell it,' like if I bought it, when. What's the cutoff?" Joe explained that "Price when you're trading dictates everything" (snicker), and you "can't ignore" a 30% drop, and Joe is "trying to be an investor, not a trader."

Later in the show, apparently doing more "trading" than "investing," Joe said he's "more concerned this time around" about UBER's latest slide to the low 60s. (This writer is long UBER.) Joe's going to wait for the "absolutely critical" report next week to decide on what to do with his personal stake. (Judge didn't ask Joe whether this was a trade or an investment. But Jim says Judge always holds people accountable.) (See below.)

All that said, Bill Baruch's explanation for what to do with CRWD hasn't been terribly convincing either (see below).

Jim’s no longer worried, feels ‘great’

Joe Terranova opened Monday's (7/29) Halftime Report saying "This is a really critical week" (snicker) (at least he didn't call it a stock-picker's market) (actually someone else did that), acknowledging that sometimes, panelists are "criticized" for "hyperbole" in making that statement. (Yep.)

Joe said it's important because we'll learn whether the tech correction is "enough."

Jim "Recently Worried More Than He's Been In A Long Time" Lebenthal said that if he's right about the market digesting this week's reports, it'll be "clear sailing for a few weeks."

Jim mentioned when there was a "day of reckoning" a couple years ago. The most famous "day of reckoning" call was by Carl about 8 years ago (and the market actually went up, not down).

Jim actually told Judge, "You always give credit where credit's due, and you- you punish those who deserve to be punished." (Um, if we're talking about how well Judge polices the calls on his show, well ...)

"I lost my touch," Judge cracked.

Judge pointed out that a couple weeks ago, Jim was talking about being "more worried" (snicker) than he'd been in a long time. Now, "I feel great," Jim admitted.

Joe affirmed that he's "skeptical" that the "rotation" could carry the market if tech stumbles.

Joe said he sees more "troubling" signs than Jim does; Joe said late credit card payments are at their highest level since 2012, and we might hear at Jackson Hole that "it could be 50 basis points in September."

Joe said Jeffrey Gundlach was "spot-on" that "the real value" is in bonds.

Jim said there won't be anything "fatal" in the MSFT report and, "On a meaningful pullback, I would get in."

Judge botches infer/imply (but Mel basically botched inferring/imputing on Fast Money)

Joe Terranova on Monday's (7/29) Halftime Report asserted that "every portfolio" has to have some exposure to megacaps.

Judge said, "No one's gonna fight you on that," which is curious, because we'd guess that at least 1 or 2 of Judge's regular panelists surely would fight Joe on that.

Jim Lebenthal said RIG is benefiting, or going to benefit, from some "astronomical" (snicker) day rates.

Bill Baruch dialed in to say he added MARA and IBIT, citing "tailwinds politically." Bill said it wasn't about "the next 1 or 2%" but making a "commitment" (snicker) (where does "commitment" fit in with Joe's trading-vs.-investing).

Leslie Picker reported on some problem that Ackman's having launching a fund; Leslie said "I'm told the SEC needs more time to review the new information." Leslie said the initially floated $25 billion size is being downsized by Bill to $2½-$4 billion. Judge questioned if the "expected demand" is the problem and noted Bill apparently thinks his number of Twitter followers (snicker) would correlate to interest.

Judge told Stephanie Link, "I wish I was here" for the MMM pop.

Judge mistakenly asked Glen Kacher on Closing Bell if Glen was "inferring" when Judge meant "implying." Judge, apparently not realizing that only a few of his panelists are the ones talking up junky non-tech stocks that nobody else cares about, seemed surprised that Glen wasn't banking on a long-term rotation.

Bill waffles like L’eggo my egg’o on whether he wants to hold CRWD

As he does about every other day, Bill Baruch beamed in remotely to Friday's (7/26) Halftime Report with a trade update.

Guest host Frank Holland asked Bill if he regrets buying the dip in CRWD. Bill once again gave the spiel about how he was NOT buying it back at "320, 370, 380" (congrats; what does that mean) but admitted he's "not liking the continued price action" and it's "hanging by a thread" in his portfolios.

Bill said he sold PSX and likes oil services (Zzzzzzzz) (apparently that means he bought SLB, according to screen text and Frank Holland) and KMI. The conversation gave Jim Lebenthal a chance to talk about RIG.

Meanwhile, Jim said the market pullbacks during the week are "healthy" and the rally is "not over," in fact, it's "augmented (snicker) by the fact that it is clearly spreading to other areas of the market besides the Mag 7."

Sarat Sethi said, "I do like the broadening." But he said if PCE had been bad, the market would've sold off.

Brenda Vingiello said markets might see a bit of a "break."

Brenda, a TSLA long, said there are "positive trends" and "growth drivers" for the company, which isn't exactly the way Weiss tends to describe it. As a matter of fact, Brenda also opined on this stock a day earlier (see below). Neither opinion was exactly earth-shattering.

Santoli said Friday's trade was "a little bit of relief rally."

Meghan Shue, who used to be on Halftime and Friday was on Kelly Evans' The Exchange, noted, "About half of the Russell 2000 earns no profits."

On Friday's Fast Money, Karen Finerman, taking part in the show remotely and sounding like she was broadcasting from a cave, said she thinks the Fed "definitely" cuts in September and "50 is potentially in the cards," though she doubts it'll be 50 and allows that maybe there's a chance of a July cut. Karen also pronounced the reaction to Alphabet earnings "so overdone."

Bill suggests that Biden’s exit may cause the Fed to cut earlier

On Thursday's (7/25) Halftime Report, Josh Brown cautioned that "the No. 1 risk" to the markets this year is "sentiment around AI cooling off."

Josh said GOOGL got the market reaction it got because it said capex would be up 91% with revenue growing 12%. Josh said, "Ruth Porat also said they're gonna throw another $5 billion at Waymo. Nobody's excited about that either (pronounced EYE-ther)."

Bryn Talkington said she thinks spending will remain "intact" but that we'll continue to see "sell on the news" for Big Tech.

Josh said it's an "outlier" view, but he apparently thinks the Fed will cut in July "just to show that they're truly data-dependent" (pronounced DAY-ta). Bryn though said "the data (pronounced DAY-ta) tells you that there's no reason to hurry." Bryn said she'd guess "September" for a cut. (Guest host Frank Holland said "DAY-ta" also.) Bill Baruch actually said that Biden being out of the race gives a "tailwind to the reason for the Fed to cut."

Josh took a victory lap on NDAQ; he said it had a "textbook" set-up for a rally. He was talking about it as far back as March 12. It did go up a bit afterward, then pulled back, then started to surge this month. Not a Call of the Year contender, but a good call.

Brenda Vingiello said her shop owns TSLA "because of their first-mover advantage" in EVs. Bryn said she's been "really clear" for the last 3 months predicting a couple of "murky" quarters for TSLA; she "wasn't sure why" the stock ran from 175 to 240. (That is all exactly correct. Bryn has defended the stock repeatedly (a major plus) while doubting it would have great quarters this summer, but all the same, if none of those predictions appear to have any relevance to the stock price, then ...)

On Wednesday's Fast Money, Karen Finerman said we're still in the "early innings of AI" and that the stock charts won't always track "the productivity of AI," but the overall "trajectory" will be higher.

Joe refuses to have a ‘political conversation’ but insists on saying Weiss is wrong

Guest host Frank Holland on Wednesday's (7/24) Halftime Report asked Joe Terranova if the tech selloff is "overblown" and "much ado about nothing."

Joe said the market is in a "historically weak period." But Joe still has a "degree of skepticism" about the supposed rotation from big tech to small caps.

Jason Snipe is "not terribly concerned" about the Alphabet quarter.

But once Steve Weiss started talking, the conversation got around to politics.

Weiss said "polls are a dime a dozen," but he said "Harris has come out pretty strong in the polls."

Weiss again said that Vice President Kamala Harris is a "pure socialist," which "won't be good for the market."

But Weiss said Donald Trump "changes his position every day."

Joe cut in, "But that's not what's going on today."

"That's absolutely what is happening today," Weiss said, asking Joe, "Can you ever pinpoint exactly-"

"Steve I don't wanna get- I'm not getting into a political conversation, it's just wrong," Joe cut in.

"Don't chime in. It's not wrong," Weiss protested.

Moving on, Anastasia Amoroso said one analyst called Alphabet results "no excitement."

Jason Snipe predicted "more of the same" from the Fed in July.

A little later, Weiss said, "If people aren't considering where they're investing and putting capital with a view on whats's going to happen in the election, then they shouldn't be in this business. Period, end of story."

Bill does some great cheerleading for a stock he’s not actively buying

Bill Baruch dialed in to Wednesday's (7/24) Halftime Report to say "I am a believer" in TSLA, adding, "If you own this thing, you've gotta expect some volatility."

Bill said he thinks the stock price "turned a corner at the start of this month" and the earnings call is a "harbinger of things to come (sic last 4 words redundant)."

Guest host Frank Holland noted Bill trimmed his TSLA position "just a short time ago." Bill revealed, "I'm not buying more right now." Bill said he's concerned about TSLA dipping below 215-220 but "there's a lot of support here" around $200.

"You're sending some mixed messages here. You're a believer, but you're not buying more," Frank told Bill. "What are you so excited about ... If you're excited, why don't you wanna buy more right now on this dip?"

"Well, I don't think you need to react and buy more, uh, just because the stock is lower," Bill said, not exactly clarifying the situation.

Joe Terranova said he's not sure there's anything "overwhelmingly, uh, compelling" about TSLA's fundamentals.

Steve Weiss, whose short-lived TSLA short of months ago was one of the ghastliest calls of the year, insisted, "If you take the name Tesla off this company. And if you take Elon Musk, who is just a tremendous, you know, inventor/entrepreneur, you'd be short this stock." (Right. And if you took away the iPhone, you'd be short AAPL too.)

Weiss said he and Bryn Talkington "had a spirited debate at 150 (see archive below). She was a thousand percent right."

Josh says CRWD is ‘not gonna roll over’

On Tuesday's (7/23) Halftime Report, guest host Dom Chu promised a "Trade School" from Josh Brown on CRWD.

Josh said he's not sure anyone wants to hear his Trade School on this stock given what's happened, but Josh asserted, "This is not a trade. It's an investment." Josh said anyone trading the name would "have to sell" in this kind of situation, and those who have been trading it "already got out on Friday."

Josh pointed to CMG from 2015-2018 "contending with a wave of foon- (sic) food-borne illness issues" but rallying in the years that followed. Josh said "I've spoken with George Kurtz" and "They are not gonna roll over," so he's "sticking around" in CRWD.

Meanwhile, Josh painted a rosy picture for Alphabet, suggesting it's "off to the races" and calling it "one of the best monetization machines humankind has ever come up with." (This writer is long GOOGL.)

Kevin Simpson has been adding to TJX, a stock that people always seem to be buying.

Jenny Harrington said she bought UPS around 136.

On Fast Money, panelists took up TSLA and GOOGL among the earnings reports, and Tim Seymour said TSLA's valuation "makes no sense," and when in the history of the world has Tim Seymour's opinion on TSLA's valuation mattered?

Joe says he would sell his CRWD, but he won’t because it’s in the JOET

On Monday's (7/22) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said he owns CRWD personally, and it's in the JOET. Joe said his own stake was up "120%" based on Monday, but prior to last week, he was up a lot more than that, "one of the better purchases that I've made in the last several years," which doesn't really do anybody any good on Monday.

Because CRWD is in the JOET, Joe feels "awful" that "someone like Steve" (Weiss) is exposed to the now-"negative position" of CRWD in the JOET from just the past week. Joe stated, "If it was not in the JOET ETF, I would move out of the position personally," which doesn't really make sense (especially when it comes to "risk management"), other than it sounds like Joe wants to assure any disgruntled JOET holders that "I feel your pain (in a bigger way)."

Joe invoked the CMG food scare of years ago or all the stuff BA has been dealing with in recent years and said we probably can't expect a "very fast recovery" for CRWD. Joe said he's surprised that PANW hasn't benefited from CRWD's woes. Weiss pointed out that BA's business was hurt even being in a duopoly, while CRWD is in a very competitive business.

Shannon Saccocia said she doesn't see a "lasting impact" of this past weekend on DAL's next couple of quarters.

Weiss said he sold half of his UBER, because "I'm really concerned about the consumer." (This writer is long UBER.)

Jim Lebenthal said BofA's $85 target on GM is a "pretty bold call"; Jim's only at 70. Weiss said it's "not worrisome at all" that Berkshire trimmed BAC because no one knows why anyone including Warren Buffett (or someone else at Berkshire) is making a trade.

Weiss: Democratic presidential front-runner is a ‘pure socialist’

We tuned in to Monday's (7/22) Halftime Report hoping to hear Steve Weiss opine on the presidential race, and we weren't disappointed.

Weiss told guest host Dom Chu that, as far as presidential politics affecting markets, "It doesn't matter much. ... They performed better under Democratic presidents, and not by a little margin. They performed extremely well under Obama. And you can't tell me it's because he was pro-business, he was anti-business. They performed extremely well under Biden. And he's not pro-business. Trump is allegedly pro-business, and I would dispute that, he's pro-Trump, not pro-business. Uh, the market did well, but not as well. In fact, he increased the deficit ex-COVID spending, and with COVID spending, twice what Biden increased it. So, on one hand, you've got, uh, a presidential candidate Trump, but you can't believe a word he's saying, so you don't know what you're gonna get. On the other hand, you've got somebody who you can believe is a pure socialist. So, the market's got this uncertainty ... To make a bet on small caps because Trump's going to be, you know, they think Trump will be in the White House, is wildly, wildly misplaced. We also heard JD Vance say, he wants Lina Khan to stay there. He wants to break up big tech. That's also anti-business ..."

Moments later, Weiss continued: "I think the biggest risk to the market is what Trump said about, We're not gonna defend Taiwan unless they pay for it. Sure, they should pay for it. Is that really a decision you're gonna take. ... You had to be really living under a rock if you didn't think that Biden was going to eventually get out. He was going to, he should've, he never should've been in it."

Weiss also said Bill Ackman put out a tweet about Biden signing his statement electronically should prompt China to invade; "you've got to applaud how inane it was."

Joe Terranova, whose newfound commercial real estate theory sounds like it was inspired by Kid Rock's Republican Convention song, said that last week, "the market got excited" around the potential of a political "wave," but this week, "maybe it's reversing some of that." But Joe urged viewers not to "make too much" about how politics supposedly may affect markets.

Jim Lebenthal agreed with Joe and Weiss, stating "Don't make changes" to your portfolio based on political updates.

More from Monday's Halftime/Fast Money later.

Bill praises CRWD’s ‘transparency’ while Jenny says ‘there’s too much opacity here’

Oddly enough, nobody said a word about MSFT.

If nothing else, the CRWD disaster preempted any coverage of the Republican Convention ("what does this agenda mean for markets?") (Um, there's Joe's Theory, which sounds like it was lifted from Hulk Hogan's Republican Convention speech, that a Trump presidency is going to safen up cities everywhere and prompt everyone to return to work and companies to sign big office space leases) on Friday's (7/19) Halftime Report, guest hosted by Frank Holland.

Frank started off pointing out that CRWD was down 20% in premarket and only 9% at the start of the show. This stock was by far the day's most intriguing trading opportunity — we have no idea whether it's going up or down, but it's definitely moving. CRWD closed Friday down 11%, so premarket buyers apparently got a chance for a quick flip.

Frank immediately brought in CRWD long Bill Baruch remotely. Bill praised the CEO's "transparency" and said it's important for the company to be "transparent" about this "disaster." He said he hadn't put "new money" in the name for a while but was using Friday's selloff as an "opportunity" to do so. Bill said "275 is a big level."

Frank wondered if there could be "government intervention" (snicker) as a result of this incident. Bill said he doesn't think so and said this incident shows how "widespread their reach is" and "doesn't change the bullish case" and could even trigger "more spending" in cybersecurity.

Rob Sechan said the incident is a buying opportunity for the "space." He admitted, "I regret not owning Crowdstrike." But he said the valuation (snicker) doesn't "fit" within his discipline models. (So he's going to buy whichever cybersecurity name has a lower P.E. ratio.) (Oh. Joy.)

Jenny Harrington, as expected, said buying CRWD Friday is "playing with fire." Jenny did make a quality point that companies signing contracts with CRWD will, at this time, feel like they've got the "upper hand" in negotiations, a valid theory, although of course she didn't quantify it in any way.

Jenny relayed the comments from a client who gets hired by companies to find vulnerabilities in networks, and this fellow apparently emailed Jenny that Friday's disaster is "very very tip of the iceberg." (OK, we'll expect another one next week.) (OK, Jenny's got an inside source that the rest of the Street doesn't.)

A little bit later, Jenny actually claimed with a straight face, "I would be really nervous as a big tech holder going into this earnings season, because so much anticipation is already in there."

Jenny also claimed with a straight face, "It seems like the market's always violent all the time now." (Um, seen the VIX this year?)

Jason Snipe said it's "very concerning" that so much of the world could be shut down by a "content update," but he does think "spending does continue."

‘Momentum is still up 34%’

On Thursday's (7/18) Halftime Report guest-hosted by Frank Holland, Kevin Simpson said that NFLX is a "great stock to write a covered call on" heading into earnings. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Josh Brown said he'd "probably be a buyer" of NFLX if there was a "negative reaction" to earnings.

A few hours later on Fast Money, Steve Grasso pointed out that NFLX may seem like it always goes up, but "selloffs happen on a regular basis." He said he'll never drop his subscription but can't bring himself to buy the shares. Dan Nathan noted the potential near-perfect $700 double-top that has occurred but suggested that if you believe in the earnings growth from ad tiers, you want to buy the stock when it's down. Courtney Garcia said, like Grasso, she won't cancel the service but called NFLX "an expensive stock right now."

All good and fair comments, but the most telling is that Grasso and Courtney won't drop those subscriptions. In fact — this is just speculation from this page — we're guessing they (like most people) would pay a lot more for this service, which by itself is like a mini-cable subscription from the '80s.

But as for stock direction and whether to buy it right now, Dan makes a good observation about the double top.

Meanwhile, on Halftime, Josh Brown said the S&P was getting historically extended, but viewing Thursday's trading as a "consolidation period" is the "right bias."

As far as the prospects of a long-term rotation into a bunch of meaningless stocks that no one except a few panelists on Halftime care about, Josh pointed out, "Year to date, momentum is still up 34%." He said growth is up 25%.

Josh said he bought WBD in the 7s, he's happy with the short-term gain, but this company will "take years to work itself out."

Josh suggested CRWD has been "washed out enough" if you're interested in buying.

Kevin Simpson said he bought more CAT on Monday.

Kevin said big banks have a lot of upside, but he wouldn't chase, given what a strong month they've had. Josh said JPM is "very streaky" and has had an "outrageous" run. Josh called CG a "breakout candidate" and made it his Final Trade.

Kevin Simpson is selling WMT 75 calls.

On Fast Money, guest Stephen Roach said the odds of China making an "imminent" move on Taiwan are "extremely low." But Steve Grasso stated, "I think that China, their weakness on an economic level, actually makes me more convinced that they're going to invade Taiwan, not the other way."

Mel’s argument gets tag-teamed; Bryn apparently didn’t check the latest Atlanta Fed GDP

On Wednesday's (7/17) Halftime Report, the guest host, Missy Lee, got upended by a couple of panelists who disagreed with Mel's take on the markets.

Josh Brown had pointed out that the Russell and much of the S&P was advancing even though the S&P 500 was down. Mel tried to get in a question, and Josh said, "Go."

Mel stated that for those who aren't buying the narrative of the prospects of a Trump presidency boosting the Russell, "That is the sentiment on which this rotation is being built."

But Josh cut in, "I disagree," mentioning "CPI" twice. "It's an inflation-slash-rates-coming-down-story," Josh asserted, adding that "the Trump thing" is "a cherry on top."

Jim Lebenthal said "I'm with Josh on this," that the Russell is rallying because "interest rates are set to come down." Jim said lower rates don't do much for companies' financing, but the key is that the rates being lower "lowers the chances of a recession."

Jim observed that most people can't even name 3 companies in the "small cap sector."

Bryn Talkington asserted that what caused the shift in sentiment is the market pricing in Donald Trump being "pro-growth in the U.S." (That's a little different, but kind of the same, as Joe Terranova's newfound point that a Trump presidency will cause people in cities all around the country to believe their town is safer and thus start going back to the office and saving commercial real estate.)

Bryn further asserted, "We have weak economic data" and that GDP is "coming in at barely 2%." Jim protested that "it's 2.7." Bryn protested that's not what Atlanta Fed is saying.

Jim interrupted again, insisting, "Today, it says 2.7% updated today. Economic growth is not weak ... the economy's actually accelerating."

Bryn further tried to say, "The economy is slowing." Jim argued, "No it's not! ... 2.7 is higher than 1.4." Bryn said the economy is "fine" but not "strengthening."

Joe Terranova obviously had mealtime at either Primola or Bamontes on the mind, curiously stating, "To be properly nourished, you can't just eat the steak. You have to eat the potatoes and you have to eat the vegetables." Joe said there have been "signs building" that you want to own more than just the megacaps.

Bryn selling October 150 NVDA calls

Josh Brown on Wednesday's (7/17) Halftime Report outlined the stark downside of a likely lucrative career at Taiwan Semiconductor.

Josh said it's easier for TSM to find elite workers willing to spend "essentially their lives, in a clean room, wearing all white head to toe" (sounds like a Woody Allen movie) working on nanoscale, "almost molecular-level physics," than it is for INTC, for example, to find those workers in the U.S.

Regarding things that Donald Trump has tweeted about economic positions, Josh advised, "for God's sake," do not make investment decisions based on tweets. "All of the quote-unquote Trump trade industries, uh, underperformed from 2016 through 2020."

Joe Terranova said Wednesday's curious tape is the "price of admission" if you want to invest in chips. Jim "more worried than he's been in years (despite all-time market highs)" Lebenthal shrugged that it's more "profit taking" than anything fundamental. Jim added, "I see very large gains ahead for a lot of these names."

Bryn Talkington bragged about how "just a few weeks ago" she sold NVDA October 150 calls for "right around $10." She doesn't think it's going to 150 by October, but "if it does, I'm happy to have it called away." (And someone else will be even happier for buying those calls.)

JD Vance’s memoir still building name recognition

Jim Lebenthal on Wednesday's (7/17) Halftime report cited Jane Fraser's comments as an example of how great the outlook could be for C, one of the numerous stocks Jim has touted for many years, rain or shine.

There was a screen graphic showing CLF when Bryn Talkington discussed gold, but they didn't actually talk about that stock.

Bryn said of gold, "Historically it's been very hard to trade." Joe Terranova admitted that he has been "awful" at trading gold in the last few years.

Josh Brown unloaded SN. Way back in May, he called it "one of the hottest brands in American appliances." It's been kind of flat since then and down for a month, but not a terrible stock.

Joe cautioned, ahead of NFLX earnings Thursday, that there's been a "deterioration in the momentum." (This writer is long NFLX.) Joe said, "I'm not saying sell the stock," but "be aware of that." Joe said it may be time for "another price hike" in Netflix's service.

Bryn said she doesn't own NFLX but won't "chase it here," she thinks it's a "tough space" but praised the content options; she said one of the top shows on Netflix last night was "Hillbilly Effigy (sic)." Mel actually mentioned "Bridgerton" (#ohmy). Josh Brown called NFLX "unstoppable." Josh said not to count on NFLX trading lower after earnings, but if it does, it's a name you want to buy.

On Tuesday's (7/16) Halftime, a fairly sleepy show guest-hosted by Dom Chu, Dom said he's never been a "huge Netflix watcher," but he's been "incrementally watching more."

Rob Sechan on Tuesday said he added to CRM. Rob said his shop was up "150%" on AVGO in "shorter than a year's time frame," and after taking a third off, it felt like his clients had "voodoo dolls" of him. Amy Raskin said, "We took some of our Nvidia and put it into Broadcom."

Rob said he feels "very good" about being long LULU though his shop bought "a little early." Rob and Jason Snipe endorsed ABBV. Amy Raskin's shop sold DIS in one portfolio but kept it in another; Amy said she probably should've sold both. Rob Sechan said, "I'm 6-1."

Expert says Biden is Democrats’ ‘best chance’

On Monday's (7/15) Fast Money, Brian Gardner of Stifel put the odds of a Trump victory "in the 65 to 70% range."

Karen Finerman wondered how that would change "if Biden were to step down from the race." Gardner said, "It obviously depends on who that person is." But what was really interesting was the notion that Biden stepping down would actually reduce Democrats' chances; "Biden is probably their best chance at this- at this point."

(That's interesting, given that during the speech from the Oval Office just a day earlier, we heard "former Trump" (sic) and "battle boxes" (twice) (sic) and too many uses of "vision." But whatever.)

Guy Adami reiterated his belief that "regardless" of who wins in November, "it's gonna be inflationary." Karen Finerman complained that "both parties are completely fiscally irresponsible, right," and someone with a "fiscally conservative agenda" can't win, so "something has to break."

Joe suggests second Trump presidency would make workers feel safe to return to office

Monday's (7/15) Halftime Report, guest hosted by Dom Chu, was basically a space-filler until Jerome Powell spoke (which didn't happen until the final 1/3 of the program).

Steve Weiss said he was "shocked" that Squawk Box "focused" on the Pennsylvania tragedy when it has "zero to do with the markets" and was "way overplayed." Weiss also stated that, despite what Sarat Sethi said about Monday's market gains, "The banks have nothing to do with it."

Joe Terranova, though, was the real quote machine, first claiming that "a lot of advisers said to me they're actually afraid (snicker) to buy the megacaps, because they think the megacaps have quote-unquote gone up too much (snicker)." (What's that chapter in statistics class called "Too Much"?)

Weiss again sounded all the future warnings about commercial real estate. Joe actually, with a straight face, floated the theory that under a second Trump presidency, cities nationwide would be "having an improvement in safety and security standards, therefore a stronger return-to-work environment and an improvement in commercial real estate." Weiss, to his credit, did not chuckle (but almost did), saying he's not aware of that theory being the "dominant narrative" for why people work from home. (Um, Earth to Joe, regardless of who wins, the only improvement in local community "safety and security standards" is gonna come from those $1,400 checks heading everyone's way at the first indication of a below-par GDP number.)

Today: ‘Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020’ ... In a couple weeks: ‘What’s taking so long ... get out or we’ll challenge the convention ...’

In a fairly sleepy episode of the Halftime Report on Friday (7/12), Judge opened telling Steve Weiss that a day like Friday is "nirvana for the bulls." Weiss said markets on both Thursday and Friday were "very interesting." But Weiss said he'd wait to buy the names such as CAT and DE.

Judge bluntly declared, "This has been a rate-cut rally."

Kevin Simpson bluntly stated, "Nobody's gonna give up the megatechs and, and rush into value." Judge wondered what he means by "give 'em up." Kevin said he doesn't think anyone is selling NVDA to buy DE. Judge claimed that he doesn't think "anybody else does either" but wonders where will the "new money" go. Kevin said people will keep riding the Mag 7 "until it stops working."

Jim Lebenthal admitted he was "very nervous" (snicker) going into last weekend. But he got "comfort" (snicker) this week that small caps and value/cyclicals are a "good place to be."

Judge protested that Jim's still using "busy airplanes" as an economic bellwether, which seems "a bit of a cherry-pick." (What Judge could've said is that Jim for weeks has been warning about the risk of not getting a cut while on the other hand talking about how robust all the businesses of his favorite stocks are.)

Jim rationalized why C was down, suggesting expense projection was just a "touch higher" and the buybacks number is "light." Weiss said, "Who cares about the expenses, really," and added, "Frankly I was hoping for a miss so I could buy it."

Bill Baruch is putting on an INTC (snicker) trade, a December 40/45 call spread, claiming, "all of this negativity's been flushed out."

Kevin Simpson sold CSCO. Jim claimed though that "Cisco has turned it around." Kevin bought more TJX and AMGN.

Jim touted ORCL again after Kate Rooney reported that Evercore says it went from "zero to hero" this year; Weiss said ORCL isn't in the Mag 7 but has performed with it this year.

Weiss trumpeted how NFLX always seems to come through and that they "truly" don't care about quarterly performance. "I still like it a lot," Weiss said. (This writer is long NFLX.) Weiss didn't make the strongest argument he could've, that this company is a cable system of itself and still an extremely cheap product.

Jim’s sure that DAL is ‘sandbagging it’

We didn't hear a whole lot during Thursday's (7/11) Halftime Report that made us race to the Reporter's Notebook. But then, Jim Lebenthal (who wasn't on the day's panel) dialed in to discuss the DAL results.

As always, whenever Jim's favorite stocks have a tough earnings/reax, Jim insists it's still a great stock. "I'm not worried ... demand is fine," Jim said.

Judge said "it seems to me" that strong demand "isn't enough to, to do anything for the stock."

Jim rattled off all the earnings metrics and said he's "pretty sure they're sandbagging it (snicker)."

Jim nevertheless told Judge, "Your indictment is valid." Judge pushed back, "It's not my indictment. It's the market's indictment. That's my point," adding that if air traffic is as strong as it's ever been and an airline stock is down like this, "it's like, Hello."

Jim insisted DAL has "not been a bad stock" and that "this is not the stock to worry about," rather, that's LUV or AAL. Josh Brown said it's "highly unlikely" airlines will have another "36-month period" like they've just had, and "clearly, nobody wants this stock, it's trading at 2014 prices."

Jim tried to argue that the 10-year chart is not relevant, saying what happened 10 years ago doesn't matter, while Judge insisted the 10-year chart is relevant. Jim said he was glad to have the debate with Judge and Josh, it "got me charged up." Josh said DAL is "trading like a, like a Russian gold mine."

Meanwhile, Bryn Talkington shrugged that TSLA has been "so overbought" and "incredibly overbought." So now, she's suggesting selling September 275 calls for $15 in premium. (Um, back on June 14, Bryn recommended selling the September 200 calls.) Bill Baruch said TSLA consoliation around 220-230 would be "very healthy." Josh said if it gets to 205, 210, "it's probably interesting from the long side."

Bryn said she trimmed RBLX at 39. Indeed, she talked about adding in May and said she made "about 25% return in 2 months."

Reid Hoffman says presidential debates aren’t qualifications, even if the candidate apparently realizes, ‘Oh sh--, like I had, you know, senior moments at the debate’

Wednesday's (7/10) Halftime Report was halfway preempted by Jerome Powell's testimony (and one House member repeatedly attempting a point of order to complain about the line of questioning from another member) until producers cut the cord and told Judge (who for some reason stocked a full panel on a Fed day) to go full bore for the latter half-hour from Post 9.

Joe Terranova said the market is pricing in the September cut, and Wednesday, we saw a "little bit of the broadening (snicker) out."

Brian Belski said his bull case is 6,000, but he expects a "better buying opportunity" ahead because right now people are a little too bullish.

Jim Lebenthal, who supposedly hasn't been this worried (snicker) in a long time, said "we can make it through" to September if there's a cut coming, though it'll be a "bumpy ride" (snicker).

Jim actually claimed with a straight face that there's "plenty of people out there calling for a 4th-quarter recession."

Shannon Saccocia, who made an appearance at Post 9, actually mentioned the concern of "potentially (snicker) higher fiscal spending."

Joe noted he personally sold V a while back but that there's real regulatory risk for the credit card giants. Jim though said at 24 times forward, V is trading lower than its 10-year average, and he'd be interested.

Belski called NFLX the "Kleenex of streaming." (This writer is long NFLX.)

On Fast Money, at the beginning of his live interview with Julia Boorstin, Reid Hoffman said "Oh sh--."

Jenny vs. the QQQ, continued

After the Fed hearing and Steve Liesman's report took care of the first quarter of Tuesday's (7/9) Halftime Report, Judge turned in the 16th minute to Joe Terranova, who immediately (basically) stiff-armed the notion of making a "pivot" from all the tech that's working to small caps.

Throughout the show, Joe repeatedly suggested sticking with tech. Jenny Harrington was given several minutes to argue that health care and financials "should" (snicker) outperform tech without offering any evidence.

Jenny said, as she's been saying for 10-15 years, "Tech's had its run." Judge said the stocks don't seem to indicate that and wondered if earnings in a couple weeks will just "confirm" what we already know.

Guy Adami says Trump, if he wins, will make firing Powell his ‘first order of business’

Aside from predicting the end of the tech reign on Tuesday's (7/9) Halftime Report, Jenny Harrington also somehow tried to game the direction of short- and long-term rates once the Fed presumably cuts in September.

Bryn Talkington said "the only reason the long end would decline is if the economy is weakening." Bryn said it would take needle-threading to figure out which sectors will work based on how rates move in 2 months.

Josh Brown gushed about GS. "This thing breaks 475, what's stopping it from going to 500? Nothing. There are no sellers!" He may be right about that direction, but we've never quite understood "there are no sellers," though he used that term a couple other times.

Josh also touted NDAQ and said it's in the "celebration business (snicker)."

Josh bailed on KDP. But he touted TTD and SPGI after Judge asked for more names.

Joe called 775 a "reasonable" target for NFLX. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Joe said he golfed with Josh "weeks ago" and talked about NU. (Nobody mentioned who won the golf round or whether any mulligans were taken.

Josh said NTAP is having the same kind of renaissance as DELL and GLW.

Jenny talked about SLG and said about 4 times that it's got the BEST commercial real estate.

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman's husband (like Rod Stewart put it, Some guys have all the luck) joined the panel to talk about earnings of "middle market private companies." We don't know anything about anything, and we definitely don't know anything about this subject, but Lawrence said the data is "very reflective of the U.S. economy."

A day earlier, on Monday's (7/8) Fast Money, Guy Adami said that if Donald Trump wins the presidency, "the first order of business amongst many is gonna be firing Jerome Powell and put in a hand-selected person, he or she, to be Fed chair, and their first order of business to lower rates in a meaningful way ... you think Trump wins, rates are going lower, at least longer-term rates, and I think that's gonna be really inflationary."

So, if we have this right, you buy the rate cut, not because it actually accomplishes anything but because other people are going to buy it

Early on Monday's (7/8) Halftime Report, Judge and the screen graphic said Grandpa Jim Lebenthal is the most nervous he's been in years. Grandpa Jim actually said with a straight face, "Now is the time where I can't ignore the nervousness (snicker) anymore." (Evidently, he can ignore the fire hose of $1,400 checks going out to Americans under either presidential candidate at the tiniest sign of a slowdown.) (Too bad he didn't have this level of nervousness at the beginning of 2022.)

Despite Jim's nervousness, minutes later, Stephanie Link suggested, "We could certainly melt up, for sure."

The problem with that is that minutes earlier, Stephanie claimed with a straight face that "the real true values in this market are all those other names" besides the Mag 7 and that "it's all about stock-picking" and "you really have to be careful in stock-picking" and can't just "broadly buy" a certain sector (as opposed to all those other times on the show when people laughingly recommend throwing darts at a board).

But if there's a decent chance of a melt-up, as Stephanie says, doesn't it make sense to own what's working? Do "melt-ups" typically reward the dog stocks over the ones that have been working?

In the 21st minute, Stephanie said that if you knew for sure there's a Fed cut in September, you should "absolutely" buy cyclicals, then she said 2 minutes later that a rate cut won't bring any immediate relief to industrials.

Josh Brown took a victory lap on GLW, an outstanding recent call and probably in the top 5 for Call of the Year.

Weiss’ springtime short of TSLA, even if he covered without a loss, is one of the worst calls of the year (even worse than handing out September 200 calls)

The stock of the week is clearly TSLA, which Judge briefly addressed Friday (7/5) on both the Halftime Report and Closing Bell.

On Halftime, Judge said TSLA is one of the names that's recently been lifting the Nasdaq. Bill Baruch dialed in and explained that he added TSLA last week in the mid-190s; he said he's sticking to his 250 plan and "trimming it by 20%."

Bill said the stock has had a "number of tailwinds" recently. Judge said it's got momentum, but that can be "fleeting."

A couple hours later, Judge told Bryn Talkington on Closing Bell that TSLA is up 27% for the week. Bryn said, "It's a sad time for the shorts, right." Bryn suggested short covering and options trading were among reasons for the gains. "To short the name has just been a real widowmaker time and time again," Bryn said.

But what Bryn didn't say is that on June 14, she suggested selling/(i.e., giving away) the September 200 calls in TSLA for $11.70 for a 6½% yield in 3 months, not even annualized. We're thinking the buyer of those calls got the better deal.

Nor did anyone mention that back in April, Steve Weiss was touting his TSLA short (within a week or 2, he said he was out of it) and basically, it's now become clear, getting a delayed facial after arguing with Bryn about the company.

Jeremy says Kamala Harris would be ‘prohibitive favorite’ if she’s presidential nominee; Judge says ‘goal posts may have moved’ (whatever that means) in the presidential race

On Friday's (7/5) Closing Bell, Jeremy Siegel told Judge that "most of the experts" see quarterly GDP being "under 2."

Jeremy said he's not calling for recession but he thinks the Fed needs to take certain indicators into account as far as economic slowing. Judge said it sounds like Jeremy is saying that if there's no cut in September, recession is "on the table" and the market might be in trouble. Jeremy said, "Potentially yes" and also said he thinks small caps (snicker) and value stocks (snicker) will "stay in the doldrums" until there's a rate cut.

Also, "We should not dismiss a 50-basis-point cut" if the data justifies it, Jeremy said.

Judge actually dabbled in the massive presidential politics story that's swirling around the non-CNBC portion of the world, telling Jeremy that "the goal posts may have moved" and even mentioned "whether President Biden stays in this ra- in the race, excuse me" and "the conversation at minimum is not gonna go away anytime soon." (There's been no "conversation" on the Halftime Report.) Jeremy actually said his opinion is that if the Democratic nominee happens to be Kamala Harris, she will be the "prohibitive favorite."

Meanwhile, Kevin Simpson on Closing Bell told Judge, "I just think that markets are priced to perfection right now, through most of the market, for most stocks." Judge questioned how that can apply to all the stocks that haven't had gains like Megacap Tech. Kevin said he's talking about the "broader index."

Jim is still assessing AMZN based on P.E. ratio

Josh Brown on Friday's (7/5) Halftime Report said the day's data gives the Fed "cover" to give a "hint" in July that "something's gonna happen in September finally."

Josh said that with unemployment around "50-year lows" with cooling wage growth and continued new jobs, we've got "an immaculate, uh, situation." (Maybe so, but not as immaculate as a December 1972 playoff game.)

Jenny Harrington said that based on Powell's remarks in Portugal, he and everyone else "clearly" wants a rate cut.

Jim Lebenthal said the difference between market weight (16.5) and equal weight (3.5) S&P year to date return is 13 percentage points. Jim said the lack of breadth is even worse than in 2023.

But Josh said that while people express fears about divergence, the divergence always seems to get resolved with a "huge catch-up trade." Jim though countered that it's been a "long time" ("years plural") since small caps have done anything, which makes people "worry about the leadership coming down the other way."

Judge and Josh pointed out how Andy Jassy has been steering AMZN to an all-time high; Brown said it's as simple as a strong, consistent "4-quarter stretch" of growth. He doesn't think targets of 240 and 250 are "terribly unreasonable." Josh touted Jon Fortt's interview with Matt Garman. Jim said he's a "recent convert" to AMZN and seconded what Josh said. (But Jim actually did cite the multiple, which is what led to the donnybrook over this name in February.)

Josh said JPM seems focused on risk-management, which may frustrate investors at times but pays off in the long run.

CNBC's Tanaya Macheel reported on how Mount Gox (snicker) was pressuring bitcoin's price.

Who agrees to a presidential debate weeks before the convention?

It seems clear, from the media reports we've read, that the campaign of President Joe Biden suggested the idea of a presidential debate in June.

That suggestion must've been made for 1 of 2 reasons: 1) The president, as the narrative goes, wanted to reconnect with voters before we get well into election season.

Or 2) Someone with inside knowledge thought a Plan B was needed if Plan A proved a little shakier than most people realized. And if the debate occurred after July, it would be too late.

We're guessing the opponent of this person did not seriously consider the possibility of this debate going too well — to the point that a more difficult opponent may yet still end up on the opposing side's ballot.

Honestly? We have no idea — this seems like a 50/50 call — as to whether the Biden campaign really did think the June debate was a good idea ... or whether they wanted to initiate a backup plan that would've otherwise been impossible without this kind of public embarrassment.

Yes, some poll numbers changed — but it does seem like the other side gained nothing by doing this event at this time and might well find itself with a different problem.

Timing is everything: Marko ‘4,200’ Kolanovic leaving JPM

Shortly into Wednesday's (7/3) Halftime Report, Judge made an announcement:

"Marko Kolanovic is, is leaving, uh, JPMorgan. Um, he had the lowest target on the Street of 4,200. We wish him well, obviously. Those are not easy jobs," Judge said.

Judge said Marko's name "was in the Halftime lexicon" and admitted that Marko's notes released during the Halftime hour were trumpeted by Judge "all the time." But Judge also admitted Marko has been "fighting a tide" since the October lows, and "he's been wrong."

The article by MarketWatch had a little more detail: "Kolanovic's departure from the bank follows a two-year stretch of disappointing market calls that saw him remain bullish as stocks tumbled in 2022, only to turn bearish just as the market started to recover in the fourth quarter."

So Judge says these are "not easy jobs" ... OK ... What "science" exactly do these jobs entail? How does one come up with regular projections about where the S&P 500 index is headed? And how does someone with at least 19 years experience in this field come to the conclusion that the 2024 stock market is headed to 4,200?

Joe claims the market is starting to ‘price in’ the presidential election

In one of the most curious schedules in recent memory, Judge was actually off on Monday-Tuesday of July 4th week, then turned up Wednesday (7/3) at Post 9 for the shortened day.

Joe Terranova claimed the consumer is "weakening" and "we're beginning to price in the presidential election." (What does that mean ... Buy Tom Barrack's favorite stocks?)

Steve "Paycheck to Paycheck" (everyone except the panelists on Halftime Report) Weiss said for the market to achieve 10% gains in the 2nd half of this year to get to S&P 6,000 "isn't unreasonable." But he said there could be "complications," such as Donald Trump's agenda being "largely inflationary."

Weiss said higher rates are finally impacting the economy.

Jim Lebenthal actually apparently is in somewhat of agreement with Weiss' concerns, stating, "What I need to be clear about" is that he's not selling stocks and he's "positioned for the broadening," but his thesis "relies on rate cuts starting in September."

Jim said the "danger" is that the Fed has "gotten away with this for so long" with restrictive rates and a still-strong economy and might think it doesn't need to cut in September.

Joe cautioned that if there's an AI disappointment, then a "10% correction" wouldn't surprise anyone. Which hardly seems like a big scoop. Judge scoffed, "Well, obviously ... if a star quarterback goes down, then the season's gonna be in jeopardy."

Judge further scoffed at all the calls that we're "due for correction," but why are we due; Judge indicated that the argument is, "I don't know; we just haven't had one in a long time."

Weiss said we've had "V-shaped corrections" in the last decade, "so it actually becomes an opportunity." Weiss said that to him, a "correction" in NVDA "would be down 30%." Judge said, "That would shake some nerves for sure."

Judge and Weiss agreed that if Donald Trump is elected and follows through on his border/deportations statements, there will be "wage inflation to a much larger degree," according to Weiss.

Jim claimed, without proof, "Adobe has figured out a way to actually monetize AI."

Shari Redstone: Ms. Excitement

During yet another discussion of PARA on Wednesday's (7/3) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal stated "it's been many quarters since I've bought this for clients, and I will not buy it for clients." Lucky clients.

Jim was hanging a 60 (and even a 70) on GM. (But he still didn't mention any exciting products.)

For whatever reason, UNP came up again. Jim again cautioned that "this is a railroad stock" and can only grow so much more than GDP. Judge said B of A has a 277 target. Shannon Saccocia offered, "The timing's a little tough right now for transports."

Joe noted energy equities haven't done as well as the spot prices, and he's "skeptical" of energy outperforming like it did in 2022.

Jim said he prefers casino stocks with Vegas exposure over those with "regional" exposure. Judge then told Jim, "What's happening in Vegas, uh, has been staying in Vegas. It hasn't been filtering through to the stock prices ... You left that detail out."

Joe Terranova, a casino skeptic, suggested "maybe it should be idiosyncratic," pointing to widely divergent stock performances among major casino names in the last 10 years. Jim said online sports betting has been a "home run" for names that have it.

Jim joked about an "APP-ellate" court; Steve Weiss flagged the pronunciation.

Phil LeBeau declared, "It will be the busiest week ever for airlines here in the United States."

Weiss during Final Trades urged Jim to unload PARA. Santoli didn't get a word in until Final Trades. Santoli suggested the Nasdaq might have 20,000 "round number, we did it-milestone-itis."

Fast Money crew has 8th-grade-level conversation about Dick’s Sporting Goods (like they always do)

There was no episode of Fast Money on Wednesday (7/3). Which might be a good thing, given how things went a day earlier.

Right after the A Block, Tim Seymour said, "If you look at Dick's, I mean, these numbers have gotten soft."

Dan Nathan said, "Tim, I know you like Dick's here, but ... look at how it's come in 15% from its all-time high, in just about a week."

"I said I don't like Dick's here. You seem somewhat obsessed with Dick's," Tim said.

"You boys are so silly," offered Karen Finerman.

Also on Tuesday, while Halftime was guest-hosted by Frank Holland, Joe Terranova said that if you believe that "we're in the middle of a secular bull market," which Joe said is a "durable thesis," then "guess what — you want a correction in this upcoming quarter." Joe said he would "embrace and welcome" a correction. (Translation: Joe wants the "big whoosh down" to load up on stocks because he thinks the market's going higher.)

Joe said it's pretty simple with the Fed; the "next move" will be a rate cut. "I don't understand why we continue to play Monday Morning, uh, Economists and try and figure out, is it stagflation, is there the possibility that if there's friction with inflation, that we're gonna get a rate hike?" Joe said.

Josh Brown said his "mental target" for UBER is "over a hundred." (This writer is long UBER.) Josh shot down Frank's question about classifying drivers as "gig workers," asserting, "The drivers ... do not wanna be classified as employees." Joe said that his own "mental target" for UBER is even higher than Josh's.

Joe said he's in CRWD "somewhere around the 120s." (Which really helps out potential buyers today.) Joe said PANW is "very quietly beginning to recover from the earnings disappointment that it's had the last 2 quarters."

Waiting for the Big. Whoosh. Down: No one wants to buy this market

Had Judge been present (he had the day off), the front and center of Monday's (7/1) Halftime Report surely would've been Steve Weiss' selling of NVDA.

Weiss said he trimmed NVDA twice recently, citing "euphoria" for the stock. "If they miss even slightly, the stock gets hit. I'll buy it again at that point. Right now, the valuation is just too high," Weiss explained, without telling us how the P.E. ratio of NVDA has served as a guide for him — or anyone — as to where the stock was going in the last 2 years (or ever).

But Jim Lebenthal countered, "I don't think it's overpriced," citing 2 or 3 more quarters of robust growth.

That was the type of muted bullishness Jim and others expressed during this obvious-holiday-week program. Jim also said he's "part of the list" of people who believe small caps will rally, but Jim conceded, "I've been calling for that all year."

Weiss said "I'm worried about the market for a number of reasons. ... In my view, everybody's bullish except for JPMorgan, which still is positive on the market." But Weiss admitted, "I can't point to a catalyst that's going to drop the market valuation." Weiss added that "there's ample reason to be cautious here." (Translation: They all claim during rallies that they want to wait for the pullback, then when there's a pullback, they'll always say there's "more to go" to the downside.)

"I think stocks are OK here," offered Liz Young Thomas.

"Basically we're in need of a correction," stated Joe Terranova, who went on to note, "This is the most significant underperformance for the Russell relative to the S&P ever. On record."

Guest host Frank Holland said that the 2nd half of the year in election years is usually strong for stocks. Liz Young Thomas said "usually" in an election year, there's strength through July, then some "volatility pickup" in the summer and then "relief" near the end. (Which sounds to us like a sell-in-August-buy-in-November trade.) But she thinks we're already "far above" a typical election-year return, so that theory doesn't apply this year.

Liz even brought up a subject that's taboo to Judge: "If somehow the ticket changes."

Oh, MAN! Remember when Matt Taibbi said Goldman Sachs is a SQUID??!!??!!

Joe Terranova on Monday's (7/1) Halftime Report said owning names like META is "THEE conversation." Joe said of the Mag 7, "Everything begins and ends with the direction that these companies are going to take with their profitability in the coming quarters."

Jim Lebenthal said he's trimming Alphabet without really explaining why. (Probably so he has more dry powder for Cleveland-Cliffs.) (This writer is long GOOGL.) Guest host Frank Holland noticed that Jim didn't explain why he's trimming, so Frank impressively persisted; Jim said he's just bringing it "down to market weight" and wants to add cyclicals (snicker).

After the A Block, Joe talked up PLTR (Zzzzzzzzz), one of B of A's top ideas for Q3 and one of those names that often comes up on the show for reasons we can't fathom. Joe also bought DDOG, stating a lot of people have been dismissing software, but Joe thinks there "might be a bottoming process that's unfolding."

Jim said for UNP to move, the earnings have to be good (not exactly an original thought). Frank questioned if the reshoring movement would hurt UNP down the line. Jim said, "It depends on what carloads you're talking about."

GS is another top idea from B of A; Steve Weiss said yet again that it's the "same story that I've been talking about," that once the deal pipeline opens up, there's a "monstrous" backlog on the way.

Frank Holland said Wells Fargo is giving TSLA a price target of 120. Bill Baruch, who was lakeside somewhere apparently already started on his holiday break, said he was buying TSLA a week ago in the 195-197 area. He said Wells' concerns are "priced in already." Bill said he'll buy more, and he pointed to the "August 8th robotaxi unveiling."

Joe said the JOET does not own TSLA, but it's "obviously making a very strong technical breakout."

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said she bought NKE, under her slightly revised 3-day Rule.

Dan Nathan on AI: ‘There’s no use case in my life right now’

Before we get into Friday's (6/28) Halftime Report (see below), we have to do a little rewind to Thursday.

That's when Fast Money viewers heard Dan Nathan make some interesting comments about where all this AI stuff is ... going.

"There's no use case in my life right now other than a little Perplexity here and there of summarizing something for work or whatever, and that's not doin' a whole heckuva lot, because I have to check all the facts-" Nathan stated, before Mel asked a redirect question.

"I'll take the other side," offered Rebecca Patterson, citing a Dallas Fed survey of 400 companies that found "40% of them already are using AI in a daily basis. ... I think there are a lot of users out there across lots of different industries."

It’s a Peacock thing, so that’s why Al was on the show

While Dan Nathan doesn't see an AI use case, NBC Universal apparently does — Paris Olympic highlights in Al Michaels’ voice.

Honestly, we've read a couple news stories about this, and we still don't get it. Except it sounds like what we're eventually moving towards in Sports, which is the AI Vin Scully announcing a current Dodgers game (in which the voice will say, around the 5th inning, that the line drive was speared by Davy Lopes).

Al joined Friday's (6/28) Halftime Report and said of this NBC gambit, "They came to me, they had this idea, I didn't understand it ... I said, 'Let me take a look at this thing' ... they showed me a sample ... and I said 'Whoa,' I was frightened and I was astonished at the same time."

Well, we're not going to be any more frightened or astonished than we were when Gekko was in the Hamptons showing off his robot that could push a tray of drinks around a cocktail party (and then claiming "Dick here's going to get me an exemption, aren'tcha Dick??").

Al joked, "Some articles have called me, uh, Neil Armstrong, the Neil Armstrong of what's going on right now. I just hope I don't crash into the far side of the moon." (Well, savvy sportscasters always have to prepare good lines.)

Meanwhile, Al chuckled that "Farmer Jim" Lebenthal is in AMZN now. Al also said Jim "got rid of his (cringeworthy) Cleveland Cliffs," which isn't accurate per disclosures at CNBC.com.

Al chided analysts who say we're living in "uncertain times."

"I know how to day trade," Al told Judge, but he didn't reveal what's in his portfolio. (This writer is long FAS only because Al used to often talk about owning it and holding it forever (which isn't exactly the recommended formula for this kind of ETF) and in fact, excepting the resets in 2020 and 2022, it's got some impressive long-term charting.)

Judge suggests presidential race could get ‘a little bit messy’

On Friday (6/28), the presidential debate of the night before was a hot topic on cable TV.

Except on CNBC, where Judge and his panel appeared nearly oblivious to the subject on the Halftime Report.

But not totally oblivious, we have to say.

In the 9th minute, Judge finally alluded to the presidential race. First Judge said Tony Pasquariello's latest is that it's a "good time to tap the brakes," and Judge said "fall's gonna bring the, uh, the election, next 4 months. Take last night into consideration, could be a little bit messy. who knows what's gonna happen on, on, on the Democratic side, uh, from here forward (sic last 3 words redundant)."

That was the last viewers heard about presidential politics.

On Fast Money, viewers didn't hear about the debate either, not even any Final Trades of "Gavin Newsom," as Karen Finerman revealed to guest host Tyler Mathisen, "I couldn't watch the debate. I just couldn't watch it." (Note: We think "couldn't" really means "didn't," as it was shown everywhere.)

Joe actually tries to claim that botched buy of Judge’s footwear maker was a ‘great’ experience

Joe Terranova wasn't a panelist on Friday's (6/28) Halftime Report but surfaced on the phone anyway during a discussion of NKE, a long trade Joe had just put on this week and one of the most ghastly of the year.

Judge pointed out that Joe "took a flier" this week on the stock. Joe dialed in and actually began by saying, in one of the most hard-to-believe comments on the show, "I feel great about everything."

Joe pointed out that he "defined the process" (snicker) on Monday in which he explained putting on half a position with plans to make it full over 100, or exit with a stop below 90.

Joe said he got stopped out in the afterhours. Joe said it was just a "technical trade" going into earnings. Joe shrugged that he'll "move on."

Judge said "it's a good lesson (snicker) for the viewer" (basically not to own this stock now), then praised Joe, "You protected your downside," without asking Joe where the stop actually was fulfilled.

"I'm not gonna buy it back," Joe said.

The more we think about it, the more we realized that Joe indeed may "feel great," given that a couple other panelists have recently indicated that clients don't want any capital gains; Joe surely will not have any from his NKE sale.

On Fast Money, Steve Grasso said he bought NKE after the plunge partly because of the Olympics and partly because "things overcorrect."

"I don't think I bought the bottom," but it's a "good start," Steve said. Karen Finerman said "the guidance was just awful," but she is going to think about her (somewhat modified) 3-day rule in regard to this name.

Jim actually thinks the economy needs rate cuts

Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (6/28) Halftime Report stated, "As much as I hate to say this ... I think this economy needs a couple of rate cuts."

Moments later, Stephanie Link told Jim, "2 rate cuts is not gonna help the economy."

"It's- Sentimentally, it will," Jim insisted.

Jim said the "concentration" in the market rally is just "too much."

Brian Belski echoed Joe Terranova (not on NKE, but This Year in the Stock Market), stating, "It's starting to feel more and more to me like this is a 1996, uh, redo."

Kevin Simpson offered this on the S&P: "6,000 sounds ridiculous to me to the high side. Because we're priced to perfection."

Jim claimed that he shares Judge's "vexation" over casino stocks. "Hey, I don't own the stocks, so I mean, I'm not vexed, I'm just like, What is up," Judge protested.

Judge has to discuss this debate performance on Friday’s Halftime

On some CNBC shows (um, think "Squawk" titles), politics are completely fair game. On others, such as Halftime Report and Fast Money, viewers tend to hear, "This is not a political show."

Maybe not. But when a leading presidential candidate is saying the solution to any economic issues this country may be experiencing is to soak the rich, while that candidate cannot even string together 2 consecutive sentences, it's time for Wall Street to weigh in on this issue of serious national importance.

(Note: We know how Lee Cooperman feels about that particular slogan, except Lee isn't on Halftime anymore.)

Your turn, Judge.

Jim admits that multiples can be ‘misstated’ ... if earnings are good

The top story of Thursday's (6/27) Halftime Report was Josh Brown buying more AMZN, which he said is having its "most meaningful breakout" since August 2020.

Brown said it's having a month of "substantial accumulation." Eventually, Brown's extensive case for the stock got into ... yes ... AI.

Jim Lebenthal said he'll "corroborate a lot of what Josh said."

Most interesting, though, was Jim's recollection of getting a "ribbing" back in February because the AMZN forward multiple was 40, and Judge and Josh wondered, "Are you still really a value investor?"

Jim said, "At the time, I said that the multiple was, was misstated versus where earnings are going. And that's clearly showing up right now."

Gotta admit, we were a bit surprised here at CNBCfix HQ, because we didn't recall this debate/discussion at all. But after checking the archive (just hit PgDn about 50 times), we did indeed find an entry on Feb. 22 summarizing that day's Jim-Josh clash.

But actually, Jim said on Feb. 22 that AMZN is "not an expensive stock." While Thursday, he seemed to be saying that it actually was expensive back then, just not to someone who saw bigger earnings ahead.

What was actually memorable from the Feb. 22 flap was that Josh twice clapped at Jim while stressing Josh's point that P.E. ratio is not a valid guide to where AMZN's shares are going.

Anyway, just as in February, Jim and Josh both like the stock.

Meanwhile, in kind of a strange trade update, Bill Baruch joined remotely to address his MU call spread trade (see below), which was buying August 155s and selling August 170s.

"It hasn't worked out," Bill said Thursday, revealing, "I'm down a little more than 50%." But he doesn't think "the trade overall is down." What he's doing now is buying back "half the 170s," which becomes a "more bullish play" on the 155s.

So, just 1 day into this trade that doesn't seem like anything more than a curious options gamble, Bill is basically saying he's still got most of it on.

Jenny Harrington said of Rio Tinto, "We've owned this since 2017; have a really nice return." (Well, anyone who has owned a stock since 2017 and has NOT had a nice return on it probably needs to think about their investing acumen.)

Discussing KO, Rob Sechan actually mentioned "the old Dr. J-Michael Cooper commercial: 'Ya can't beat the real thing. Ya can't beat the feeling.'"

Jim said DIS "has become a cheap stock." (But even if it were "expensive," maybe the earnings would go up and then it wouldn't be expensive.) Jim wondered rhetorically, "Could you actually re-create this company for anywhere near book value?" Hmmm, well, it would be kind of hard to re-create hundreds of movies, some of them decades old, without violating a copyright of some kind.

Josh talked up one of his holdings, IOT, which was also touted by Steve Grasso the previous day on Fast Money; Steve said it "bounced right where it should've bounced."

Judge reported that CLF is down 35% (we think that's 35% YTD, though it's even worse for just Q2). Jim explained, "Hot rolled coil is down 40% in pricing from the start of the year" and suggested maybe CLF is still hoping to buy X (the stock, not the social media company that generally sells for twice as much price as it's worth).

After Judge did a go-round with panelists on stocks that have been slumping, Rob told Judge, "Thanks for bringing up the, the blemishes on our face." Judge said it's "easy" just to talk about stocks that are up.

Jenny said INTC and BGS are the 2 stocks her clients "hate" to own more than any others.

On Thursday's Fast Money, Karen Finerman said WBA is a "melting ice cube" that's had the front of store hammered by AMZN for years and now the back of store is also being hammered by AMZN. Karen said WBA is cheap, but, "It wouldn't shock me at all if it gets cheaper."

Weiss disagrees with basically everything Joe says about NVDA

There was only about one thread of commentary worthy of a headline on Wednesday's (6/26) Halftime Report; frankly, we could've done it in half the time and space had Weiss only stopped talking.

Joe Terranova started off the show advising viewers, "If you do not own Nvidia, you need to get ownership of Nvidia through some form of an ETF that has a large weighting."

Hmmm, OK. But if you need to "get ownership," why not just buy shares of the stock? Joe explained why not.

"If you wanna go and buy the stock outright, I wanna do it in the options market. I don't wanna buy the stock right now, at this point," Joe said. "I just don't wanna go buy the pure equity right now," because there's an "acceleration in the intraday volatility," and Joe expects a "very significant roller coaster ride."

(Translation: Joe thinks the stock might go down. Which is fine. But suggesting a better choice is to try to time the NVDA trade with options seems to us like a reach to anyone not named "Najarian.")

Judge assured that they were going to "monitor" the Nvidia meeting that just started as the show did.

Then Judge aired a clip of Eric Jackson from a day earlier on Closing Bell (tip: If you miss Closing Bell, you can always catch the highlights the next day on the Halftime Report) predicting a "lofty" multiple for NVDA and maybe a $6 trillion market cap; "The euphoria hasn't yet caught up."

Steve Weiss said that's a "little bit" of crazy talk. Then he said, "There's no qualifier, it's crazy."

Weiss wondered how much of NVDA's gain has been "pulled forward" and, correctly in fact, questioned Joe's strategy: "If you have a long-term view of a stock, and it's going through a period of volatility, why would you buy the options? 'Cause you'll lose that premium, you know, unless you go further out. So you've gotta get the premium right, which means you've gotta get the time right in stock moves, and then, you've gotta get the direction right on a longer-term basis up to that date. So, I would not buy the options if I'm a believer. If I'm a believer long term, ride the volatility out and buy the stock."

Then, Weiss took issue with Joe's opening statement. "You don't have to own the stock. You don't have to own any stock," Weiss said. "You're playing with fire here. You're really playing with a pure momentum stock at this point where the share price in my view is not reflective of the actual fundamentals."

Joe responded to Weiss by stating that Weiss, in saying you don't have to own the stock, given what NVDA did in 2023 and 2024, "You're basically saying 'I'm gonna be satisfied underperforming the market.'"

But Weiss and Kari Firestone said what happened in the past isn't necessarily going to happen in the future.

So, "What you're basically both saying is that we're not gonna see the same type of strong performance from this company that we've seen to date," Joe concluded.

Weiss said he's not saying that, he's saying the stock price is "dissociated" from the fundamentals, but Joe's conclusion is still an "accurate statement."

Judge reiterated Eric Jackson's position and $6 trillion prediction for Weiss. "I'm not sayin' it won't get there," Weiss said, but Judge noted Weiss had just called that "crazy talk." Weiss insisted "it is crazy talk," then said, "Forget that I said that I don't doubt it'll get there. Strike that from the record ... What I'm saying is, it could get there," but for Weiss to buy, it'll take the fundamentals to "vastly improve."

Kari said lofty NVDA outlooks are becoming "part of the discourse," which has taken on "very extremist" forecasts.

Joe said it's really hard to find in other stocks the growth expected for the Mag 7. "If you have to answer to clients ... it's almost mandatory that you have to be in these names," Joe asserted. Joe pointed out that the Russell is underperforming every year, 2021, 2022, 2023 and this year even though rates were a lot lower in 2021 and 2022.

Joe offered NKE as evidence he's buying something besides Mag 7. He said he wouldn't be surprised if he got stopped out.

Weiss insisted he's got diversification through defense names but acknowledged, "My portfolio's gonna trade as the megacaps trade." Weiss shrugged that "Nike is to me no different than Starbucks."

Kari talked up HD (Zzzzzzzzz). (Talk about "no different than Starbucks.")

As Seema Mody and Judge provided updates of the Nvidia meeting, Joe said demand for NVDA products isn't in question, it's whether supply can meet it. But Weiss said demand should be questioned. Joe pressed Weiss, "I can't get a read on whether you're bullish or bearish on it."

Weiss said, "I own it. So overall, I'm bullish."

"Welcome to my world, dude," Judge said to Joe. Weiss said he's just "trying to throw cold water" on the euphoria, as he doesn't know when the momentum will stop.

Bill Baruch joined the show remotely in the last 5 minutes to discuss his personal options trade in MU, buying the 155 August calls for $8.20 and selling the August 170 calls for $4.80. Bill said the trade is "not for the faint of heart."

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said AI is still in the "early innings," but NVDA is bound to have pauses or pullbacks, the stock's not going straight up every day.

Josh says NVDA could be ‘dead money for a little while’

Once again, the prospect of accrued tax liability apparently seems to be weighing heavily on Rob Sechan's account management.

Rob on Tuesday's (6/25) Halftime Report explained that he bought AVGO "about a year ago." He said that "it's up 150% since we bought it" and went from being a third of a weighting to a triple weighting. So, he "trimmed that over the last month or so."

Right there, this page would probably take issue, as it often does, with the notion of selling stocks based on how much the other stocks in your portfolio are worth, but Rob actually opened up a different front.

"I will tell you that we got a little pushback on that because the tax consequences were relatively short term. So, our clients didn't obviously love that," Rob revealed.

Well, actually, if we understand that comment correctly, the clients are probably right to be unhappy with that sale. If the shares were bought "about a year ago," and they were just sold recently as short-term gains rather than waiting, say, a month or so for a long-term gain, the clients have a legit beef, although Rob has a legit counterargument if his opinion is that the stock is bound to pull back and negate more in gains than is saved by the difference between long and short term.

OK. But that wasn't all.

Discussing his trimming of MCD, Rob said, "Frankly, you can't kill people with capital gains when you manage taxable accounts."

Well, we did wonder about that one on a few levels. Taxes do kinda suck. On the other hand, if the goal is to never trigger a capital gain, then either 1) You'll never get to touch the fruits of those great calls you've made, or 2) You'll ride those great gains back to break-even or worse if you stick around long enough.

Meanwhile ... Bryn Talkington said of NVDA, "I think more volatility in the name is a good thing."

Josh Brown said NVDA was "amazingly overbought," so, "I could picture the stock being dead money for a little while."

Josh gushed about the MMM "breakout," even though it's "done nothing forever."

Josh said the prospect of ad revenues could be "a whole 'nother story" for UBER. (This writer is long UBER.)

On Tuesday's Fast Money, Grandpa Guy Adami said he thinks the unemployment rate "is gonna start to tick up in a meaningful way."

Judge and Weiss might as well wear track suits to Post 9

Gotta say, Monday's (6/24) Halftime Report wasn't exactly chock-full of stock tips.

The most noteworthy comment wasn't really on the program, as Judge explained to the panel that Ed Yardeni is all in on the market, not just now but even through 2026, with 8,000 on the S&P by the end of the decade. (Note: Neither Judge nor anyone else took a look back at what Ed was forecasting 6 years ago.)

Bryn Talkington offered, "History tells you we have a strong 2nd half," and, apparently referring to election years, said this is "the 2nd-strongest first half since World War II."

"Feels to me like 1996 all over again," said Joe Terranova. But Joe said he's not seeing the evidence yet of the market "broadening out."

Steve Weiss, who like Judge was again proudly in sneakers at the NYSE, said we're "without a doubt in a restrictive interest rate environment," and in that type of environment, "you don't get a growth multiple." So, "The market is overvalued at this level."

Judge suggested looking to "where the puck is going" and the "inescapable" prospect of lower interest rates down the road.

Weiss acknowledged that this time could be different because "we're much more reliant on technology than we are on labor."

Joe said there's been "easier monetary policy" because "QT has been pared back."

Judge said Tony Pasquariello said in his latest note that he was expecting a market breather, but stocks "declined the offramps," which wasn't really the most profound forecast of all time.

Weiss said those who came in last that "couldn't resist" the momentum in NVDA are the ones selling now.

Joe said we have to be "remarkably surprised about the resiliency of the market overall." (Why be surprised if, as panelists always say, "the market goes up 90% of the time.")

Weiss bought more AAPL. He said "the risk/reward is pretty attractive." Joe said Weiss and others are buying the stock "clearly" because of "the innovation of Apple intelligence (snicker)."

Judge said that Bernstein says to buy the "guac" — er, dip — of CMG. (Actually, that was a pretty good line.) Joe said the split is a "very positive thing," but not just for the market but employees because of the ability to do equity grants. Though Joe conceded it's "susceptible" to a correction but advised being prepared to step in.

Jason Snipe seconded Morgan Stanley calling UNH a top pick, he likes it as a 2nd-half play. He called $600 "reasonable." Joe said he can make a "purely technical" argument for NKE. He said it's moving toward its 200-day at $100; he'll take a "very small position" and add if it gets to the 200-day and he'll keep a $90 stop.

Bryn predicted "nice returns" in energy through year-end. Joe said he's been "exhausted" by energy stocks. Joe said he had dinner with Fish and they discussed the 67-95 crude price range.

Some people SOLD Nvidia!

We did catch Friday's (6/21) Halftime Report at CNBCfix HQ, but kind of wondered, what was the point (other than checking out Judge and Weiss' comfortable footwear).

Steve Weiss said he trimmed NVDA, because his position "got too big." (Tip: Stocks don't care about the size of other stocks' positions in Weiss' portfolio.) (Judge obviously has no issue with logos.)

"This is really on steroids," Weiss said.

Bill Baruch trimmed apparently for the same reason. (Zzzzzzzzz) "It's our No. 1 position," Bill said.

But Jason Snipe is "not quite yet" trimming NVDA.

Bill Baruch actually said, "I would never go against Dan Ives, especially in a name like Tesla."

Bill Baruch took a "starter position" in DELL with money that "came out of Micron."

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said that barely more than 24 hours earlier (Thursday morning), there was a feeling of "sort of frothiness" and even a "panic buying" in NVDA. Karen wouldn't be surprised by a "further pullback," although it wasn't clear to us whether she meant NVDA or stocks in general.

Karen Finerman kind of chuckled about the sudden emphasis on banks' living wills, including the letter addressed to "Mr. Dimon."

Uber (but not the car rides) — Judge kinda seems to be scripting the same show at 2 different times

At the 6th minute of Thursday's (6/20) Halftime Report, Judge said he saw a story, and "this is a big deal" and "this needs to be discussed."

Indeed. He needed to discuss it at least twice, actually. (Bear with us.)

Judge, who paired his suit with white tennis shoes on Thursday, reported that Morgan Stanley Wealth Management boosted its tech holdings in its model portfolio. (Zzzzzzzzzzz.)

Judge said it's a "big deal," because "unless you're like an uber, a high-net-worth client of private wealth management at these places, you generally get put in model portfolios, right. Pre-designed portfolios. They're not personalized."

Judge wondered if there's a potential "risk" from increasing exposure to tech.

Josh Brown said this is happening because of "client demand." Josh added, "These moves, typically when they happen, are closer to the end of something than they are to the beginning."

"OK. That. Is. My. Point," Judge said, adding it's not a "shot at Morgan Stanley" or other wealth managers.

OK. Fast forward a few hours. On Closing Bell, Judge mentioned to Santoli — and note the terminology — that Morgan Stanley Wealth Management boosted its tech holdings in its model portfolios. "Pre-designed portfolios ... unless you are a (sic not 'an') uber high-net-worth person, uh, who is getting super-specialized and personalized portfolio construction, many of our viewers who are clients of whatever firm are getting put in a so-called model portfolio."

Judge then echoed Josh Brown (attributing it to Josh), saying people are "callin' up their advisors" and demanding more tech. Then Judge echoed Josh again, stating, "This type of stuff doesn't necessarily happen at the beginning."

‘Zero snark’ — Only 1 person seems to think NVDA 2024 really is like CSCO 2000

Judge opened Thursday's (6/20) Halftime Report by asking Josh Brown if NVDA's gains are "gettin' silly."

Josh responded, "It might be justified, but it might be happening too soon. And the pace of this has definitely gotten silly."

Josh said if you just bought NVDA 5 minutes ago, "Don't write emails," because he's not saying you'll lose money. Brown said he's been long NVDA for 8 years, and "it's a hundred-bagger."

Sarat Sethi said he has taken profits in NVDA "twice in the last year," but it's still 6% of his portfolio, which is "really high," so he's "about ready to do it again." (Tip: Stocks do not care what Sarat's basis is.)

But Josh suggested NVDA has a "magnet" to 150.

Judge thought he was airing a clip of Keith "Life Sciences" Meister saying Tuesday on Closing Bell that NVDA's multiple may be deservedly high. Instead, viewers heard Keith say, "I think rate cuts will actually be a negative for the market," because cuts would happen if things are "rolling over." Judge said, "Well, that wasn't it." But Judge said Keith said that if NVDA is "not overearning," it deserves a "really high multiple."

(Keith's comments on rate cuts apparently were supposed to air during Closing Bell, when they did re-air; someone jumped the gun. Keith's comments on NVDA also re-aired later.)

Jenny Harrington, as she always says about tech gains, said, "I think things have gone too far."

Jenny said WSJ had an article about the last time a computing infrastructure company was the biggest market cap; it was CSCO in 2000, just after it passed MSFT.

Jenny said that eventually, "competition" and "maturity" set in and pointed to potential signs of toppiness. Josh said, "Except we could've said that 5 years ago. And it would've been right, to say, but very wrong" for investing.

Jenny again mentioned her 2 clients who called her wanting to be in bitcoin. Judge told Jenny that he's "honestly" asking with "zero snark" (snicker), "What is it like to be outside the window looking in." Jenny admitted, "It feels like I'm in a bear market."

But Jenny said, "I know I'm not alone in this. I don't know anyone who's up as much as the S&P 500."

Jim Lebenthal, who had a quiet show, said NVDA is going higher, not because of P.E., but because "everybody wants to own it." Josh said Jensen is talking about "sovereigns" loading up on NVDA equipment.

Josh said that CSCO had the benefit of companies spending because of Y2K fears ... and the "same phenomenon is starting to develop" with companies afraid of being at the back of the line for NVDA chip orders, which might be pulling forward future demand.

As Judge discussed the "big deal" of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management upping its model portfolio tech exposure, Josh contended that money managers will hear the ducks "quacking" about tech and will feed the ducks with what they want. Sarat said, "In that world, it's called closet indexing, right. You will not lose your job if you closet index."

Josh said it's actually young investors who flooded 5% money market accounts, so if you're recruiting young investors, you have to entice them with tech.

On Closing Bell, Joe Terranova cautioned that "there's gonna be a day where Nvidia's down 10%." On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said NVDA "absolutely" could pull back 20%.

Steve Grasso said on Fast Money that the first 15 days of July "are the best 2-week period going back to 1928," and, "the last time the Nasdaq was down in July was 2007."

Josh actually endorses a stock touted by Jenny

In a rare moment of agreement, Josh Brown on Thursday's (6/20) Halftime Report seconded Jenny Harrington's touting of WMB.

Judge said an obscure stock, IOT, was initiated buy by B of A. Josh said IOT "one day will be discovered" and has a "really interesting niche," but the technicals don't look great.

Sarat Sethi said TDG is in the "sweet spot of demand" for plane upgrades.

Josh Brown said he expects he'll get stopped out of WBD at a small loss.

Josh said that after being a "huge home run," CMG seems to be trading "in line" with other large-cap Nasdaq stocks.

Judge aired a clip of Keith "Life Sciences" Meister calling utilities a "good investment" (Zzzzzzz). The panel seemed to agree that an assortment of names are good plays.

On Fast Money, Guy Adami mentioned, as he does about every day, that the president's approval ratings are at "historic lows."

Steve Grasso: Boeing may have to ‘ditch’ the 737 Max

Judge opened Tuesday's (6/18) Halftime Report citing B of A's fund manager survey that's the most bullish since November 2021.

Joe Terranova assured viewers that the bullishness of today is "completely different" than that of November 2021.

Back then, Joe said, bullishness "surrounded Peloton non-profitable companies."

Citing surveys, Judge said the Mag 7 is "one of the most crowded trades of all time," though it doesn't seem to be "dissipating." Josh Brown made a lengthy argument about differing Wall Street perceptions and concluded, "The historic relationships between P.E. ratio, and, and short-term rates, Fed funds rate, and 10-year Treasury — throw them out the window. They're not helping your investment process."

Joe is somehow already trimming the XLG after touting it as recently as a day earlier. Joe said he's "selling half" because he "captured 7% profit in 2 weeks." (Tip: Stocks don't care what someone's cost basis is.)

Bill Baruch wasn't on the panel but remotely explained that he trimmed MU and bought DELL.

A lot of the show involved people trumpeting how much certain stocks were up. (So let's see exactly how these portfolios are doing.)

On Tuesday's Fast Money, Karen Finerman said she bought NVDA puts, which have lost value: "I do really believe we're still in early innings of AI."

Steve Grasso said BA may have to "ditch" the 737 Max. "There's NO light at the end of the tunnel," Steve said.

Josh suggests Judge’s observation about PFE might be ‘misleading’

Judge on Tuesday's (6/18) Halftime Report said PFE (snicker) had just recorded 8 straight days of losses. (It actually closed up on Tuesday.) (This review was posted overnight Tuesday/Wednesday.)

Recent PFE fan Josh Brown suggested Judge was being "misleading" about "8 days in a row," given that it's only fallen from "29 to 27 and a quarter." Judge said it's "noteworthy" and "we're just noting streaks like we do."

Josh said the GLW story "is just so sexy."

Meanwhile, Josh said that "politically, it is impossible to oppose, um, the, the crypto lobby, and just regular people who own crypto."

That prompted Jenny Harrington to actually say she has "2 clients" who "carved out part of their portfolios like on their own, to dedicate to bitcoin and bitcoin ETFs." (So much for the Dividend Growth Strategy.)

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman sold NFLX 750 calls against her long position; "that's not gonna protect me that much to be honest but I felt like, oh my God, this has been quite a run, I gotta do something." (This writer is long NFLX, which is undercharging customers by a serious margin, making us wonder why Karen Finerman is trying to trade around this stock.)

Analyst actually had a 4,750 S&P target

The A Block of Monday's (6/17) Halftime Report, guest hosted by Frank Holland, didn't really break any ground in terms of anyone having a new stock market outlook, but Frank kept a crisp discussion going nonetheless.

Frank started off by saying "fresh (sic 1st word basically redundant but passable) record high" about 4-5 times just in his intro, in which Frank said Julian Emanuel of Evercore is taking a "pretty big swing" in changing his S&P target from 4,750 "all the way up to 6,000."

Joe Terranova stated, "We will get to 6,000 at a certain point in time," which is not exactly a groundbreaking prediction, but "it's very difficult to forecast an S&P price target ... by a specific period of time." (So in other words, all or nearly all of the Street's targets are going to be wrong, so ... who cares.)

Anastasia Amoroso said the Fed isn't certain about when the rate cut will happen, but markets will "take it, you know, in stride."

Steve Weiss said the market "drove past what I think is reasonable valuation levels, but it doesn't mean it's gonna correct." But Weiss said small caps "should be down."

Jim Lebenthal, once again jousting with Weiss over the health of the consumer, said the Fed last week got "incrementally more hawkish."

Jim started making data predictions of "continued increases in retail sales." Anastasia too predicted "better than expected retail sales." We wonder how anyone has some sort of insight as to how that number is going to come in. Have they been counting cars in parking lots?

Weiss asked Anastasia if it's her call that credit card delinquencies "won't go higher than what has been normal." Anastasia indicated it would "pick up" for the "lower-income cohort." Weiss cut in that "60% of the consumer lives paycheck to paycheck. That's a pretty big lower-end cohort, right?" (And what official survey actually defined 60% of people living under the term "paycheck to paycheck.")

Weiss said the "firehose effect" of people apparently cutting loose with their wallets because they were cooped up in the pandemic is "starting to peter out."

Frank told Jim that just 5 stocks are "60% of the gains" in the market and wondered if that's troubling to Jim. "Not so far," Jim said.

Anastasia said she doesn't expect "megacap leadership to fall apart, but I do expect that outperformance to come down."

Joe again decided to "share my experience" of running an "equal-weighted strategy," which now is "not the strategy that is working in the marketplace (sic last 3 words redundant)." So he bought the XLG.

If Taco Bell starts serving an AI taco, watch YUM take off

Joe Terranova, fresh off his red-hot AAPL post-earnings call that has catapulted him into the lead for Call of the Year, was sort of waffling like L'eggo my egg'o on Monday's (6/17) Halftime Report.

Guest host Frank Holland said DDOG was reiterated "sell" at Monness. Joe said it "peaked out" in February and that the AI networking angle is a "future story" and "quite candidly," he has to admit he's not sure whether it's a buy or sell at the moment.

At another point, Joe 3 times said "Elliott" (he meant "Starboard"; Frank corrected him) is in ADSK; Joe said ADSK has a "governance issue that has to be addressed." But he doesn't think that's the reason "Starboard" is in the name.

Frank said Dan Ives hiked his MSFT target to 550. Joe said MSFT has a "rich" valuation, but just try to find another company with this kind of offense as well as a "defensive nature" (sounds a little like the '78 Steelers).

Jim Lebenthal actually claimed, "What you got from last week's Adobe results is clear indication that Adobe has figured out very well how to monetize AI." Jim said it's at a "very attractive entry point."

Jim again touted ORCL, as he does about every appearance, again citing the multiple.

Jim said "as long as GDP grows," which sounds like a significant qualifier for a lot of stocks, UNP is "a good stock to own at this price."

Kate Rooney provided an update on the bare-bones, rescheduled GME meeting in which people actually thought they might hear a turnaround plan. "We did not get any specifics on that plan," Kate said.

Rob says tech hasn’t been this expensive ‘since the tech bubble’

It's probably not a contender for Call of the Year, but make of it what you will. Rob Sechan on Friday's (6/14) Halftime Report explained the market this way: "Any dip that is not met with a growth scare is a dip to buy."

Rob, though, cautioned, "Markets, specifically growth and technology, have not been this expensive since the tech bubble. Period. Full stop."

Judge hasn't read a Tony Pasquariello note in days; on Friday, Judge said Tony's latest is "secular winners the weapon of choice: megacap tech," or in other words, buy the "highest conviction/highest quality names."

Judge asked Jim about the week's bifurcation between tech and cyclicals. Jim conceded, "The cyclical trade is in question because of the question about the durability of the earnings growth there."

Jim again stressed his belief that the businesses are fine, even "fantastic" in some cases, it's just the stocks that are stumbling, and if he's correct, either the stocks will catch fire, or the buybacks will pile up.

Jim said to viewers, "If you disagree, and you think the economy is goin' down the tank, do not own these stocks."

Judge couldn't resist a counterargument. "But see here's the thing. It doesn't have to be so binary as you present it. ... Many people believe that the economy is durable, and yet, this month, financials ... industrials ... materials ... energy ... over a month are down at least 3%. ... These stocks are not working right now," Judge said.

"Factually correct. You'll get no disagreement from me," Jim said.

Jim more than anyone correctly talked up the boost from NVDA’s split

In an interesting segment, Bob Pisani on Friday's (6/14) Halftime Report took up the comeback of stock splits, noting they're "far less common than 20 or 30 years ago," because they fell out of favor after the dot-com crash, and the institutional base has come to dominate the market.

Bob indicated the recent splits are occurring because of "absurd levels" of nominal stock prices and interest in "appealing to retail investors." Bob said that while in theory, splits don't affect market cap, things like higher trading volumes and wider shareholder base provide a "subtle but beneficial effect on the stock."

Bob said the "over-1,000 club" might be split candidates.

Kevin Simpson noted that people selling covered calls need 100 shares of the stock, so splits are welcome. Bryn Talkington said splits are just an indication of the health of the company.

Who is actually buying 3-week AAPL 240 calls?

Kevin Simpson opened Friday's (6/14) Halftime Report saying he sold covered calls on his "entire position" in AAPL. He said his shop was trying to "harvest volatility" with the 3-week 240 strike, so they sold the calls for $1 of premium, which he said "annualizes out at an 8% capital return on principal."

Sounds like a lucrative trade. The thing is, this page knows nothing about options other than what comes from the Najarii commercials, but it seems hard to believe that AAPL in that short of a time span could continue its rocket ride past 240.

Judge told Bryn Talkington that AAPL had a "new (sic redundant) record high this week." Bryn said, "I think the market's saying, 'We will get an upgrade cycle.'" Bryn said she loves the options trade put on by Kevin.

Jim Lebenthal, though, said "I would not" buy AAPL, because he thinks the market cap increase is more than the upgrade cycle merits.

Judge silent on presidential politics as big debate looms

For either the 2nd or 3rd day this week, Bryn Talkington on Friday's (6/14) Halftime Report addressed TSLA, stating, "Technically, the stock looks to be building a base between 170 and 180. The stock really has been broken all year."

Bryn said the China story is the key to the stock. Bryn suggested selling the September 200 calls for $11.70 for a 6½% yield in 3 months, not even annualized.

Bryn said PLTR, which was touted by Joe Terranova this week, "is like the ultimate AI company, right, before AI was cool, right." Bryn thinks the company is "building a massive moat."

Judge mentioned the big day by ADBE, which Kari Firestone touted this week but Joe Terranova did not (he was due for a miss).

Judge again aired a clip of Brad Gerstner this week suggesting software stocks have bottomed. "I totally agree, uh, uh, with Brad," said Jim Lebenthal. "Adobe looks pretty tasty here."

Kevin Simpson sold calls on TJX.

Jim defended AMZN vs. WMT, he's "not that jazzed up" about WMT and doesn't own it, but he doesn't see the 2 companies as a pairs trade. Kevin Simpson agreed that "it's not an either (pronounced EYE-ther)/or trade." He said he likes both stocks.

For the 2nd day in a row, Bryn got to talk up RBLX. Bryn said it's a "sticky company" and again said she added at 31 after the recent market "overreaction."

Jim said he doesn't think 75 is agressive for C. Jim said, "There is no good reason why Citi trades at a discount to tangible book value." (Other than the fact it always trades that way.)

Rob Sechan said "a lot of people were hoping the yield curve would start to steepen and take pressure off net interest margins, pulling money from money funds and back into deposits, and that's just not happened."

Judge actually asked Bryn when everyone will start buying PYPL (snicker) again. Josh Brown was the last to try, probably last year. Bryn acknowledged "Venmo is such a juggernaut," but "there's no interest in the stock." Bryn thinks people view it as "somewhat of a commodity," and she doesn't want to own something that other people don't seem to want to buy.

Judge said B of A reinstated a buy in COP, a move cheered by Kevin Simpson. Bryn said we'll continue to see M&A in energy.

Kate Rooney joined the crew at Post 9 to relate how the dollar strength and some ETF arbitraging have been a headwind for bitcoin.

Kate said Keith Gill "appears to have increased his position in GameStop," by selling calls.

Karen: Elon deserves the money but is ‘kind of’ holding a gun to shareholders’ heads

On Thursday's (6/13) Halftime Report, CNBC's Phil LeBeau talked about Elon's projections on the shareholder vote.

"It's triggering a relief rally," Phil said.

"I think everyone's ready for this to be over," said Bryn Talkington, who said what's "frustrating" to Musk supporters is that he took this compensation in options.

"I do think it's absurd. Um, I think it will pass," and people can "move on," Bryn said.

Josh Brown said it sounds like "an outrageous amount of money," but you have to "weigh it against the market cap growth." Josh said it initially passed "without a lot of kerfuffle."

Jim Lebenthal, though, suggested that this pay controversy is actually good for TSLA. "I suspect you actually don't wanna get back to focusing on the fundamentals," Jim said, because it's trading at "56 times next year's earnings" and estimates "have been coming down massively."

Jim and Bryn discussed whether TSLA is a "car company" or a "growth company," a long-running conversation on CNBC for a decade.

On Fast Money, Guy Adami said TSLA is a "challenged company at best" and that if the stock bounces on the pay package, he'd fade.

Bonawyn Eison said TSLA would have an "existential crisis" if Musk didn't get this pay package.

Karen Finerman said "I think he should get it," but "I hate the dynamic of him sort of, you know, holding a, holding a gun to shareholders' head."

Jim says time of rate cut ‘doesn’t matter’ to markets (a/k/a elongating our bond yields)

Jim Lebenthal started off Thursday's (6/13) Halftime Report saying "I'm not sure I'm gonna place really any importance at all on what the Fed said yesterday."

Jim said the Fed will just be data dependent, and "Nobody that I know, including me, thinks that there's gonna be a rate cut before September. Or in June. That's a long, long runway."

Jim concluded, "I think, and my firm thinks, we're gonna get 1 cut in September, another in December, and then we're gonna do alternating meetings from there."

Jason Snipe offered, "I don't necessarily believe that the economy needs cuts."

Josh Brown said "it's very simple" what professionals should be advising: "Get out of cash."

Jim actually said of rate cuts, "The markets really don't care at this point in time. September, December. Doesn't matter. This economy is strong."

Guest host Frank Holland brought up cyclicals; Jim complained about how "I feel like Mr. Cyclical." Then Jim brought up "TSA passenger counts ... people are traveling like crazy."

Bryn Talkington's remote connection had a lot of trouble; once she got going, Bryn advised being "really careful" about cyclicals and not employing a "rifle shot approach"; Bryn predicted the economy would be "slowing later on in the year."

Bryn said, "The clear trend still is in tech. That's just like as clear as the day is long."

Apparently agreeing with Bryn, Jim suggested the Mag 7 is up 10% in the last week and has a market cap of about $12 trillion, so that $1.2 trillion increase "has to come from somewhere."

Josh Brown questioned, "You don't think that could just be money coming out of the $6 trillion that went into money market funds last year." Jim said, "Of course, it could be." Frank said money market totals are "actually growing."

Josh said, "If they start to drop rates, you're gonna see a rush into certain types of bonds where people say, 'OK, let me elongate (snicker) the 4½ percent that I can get and not, you know, worry so much about the 5½ that's on offer right now. Let me lock in."

Kristina Partsinevelos reported on AVGO's split and market cap and AVGO's conservative guidance. Jason Snipe cited the capex in the AI space and said "we're in the very early innings of this trend." Bryn Talkington said the QQQ is "such a great way to play AI at this point (sic last 3 words redundant)." (This writer is long QQQ.)

Josh Brown once again talked up GLW, he said "the stock's barely down" after a downgrade.

How much money did Tim Cook spend on a video telling rich people that new AAPL products will be a tiny bit better than current ones; couldn’t that cash have helped out some struggling families?

Guest host Frank Holland on Thursday's (6/13) Halftime Report called PARA's deal situation a "major Hollywood drama," when there's no drama in it.

Jim Lebenthal said he's "glad the SkyDance deal went away," calling it an "incredibly hare-brained scheme." Jim admitted PARA has been a "terrible stock" and it's "my fault" for staying in it. Jim even said Shari Redstone "doesn't seem to be acting rationally." But he'll "stick around for a little bit longer."

Jim talked up GM buybacks and said the "5 times" multiple should at the very least be "7 times."

Josh Brown predicted "expanding margins" and a "larger store footprint" now that SHAK has hired the guy who was running Papa John's.

Josh said at Sweetgreen, "you have to ask them for a napkin ... it's a very weird situation."

Jason Snipe said he still likes NFLX, and "I think it takes out 700." (This writer is long NFLX.)

Frank tried to reach Bryn Talkington on RBLX but, as happened earlier in the show, Bryn was disconnected. Minutes later, Bryn connected and said that in the last quarter, RBLX tumbled from 42 to 30 when the market "overreacted." Bryn said she added at 31 and expects to see it get back to 42. Frank questioned the RBLX business model of kids having to ask their parents for money to buy the games.

Joe Terranova, utterly dominant this week with his spectacular AAPL post-earnings call, was on Closing Bell guest hosted by Santoli. Joe said he doesn't think the Fed is the risk to markets; the risk is that "the AI and tech story falls apart."

Suddenly, it’s Joe vs. Andrew for Call of the Year

On Monday, this page indicated we wanted to hear more from Andrew Left, who took part in the Halftime Report last week.

Long after that suggestion was posted, we realized we forgot to include exactly why we want to hear more from Andrew. (Yes, he's a humorous fellow, but that's not the whole reason.)

And it has nothing to do with GME.

It's because Left on Friday (6/7) (see below) was asked by Judge to "assess" the stock market and responded, "Everything's just fine. The economy's great, the stock market's great."

That's an extraordinary answer. Incredibly simply put. And quite possibly, an absolutely correct outlook for owning stocks in 2024.

About 99% of the time, panelists or guests on the show parse their response like Hank Kimball, you know, "Oh Broadcom's inventories were down 3% and the return on equity was 7% above the year over year quarter and oh by the way the multiple is such and such so ... I think you should be cautiously optimistic".

What if Andrew's comment — rather than the trading-the-RSI-or-Mag-7-P.E.-ratio-every-10-days mumbo jumbo we often hear — is exactly how retail investors should view the markets? Just be long, it'll be a good year, don't overthink it.

We're thinking, Left's throwaway comment may just be the Call of the Year.

Except that within 2 business days, it was somehow superseded by Joe Terranova's 2nd spectacular post-earnings trading call on a tech giant, a move that seems to be cementing this market as another potentially narrow Mag 7 type of year.

The technical accuracy of Joe's post-earnings predictions for AAPL and NVDA are astonishing. But more important seems to be the notion that the market can't help but look to these stocks as the leaders.

2024 is about halfway over. We'll see how this plays out.

Weiss says it’s ‘crazy’ that the market ‘keeps going up’

As Judge was hanging out in The Golden State on Wednesday (6/12) preparing for his post-Fed chat with Jeffrey Gundlach on Closing Bell, Frank Holland guest hosted Wednesday's Halftime Report and asked the panel for predictions.

Anastasia Amoroso, who hasn't been on the show for a while but whose super-sharp shoes put on a show at Post 9 (Judge and Weiss always wear sneakers), said the rally is "looking quite exuberant" as we're hitting some "overbought technical levels." Anastasia said Powell comments may be "more constructive" this time, but we're "certainly not" going to hear a cut announcement at this meeting.

Steve Weiss said there's "crazy stuff going on in the market right now," which is that it "just keeps going up."

First Weiss said it's "all multiple expansion," then he said, "It's really not just multiple expansion."

Weiss suggested there could be election risk of some kind brewing.

Kari Firestone said the market loves that inflation is cooling even "a little bit."

Joe Terranova said he's "always" believed that we'd get "a cut" with a "real" possibility of a 2nd cut. "There's a clear disinflationary trend that's in place," Joe said.

Joe said that assessing the market is about "respecting the prevailing trend." Joe also said the '70s is the "wrong analogy" for inflation; rather, this is 94-96. "This feels so much, 2024, to me like '96," Joe said.

Steve Liesman said Jerome Powell will be "happy about this morning's report." Steve said the Fed will tick down the expectations of rate cuts in 2024 from 3 to 2, something Frank Holland clarified.

Jeffrey Gundlach says ‘our institutions are falling apart’

A couple hours after Wednesday's (6/12) Halftime Report, Jeffrey Gundlach, hosting Judge in L.A., said Jay Powell was "remarkably vague" in the Q&A session. "He used the word 'balanced' a lot of times," Jeffrey said. (This review was posted overnight Wednesday/Thursday.)

Jeffrey stated "Implicitly, what we have here, is a growing acceptance of a higher baseline inflation rate."

He said he is "less confident" of 1 cut this year.

At the end of their conversation, Jeffrey delved into politics. He said of the Biden administration, "When you glue constituents together, they're not monolithic. And they don't always agree with each other," citing the war in Gaza.

Jeffrey continued: "How many times do you read, 'Our institutions are falling apart'?" Jeffrey said he was talking about it 15 years ago, but now people are talking about it "out in the open."

"People don't believe in churches anymore. People don't believe in the Justice Department to the extent that they used to. ... I don't think there's any one source of this ... so much wealth inequality ... people are starting to realize that they're being ignored by what they used to think was the establishment. It's just a lot like 1968," Jeffrey said.

Back to the Fed, Steve Liesman on Wednesday's Fast Money said "it was a dovish morning followed by what you might call a hawkish afternoon." Karen Finerman asked Steve whether the CPI print or Powell's hawkish tone was "more meaningful." Steve utterly punted on that one.

Steve joked about the "shelf life of a Scaramucci" when discussing the Fed's dot plots.

Weiss implies the market doesn’t really understand how bad the consumer is

The big trade on Wednesday's (6/12) Halftime Report was that Steve Weiss bought more NVDA.

Weiss said it's "extremely liquid" (snicker) and it's an opportunity for "exposure on a trading basis."

Weiss said it was an "easy one to get into." Guest host Frank Holland questioned how it's "easy" given that Weiss minutes earlier was complaining about multiple expansion leading the market.

Frank also said Torsten Slok is warning that if NVDA declines, the market will take a hit. Joe Terranova said the difference between the S&P and equal weight performance is the widest in "nearly 30 years."

Anastasia Amoroso claimed there's "a lot of broadening" happening globally and the market would be "OK" if NVDA hadn't delivered.

Kari Firestone bought AVGO without really saying anything new about the company that isn't heard on the show about twice a week.

Weiss has also rebought UBER. (This writer is long UBER.) Weiss again said the UBER downdraft was because of the loss. Weiss admitted "I am concerned about the consumer" but he bought the stock because "it doesn't matter what shape the consumer is in. It matters what the market thinks the shape of the consumer (sic grammar)." And if it's "a more dovish Fed" on Wednesday, then consumer stocks will rise, Weiss said.

Joe said Weiss' UBER buy is a "great" trade and that the selloff was because of "the loss of profitability" (translation: not the Elon nonsense that Brad Gerstner was talking about a day ago). Joe said, "I think Uber goes a lot higher."

Frank brought up Brad Gerstner's pro-software call. Anastasia said, "I couldn't agree more," explaining, "Software relative to semis is just extremely cheap." Joe cast doubt on ADBE but suggested PLTR "first and foremost," plus MSFT and CDNS, though Joe admitted "I missed it" in CDNS. Kari said she disagrees with Joe on ADBE. Kari likes CRM.

Joe affirmed that the JOET has exposure to LEN, DHI and NVR, but "you have to accept interest rate volatility" in that space. Kari said NEE is "very attractive."

Santoli told Frank the market was having a "rational tension release trade (snicker)."

Anastasia said there are opportunities in the big banks. Joe said the JOET added 3 regional banks in April. Joe said the strength in financials has been in insurance and private equity, he mentioned KKR and Apollo.

Terranova on fire! Joe nails AAPL $200 weeks after NVDA $1,000

Judge's Halftime Report Tuesday (6/11) was so chock-full of material, we couldn't stop typing — and yet the biggest news actually happened a day earlier.

Joe Terranova on Monday said AAPL has "the type of momentum that most likely propels the stock above $200 at some point this afternoon or in the coming days."

It didn't happen that afternoon — but it sure happened on Tuesday.

With his pair of sensational and jaw-droppingly accurate post-earnings-trade calls recently in NVDA and AAPL, 2 stocks that are quite possibly defining the 2024 trade right at this moment, Joe has rocketed to the top of the Call of the Year list.

On Fast Money, Guy Adami admitted that on Monday he sensed "a bit of a double-top" in AAPL, but "that clearly wasn't the case."

Guy's colleagues were mostly in the disbelief camp. Dan Nathan shrugged that "I did not see a buncha analysts come up and upgrade the stock."

Karen Finerman said she was "kind of underwhelmed" by the WWDC and stated, "now we have a hardware multiple, a software multiple and I guess an AI multiple." Karen said she has a "tiny position" in AAPL that is "so small, it's effectively short."

Steve Grasso predicted next week or the week after for AAPL, "a bunch of analysts upgrading their, their sales numbers, their numbers on upgrade cycle, and they'll chase it."

CLF is trading for $15 a share

Speaking of AAPL, Josh Brown, touting D.A. Davidson's slogan that "AI now stands for Apple Intelligence (snicker)," said at the top of Tuesday's (6/11) Halftime Report that AAPL "grasped what was necessary" and "seized the opportunity," though the WWDC video "had a higher budget than some Netflix shows."

Brown did claim that AAPL is "supercharging (snicker) Siri."

Brenda Vingiello said AAPL has the "whole picture" of people's data that other tech giants don't have.

Steve Weiss, who Judge said bought AAPL at 190 in May, shrugged, saying he didn't hear from Judge that anyone is upgrading AAPL, rather, "they've all had buys on it."

Weiss said the issue for the stock is that "you're paying a premium" for gains that are coming from "financial engineering."

Judge said D.A. Davidson "did upgrade the stock" and was previously "neutral."

Weiss said he'll stay in the stock even though "it's still expensive." After trying a joke about Apple's innovation, Weiss said it's the company's "installed base that's worth a premium."

Josh said he agrees that during a recent slump, AAPL kept itself afloat with buybacks, but Josh seemed to think Weiss was underestimating the "first true i- iPhone upgrade cycle in years" that will require newer models. Weiss said he was making that point himself and agrees, "Yes, it will drive a new upgrade cycle across their devices."

Josh touted the presentation on "on-device compute" that will allow AAPL users to avoid having data warehoused with a 3rd-party; "I forget what the guy's name was, the one that looked like Bill Ackman jumping down staircases."

Asked, basically, whether AAPL's event was a big deal, Brad Gerstner, who was at the studio with Judge at 1 Market in San Francisco, said it was a "natural step in the evolution" of AI. But Brad noted the head starts of other tech giants in this field.

Brad observed, "Noticeably absent was everybody but OpenAI," so he suspects the "integration going on with OpenAI is deeper than what we heard about yesterday."

Brad said he added to his AAPL position.

Weiss questions why Brad can fault Meta’s governance while praising Tesla’s

A real donnybrook got underway on Tuesday's (6/11) Halftime Report when star guest Brad Gerstner, who joined Judge at 1 Market in San Francisco, said TSLA shareholders "want Elon to get paid" and decried people "Monday morning quarterbacking" to use to the courts rather than shareholders to "undo" Musk's compensation.

Brad didn't seem to care as much as Judge did that Nelson Peltz supports the Musk pay package, but Brad said it's a "travesty" that the pay package is even at risk.

Steve Weiss took part in the conversation remotely and immediately took issue with Brad's assessment of the subject. Weiss said shareholders are free to approve the pay package. Then Weiss brought up one of Brad's previous topics.

Weiss said it's "interesting" that Mark Zuckerberg would "get called out for overspending and poor governance," yet "somebody who practices poor governance, who has a board in the back pocket, you know, it's OK to own that stock." (Note: Brad sometimes cares about certain things at certain times, and not as much as at other times.)

Weiss also defended the Delaware judge (lower case "judge"), saying "there's a rule of law" in these matters and "it's not political." Weiss added, "She just said, 'Do it the right way.' So it's not disgraceful. That's what America's about."

Brad told Weiss, "It's well-documented, the conflict the judge had here ... I don't believe it's the rule of law," and the judge needed the "art of gymnastics frankly to come up with this ruling ... totally disagree with your opinion."

Weiss insisted on telling Judge that Nelson Peltz is still "biased" toward Musk even though Peltz doesn't own the shares.

Weiss disagrees with Brad on reason for UBER’s selloff

Brad Gerstner, in San Francisco with Judge at 1 Market for Tuesday's (6/11) Halftime Report, took issue with maybe Judge's favorite subject of the last year, that Brad is a "Google naysayer" (Brad's term Tuesday), while Brad protested "It was my largest position for like over a decade."

Regarding other tech giants, Brad said Andy Jassy is in "animal mode" in terms of running things efficiently.

Brad said of UBER, "I think the reason the stock sold down is because Elon said he was gonna launch robotaxi, uh, you know, in August of this year." Brad said UBER would be over 80 "but for that announcement by Elon." (This writer is long UBER.)

Steve Weiss sold UBER on May 23, he said it was for several reasons, that it's "pretty well" correlated with other tech names and also levered to the consumer.

Weiss repeated what he said days ago, that UBER sold down because of the quarterly loss. (He didn't mention options this time.) Brad told Weiss that "100% with certainty," the reason UBER is under pressure is because of Elon's robotaxi. Weiss said "we're gonna have to disagree," saying the "big gap down" came from the earnings report.

Weiss and Josh Brown for some reason were quibbling over whether UBER is "cheap" and at one point said each other's name a bunch of times, "Josh, Josh, Josh"; "Steve, Steve, Steve."

Liz joins Closing Bell set just days after wedding

Late into Tuesday's (6/11) Halftime Report, Brad Gerstner told Judge that the "smart money" is buying software.

Citing tax cuts from 2017, Brad said the election will have "huge consequences" on stock market direction.

Josh Brown bought more GLW and mentioned a "breakout in progress."

Days after getting married, Liz Young Thomas showed up on Closing Bell with an adjusted last name.

David Faber turned up on Tuesday's Fast Money to talk about what should be one of everyone's least favorite subjects, National Amusements and Paramount Plus. Guy Adami said David is "iconic" and one of the 4 on some kind of "Mount Rushmore."

We. Want. Left.
We. Want. Left.
We. Want ... (a/k/a actually had a day without CNBC reporting the GME price)

On Monday (6/10), Judge stationed himself at Cupertino to ... interview everyone else remotely in the greater New York City area.

Well, OK, that's not quite what happened. (But it's not like Judge's location enabled him any scoops.)

Josh Brown said at the top of a sleepy Halftime Report episode that what AAPL watchers were hoping to see is a "new source of growth"; if not, Josh predicted a stock "yawn" or "correction."

(In fact, Dan Nathan on Fast Money called it a "snoozefest.")

(Guy Adami likened WWDC to a "Happy Days" first-season episode in which Richie and Potsie learn that the buildup to a party might be bigger than the event itself, which "really sucks.")

(Tim Seymour proclaimed, "Apple jumped the shark 2 years ago.")

Dan Ives, also in Cupertino (he kinda has to be, to maintain his street cred), actually told Judge this is a "Top 3 (snicker) moment" in the history of AAPL.

Ives even predicted Monday's event would be a "jaw-dropper" (snicker).

Amy Raskin said she wants to hear how AAPL as the "gatekeeper" of all this wealthy client base can monetize AI.

Joe Terranova, making a prediction that so far has yet to come true, said AAPL has "the type of momentum that most likely propels the stock above $200 at some point this afternoon or in the coming days."

We were thinking that the guy Judge should've had on was Andrew Left, a humorous fellow who refreshingly returned to the show last week to do battle with the GME kingpin (at least, Judge suggested Mr. Kitty was watching the show and wondered what Left would say to him directly); quite frankly, Judge should be begging Mr. Left to come on the show and tell a few jokes.

So Josh is basically saying that the more customers are on one security platform, the less likely they are to be hacked

While Dan Ives may have been carried away with AAPL's naptime presentation, Josh Brown on Monday's (6/10) Halftime Report gushed about how CRWD's "network" in which the company supposedly can prevent other customers from spillover hacks once one customer is attacked is somehow like the platform of "Facebook" or "Google." (Wonder if Ticketmaster is also on the platform and can prevent people from being late to the Yankee game if they bring a laptop.)

Joe Terranova owns CRWD both "personally" and in the ETF, according to Judge, who didn't mention whether either one was "equal weight.". Joe said it's "one of the better trades I've had in the last several years," he got it "around $120." (Tip: Joe's cost basis has no affect on direction of the stock.)

PANW fan Dan Ives shrugged that this is only a "pit stop for Palo Alto" in what's going to be "an F1 race they win."

Josh Brown said cybersecurity is in a "guaranteed secular bull market."

‘Superman II,’ by the way, was better than ‘Superman’

Much of Monday's (6/10) Halftime Report centered on AAPL (Zzzzzzz). Josh Brown opined that he really knows the NVDA split doesn't actually accomplish anything ... but ... "The smartest people realize that if enough people care about splits, it is a tailwind for a stock even if it shouldn't be."

Joe Terranova said people have been drawing comparisons to other Big Tech splits (that would be Jim Lebenthal, who wasn't on Monday's show), but, "I don't think there is one that you can really compare this stock to," because NVDA is in a unique place.

Joe said "the expectations are remarkably high" for AMD. Joe said he'd rank "Avago" No. 2 behind NVDA. Moments later, Amy Raskin said she's going to buy AVGO soon, probably by trimming NVDA.

Amy said she's holding SNOW, "I'm not anxious to sell it," even though "it's not working" and "the whole space isn't working."

"I think it's goin' to a hundred," Brown said of UBER. (This writer is long UBER.)

Joe said LUV is down 47% in the last 3 years. "Southwest is doing something clearly wrong," Joe said.

Other than ‘The Godfather,’ not many (Some say ‘Star Wars,’ but that’s incorrect)

Judge's Halftime Report session on Friday (6/7) with Andrew Left, who hasn't been on the show in ages, included an unexpected treat.

Usually, CNBCers parse their market outlooks with more qualifiers than Hank Kimball. Left, though, breezily told Judge, "Everything's just fine. The economy's great, the stock market's great."

Left apparently only has an issue with 1 stock, GME. "They made the stock into a motion picture. How many movies has Part II been as good as Part I? Not many, but we'll see," Left told Judge.

Gambler nation: Greg Zuckerman and Andrew Left have the same take on Roaring Kitty’s livestream

Judge actually opened Friday's (6/7) Halftime with a Roaring Kitty update, supplied by Dom Chu.

But then Judge in the 4th minute brought in Andrew Left, who hasn't been on the show in years, and immediately ran into a clarification.

Judge introduced Left as saying Left shorted GME in 2021 and took a "100% loss." Left immediately protested, "I didn't have a hundred percent loss. I was asked if I lost, and I said to the reporter, 'Yes, a hundred percent, I lost.' It was not a hundred-percent loss."

"Oh, OK, I got you, OK, so a hundred percent, you lost," Judge said, before bringing up the "angry mob" that "harassed" Left; Judge wondered why Left would short the stock again.

Left joked, "After my first marriage, I said, I'll never do that again. And, uh, certainly I'm happy with the 2nd." He said "sometimes you go back in" and said his current GME short is a "trade" and "not a big position." Left also said "the dynamic is different this time than it was back in, uh, 2021."

Judge said that GME backers years ago, according to Left, "hacked into your personal accounts" and "ordered pizza to your house late at night."

But Left actually claimed Friday that "traders have evolved (snicker) over the past 3 years" and actually "understand (snicker) short selling" and there isn't going to be the same "jihad" as a few years ago.

Judge noted Left is going "public" and asked if Left thought about keeping it quiet. Left explained that it was a "complete mistake" and that he got a call from a reporter "from Bloomberg, maybe" who asked him about the GME move, and Left "casually" told the reporter, "Yeah I sold some." Then he had lunch and 3 hours later, someone told him, "You're short GameStop?" (Um, all he really had to do was say "Sorry, I have to decline to comment." But whatever.)

Judge asked Left about Left's skepticism that Roaring Kitty is self-financing his own trade. "I'm hoping to be wrong. But, this does not pass the smell test. ... I don't know where he would get the $200 million or $160 million ... something about it, something that just doesn't smell right," Left said.

Left said Keith Gill was "likable" in 2021 but now is "not that same person."

Judge said some people will say "it's rich" that Judge is having a conversation about potential market manipulation with a noted short seller "who with a group of short sellers was said to be investigated, um, by the feds for- for- for the issue."

Left said that in 20 years, he's never listed a position "without a reason behind it." Left said the current trade is all about Roaring Kitty posting an "unusually large position."

Judge asked for the status of any investigatory cloud "that was hanging over you and some other short sellers." Left said, "Obviously, you know, with anything, I can't discuss, you know, I don't discuss any of that."

Judge persisted, asking Left if he's "worried, though, about being charged in, in whatever probe was, was front and center a couple or few years ago?"

Left said, "Anyone who goes and puts their opinions out in the public, uh, should be worried," because of "nebulous laws" about "people who comment on stocks."

Left a couple of times explained interest in GME as, "We have a nation of gamblers."

For a few moments while waiting for Mr. Kitty to start talking on YouTube, Judge turned to his panelists. "GameStop is total speculation," asserted Stephanie Link.

Jim Lebenthal said his concern with current GME trading is "the high potentiality that a lot of people are gonna lose money." Jim added, "There's something funny going on here."

Jason Snipe did say he appreciates the "interest" generated by the GME trade.

After Mr. Kitty started talking on YouTube, Judge asked Left for reax.

"It's an insult to your viewers' ears, it's an insult to the market," Left explained. "Whatever my bar was of expectations, he was lower than the bar."

Left said "In Ryan we trust" is Gill's premise.

"Maybe that'll be good enough. We'll have to see," Judge said.

On Fast Money, business reporter Greg Zuckerman echoed Left's assessment nearly word for word, observing that Gill "didn't really suggest what the turnaround play is. It's just a play on, on Cohen, who runs the company now."

Zuckerman even said, "We are a nation of gamblers."

But Zuckerman added, "It's kind of difficult to short GameStop."

Karen Finerman said she "watched some of it" and was "fascinated," but then, "I just couldn't believe what I was watching."

Liz is getting married!

Piling on to a stock that Josh Brown (who wasn't on Friday's show) has been touting recently, Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (6/7) Halftime Report said he's bought 3 tranches of AMZN since February, and, "This has now become a very big position for me."

Stephanie Link has been "taking profits" in AMZN, not because she thinks it's going down, but, as always, "because I'm up a lot." (Tip to viewers: Stocks don't care what someone's basis is.)

Citing the QQQ (this writer is long QQQ), Jason Snipe said of tech, "Clearly we're getting very close to overbought territory."

Judge said LYFT is getting upgrades, though he sounded skeptical about this being a "turning point week" for ride-share. Jason Snipe said, "I think Uber clearly has a lot more levers to pull."

Judge in Final Trades started with Liz Young. "Congratulations Liz Young! Big weekend! Liz is getting married this weekend," Judge explained.

Karen Finerman on Fast Money said of Siri, "It's so bad, it's unbelievable ... It is beyond an embarrassment."

No updates on what Carl really intends to do about his CZR stock

Jim Lebenthal, who for some reason has been expressing some kind of skepticism about NVDA for weeks, on Thursday's (6/6) Halftime Report advised people who don't own NVDA to just buy a small "toehold" position (he said "toehold" about 5 times), as he's been doing for 10 months.

Judge noted Jim wasn't buying at $1,200. Jim admitted "it was $423."

Judge opened the program airing a clip of Dean of Valuation (not sure how anyone earns that nickname) Aswath Damodaran saying a day ago on Closing Bell that "if you were designing the perfect momentum company from scratch, Nvidia would be it ... you're seeing one of the great momentum plays of all time."

Bill Baruch said he's continuing to manage his NVDA position "around that 7% mark." (Translation: Bill trims as it gets higher.)

Bill said the stock split is not "the only reason" NVDA is soaring, but when you see a $120 price vs. a $1,200 price, "it's much easier to buy it."

Bill bought more CRWD. He said it's "best of breed" and there could be "consolidation" in the space.

Addressing Elon Musk's wages, Bill actually said, "I wanna see him get paid." Bill said he's long TSLA from about 190 but he may be adding as he thinks it's "bottoming out."

Bill said UBER's slide is an "opportunity" and he's buying August 75 calls and selling August 85 calls. (This writer is long UBER.) We were surprised that someone is paying 70 cents for UBER 85 calls that Bill is selling that expire in a couple months. (You know what they say about being involved in options: IT'S. NOT. AN OPTION.) Judge said the stock is down 5% in a month. No one had an update on Weiss' claim a day ago that "insider trading is alive and well" based on UBER's price action ahead of earnings.

Bill sold CRM, "bad timing last week, I wanted to get rid of it."

Kevin Simpson said some people think AAPL's WWDC will be a sell-the-news event, but Kevin thinks it'll be the "beginning of a runway." Judge said KeyBanc is calling WWDC a sell-the-news event. Bill agrees with Kevin and sees AAPL having momentum "after" the event.

Bill explained how he's playing AAPL August 210 calls.

‘Wall of money’ on the way

Judge on Thursday's (6/6) Halftime Report said Savita has issued a "Read. My. Lips." note (snicker) and is touting large cap "value" (snicker).

"I think that she's got a point," said Kari Firestone, but Kari says that sector (if that's the right term) won't "turn" until money comes out of the AI trade.

Judge also said Goldman Sachs is talking about a "wall of money" (snicker) entering the market in the 2nd half. Jim Lebenthal said Savita's value names have been doing fine as companies, but the stocks have "sputtered" in the last couple months, and so, "I think what the market is trying to say is that these softer economic numbers may be something worse than that."

But Jim said Atlanta Fed GDP was boosted to 2.6.

Kevin Simpson bought more FCX and jumped on the weakness Tuesday.

Kevin said VZ has been "probably our worst performer for quite a few years" and isn't sure anyone should follow him in, but he's buying more, citing dividend in part.

Judge demanded to know why Kevin trimmed GS. Kevin said it's profit taking of a stock that's been "on fire."

Judge said WMT is a top pick at Oppenheimer. Kevin said it's "hitting on every single cylinder."

Kevin trimmed CSCO. Jim said he agrees with those concerns but suggested that a 2nd good earnings report could lift the stock.

Jim said DIS is in a "lull" but it's only "18 times forward earnings" and has "long-term catalysts in terms of streaming (snicker), in terms of ESPN and sports in general." Jim predicted 120 is "well within the next 12 months."

Virtu chief Doug Cifu suggests ‘woke’-ness from financial exchanges is wearing thin

Virtu chief Doug Cifu, the star guest of Wednesday's (6/5) Halftime Report who was interviewed in person by Bob Pisani for ETF Edge and also fielded questions from Judge, told Judge that Virtu opted against investing in the new Texas exchange, though Cifu called it a "good thing ultimately" despite the fact "it's gonna be a tough road to hoe in terms of listings" and there's been "a long line of competitors" who have tried it. (Sure. Remember when Brad Katsuyama was on "60 Minutes"?) (Remember when Frances Haugen was on "60 Minutes"? How's your META since then?)

Judge described Cifu's answer as "suggesting that you don't think this could be a viable alternative to either (pronounced EYE-ther, not EE-ther) the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq."

"Now Scott I didn't exactly say that," Cifu protested, explaining the Texas folks will have to "innovate" as a trading venue, but "as a listings venue, it's gonna be a challenge."

Judge said that apparently fueling the Texas venture is that NYSE and Nasdaq regulations are considered "too onerous." Cifu said, "Yeah I mean I think there was a certain, uh, uh, sense that maybe Nasdaq went a little overboard in some of the, I'll call it woke-type of suggestions that they had for corporate boards and whatnot and perhaps the worm has, has turned."

Bob suggested "this may not be so much about wokeness as it is about competing for the very lucrative listing business."

Weiss didn’t note that AAPL also could’ve bought Paramount Global or Snapchat

Steve Weiss on Wednesday's (6/5) Halftime Report said he's immersed in tech now because "this is where the fundamentals continue to be the best."

Weiss rattled off tech winners such as ASML but suggested the "Achilles heel potentially" is that "valuation just doesn't matter." (Translation: Their sales might not be as good as some hope.)

Joe Terranova's got a new buy, the XLG. "I'm buying this because I have to (snicker) buy this," Joe said, citing the "narrowing in performance" of the stock market and the "simple fact" that the "megacaps are outperforming."

Joe once again lamented (as he's done a few times in the last year or two) that he's "equally weighted" either in his own portfolio or the JOET.

Kari Firestone stated, "Everybody was talking about the broadening of the market ... That has changed in the 2nd quarter. Part of that is the weakness in manufacturing."

Joe touted the AAPL buyback. Weiss told Joe that the size is historically big in terms of dollars but not "in terms of the percent of the company."

Judge wasn't impressed by that observation, telling Weiss that "the bottom line is they continue to buy back a lot of stock. We don't need to cut through the why, this, that, or percent vs. whatever."

Weiss suggested AAPL could've been better "stewards" of their capital by buying NFLX at $50 billion or possibly even NVDA a while back.

Weiss gushed that Jensen Huang keeps coming up with something new, "and I don't think it's expensive at all." Judge wondered if that means viewers can buy NVDA at $1,200. Weiss said he'd "wait" and advised, "I would not buy it here on the highs."

Kari Firestone "very much" likes META and suggests it might get dollars from people who "can't stomach (snicker) buying Nvidia."

Joe said, "The stock split is working for Nvidia. The stock split is working for Chipotle," and suggested META and MSFT might "follow suit."

Judge asked Weiss, "What are people supposed to buy?" if they're not in AI names. (That's a better question for Jenny Harrington, who's got all kinds of answers "under the surface" of the market.)

Joe pronounced CRWD "the clear leader in terms of cybersecurity holdings that you have (sic last 3 words redundant)."

Judge has been hearing worries about the consumer ‘for the last year’ (and markets are at all-time highs)

Judge on Wednesday's (6/5) Halftime Report said Oppenheimer is reaffirming UBER. (This writer is long UBER.)

Joe Terranova said he owns UBER personally and in the JOET and believes "the profitability comes back." Weiss said Dara could surprise again and the stock could climb, but he cautioned about the consumer; "Household credit card debt is at a high."

Judge shrugged, "I've heard about, you know, consumer concerns for the last year."

"But sometime they become reality," Weiss said.

"Maybe," Judge said.

Kari said the issue with UBER is whether it can maintain price hikes.

Weiss stated, out of the blue, "Insider trading is alive and well. Uber started trading down way in advance of the quarter being reported. And the only reason, as we know, is because it came with the negative number. So I'd like- you know Gensler was on before, why don't you take a look at something like that?" (See, if Steve were plugged into the options scene like the Najarians are (IT'S. NOT. AN. OPTION!!!!!!!!!), he would know whether there was any "unusual activity" (snicker) in that name.)

Joe affirmed Judge's assessment that Joe is buying MCK "high," one of the apparently numerous stocks he's buying because they didn't make it into the ETF. Joe said it's "never really gonna be a candidate for the quality-momentum strategy because it kind of has weak ROE and debt-to-equity scores." But he said revenue growth is "remarkably attractive."

Joe said LULU used to be "impervious" to consumer setbacks but now, "There's something clearly that's going on with the company." But Joe said analysts are still "completely in love" with LULU.

Not over yet: Josh accuses Jenny of ‘gaslighting’ the panel in fresh argument over SWK

When we tuned in to Tuesday's (6/4) Halftime Report, one thing we didn't count on was a fresh chapter in the famous SWK donnybrook between Josh Brown and Jenny Harrington.

Jenny on Tuesday talked about holding SWK but said not to expect a "home run."

Josh Brown, also on Tuesday's panel, tried to cut in, but then Jenny said, "Are you gonna apologize, Josh?"

"For what?" Josh wondered.

Jenny told Josh "I was right" about SWK back when they had a "major fight" over it. (That was in May 2023; top photo above is from that exchange.)

Josh replied, "You were wrong on things and so was I. Let's, let's, let's agree to disagree."

Jenny noted that when she mentioned buying SWK, Josh called it "the worst chart you'd ever seen." Brown said "it still is."

(For the record, a year ago, they were also talking about WHR, which Brown called "the worst chart I've ever seen in my life," then he said, "The good news is Stanley Black & Decker is actually worse than Whirlpool.")

Jenny on Tuesday said, "I have 11% return in a year." Josh said, "You're braggin' on 11%? Do you understand that the Nasdaq went up 50% last year and the S&P went up 25%? Why are you gaslighting us?"

(Jenny's "11%" claim is curious, because she touted the stock on May 18, 2023, when it was actually $83 — or same price as now. It does pay a dividend. As this page reported at year-end, SWK did surge last July and last December near 100, only to pull back.)

Josh wondered why SWK is trading below its 2018 levels and added, "This literally is the worst chart I've ever seen."

"Oh my God," Jenny said.

Jenny said SWK will pick up with a recovery in housing once rates are cut. Steve Weiss said Jenny and Josh should "dial it back a little bit."

Josh (partly) bails on LYV a couple weeks after shrugging off the Justice Dept. suit

Another debate barely took place on Tuesday's (6/4) Halftime Report as Jim Lebenthal protested Josh Brown's citing of falling oil prices as a market tailwind.

"Oil prices falling is not good," Jim said.

"Demand is not falling. Supply is increasing," Josh said.

Jim said "OPEC just held supply constant" and added, "Demand is not coming in anywhere near as expected globally, I mean that's just factual."

Josh is buying KDP. Josh said he and one of his research guys keep a list of "the best stocks in the market." He said KDP has done nothing for a long time and is now challenging resistance at 34-35 and Josh thinks it will break through.

Jenny Harrington has been holding off on consumer staples, including makers of soft drinks and snacks, because the GLP-1 drugs have given her "pause" about consumption. Josh responded that "the market prices them in," and "relatively quickly."

Brown sold TOST. Judge asked why. Brown cited "a huge rally after the earnings" but a "very disappointing" investor day last week.

Josh trimmed LYV, he said he bought in the 70s and sold half in the mid-90s, he can see "dead money" until a legal resolution nears, also he noticed "all the concert cancellations."

Brown said maybe J. Lo canceled her tour because of "stuff going on" in her relationship with Ben Affleck but "there also was almost no demand in some cities."

Jim feels ‘uneasy’ about the markets

It was a muted opening to what proved a fairly interesting show.

Josh Brown on Tuesday's (6/4) Halftime Report said he doubled his position in AMZN, a stock he has been talking up for weeks.

Citing the ever-popular enterprise value to EBITDA metric, Brown said it's far cheaper than it's been in "quite some time." He thinks it might be a leader in the 2nd half and wants to be well-positioned.

Steve Weiss responded, "I think you have time; I don't think you have to rush in to buy Amazon or anything here," again citing possible consumer headwinds.

Judge wondered why stocks are "weak" if yields are falling.

"Because the economy is, is showing cracks," said Jim Lebenthal. As a result, "I'm not buying anything right now," Jim said, though he touted Brown's AMZN purchase.

"I'm gettin' an uneasy feeling," Jim admitted. Probably because he's still waiting for that April correction to be as deep as he thought it was supposed to be.

Judge said Wolfe says tech earnings are too strong to be bearish. For an opinion on that view, Judge asked Jenny Harrington, "What do you think?"

Jenny said, "Well, I mean, you know what I think, right." Judge said, "Well, what you thought last week may not be what you think today."

Jenny said she was at a Digital Realty Trust presentation, and "the room was overflowing." Jenny downplayed stocks being up 10% this year as "superficially nothing" and claimed "beneath the surface, there's all sorts of opportunities being created." (Translation: How to rationalize not buying very many if any of Megacap Tech.)

Judge told Josh that B of A is reporting there's been "near record tech outflows" among clients and there have been "net sellers of U.S. equities for a 5th week." Josh shrugged, "I don't know, part of me feels like there's really no signal there, that data changes on a dime."

Judge said they're using the term of stock "fragility" (snicker) and asked Josh this time, "What do you think?" Instead of saying Judge already knows what he thinks, Brown said "most stocks in the market (sic last 3 words redundant) are extremely sensitive to interest rates" and if Megacap Tech doesn't deliver, it could be a "rocky ride."

Brown also said "all of the data is now pointing to a confirmation of 1 rate hike (sic) (uncorrected by Judge), and now we're back to debating if there's gonna be 2."

Judge said that's the "cut-on environment" that Brown was talking up a couple months ago.

Making an argument for tech, his new favorite thing, Weiss said "The Nasdaq (sic) is up 10-fold in the last 30 years, but the- I'm sorry, the S&P is up 10-fold, Nasdaq is up more than 20-fold in the last 30 years."

Even so, "Your gains are defined by your point of entry," Weiss said once again, ignoring they are equally defined by point of exit; for example, Weiss' gains in Dick's Sporting Goods would've been a LOT higher if he'd held on till now rather than unloading a couple times last year.

Joe & Adam seem to have trouble agreeing on things on Closing Bell

Bill Baruch joined Tuesday's (6/4) Halftime Report remotely, as he does about every couple of days, to tout his new buy of MTZ (Zzzzzzzz). He said we're seeing EPS guidance "lift up."

Bill also bought CB; Judge wondered if that's a "Berkshire thing." Bill said he wants insurance exposure, and "the name has broken out."

Judge said he finds Bill's sells more interesting but he had to talk about the buys first. One of the sells was MS; Bill said there's a "question now" about which sector will lead the business in the leadership transition.

(Later on Fast Money, Karen Finerman said she "got out of Morgan Stanley" and increased her "Citibank bet.")

Steve Weiss said the IPO market may not take off until "mid-2025." But Weiss said there's a "huge, huge pipeline" waiting to go.

Bill also sold CAT and TGT.

Judge said AXP is the best Dow stock this year. Jenny Harrington said it's a stock you can own "forever."

Weiss, who opines on NFLX about every other day, said it could be a "recession-resistant play." (This writer is long NFLX.)

Josh Brown said the "big question" for CRWD is whether it's ready for the $100 billion club. He doesn't quite think so, though he calls it the "acknowledged leader in cybersecurity."

Adam Parker at the top of Tuesday's Closing Bell told Judge that he had a "debate" with Joe Terranova a couple weeks earlier (no, not the one in February about underweighting/equal weighting Megacap Tech) about whether the "vacuum of information would be bearish or bullish." It sounds like Joe was on the bearish side (we didn't see this debate), but Adam thinks we might go higher.

Karen Finerman on Fast Money cited LULU's valuation and said she's "getting tempted" to buy. "This deserves a premium multiple," Karen said.

Weiss makes one of the best arguments against portfolio ‘diversifying’ we’ve heard on CNBC

Joe Terranova started off Monday's (6/3) Halftime Report predicting portfolio managers and speculators in June will "get a little bit more defensive, get a little bit more risk-adverse (sic meant 'averse')."

Joe suggested a "pivot" from more cyclical sectors and said people should think about health care.

Steve Weiss sold CAT, one of those stocks like DE that he's constantly buying or selling. He said he got into it as a trade to "broaden out the portfolio a little bit" while he's "very tech heavy," but then he wondered, what's the point of broadening out if he's already got the winners. (Which is basically what this page always says — if you've already chosen the best stock(s), why are you buying other ones just to boast about being "diversified"?)

Weiss said stocks are going down with yields going down; he thinks the consumer is pressured, "so I think it's time to be a little cautious."

Meanwhile, Brian Belski said "the trend is your friend" and the more talk of a June swoon, the more likely it doesn't happen. He does see a "secondary rotation" from Megacap Tech to the "next tier" such as AMD, AVGO and ORCL. Belski bought SPOT, DASH and PLTR and bailed on CRM.

Joe questioned Belski buying DASH. Belski said it's one of the "great concepts (snicker) within retail."

Amy Raskin said this is a market for "tactical trades" and said she agrees with Weiss on the consumer.

Judge said Krinsky says Mag 7 is vulnerable to a "catch-down" (snicker).

Weiss pays $250 for a ride home from the airport

Brian Belski on Monday's (6/3) Halftime Report revealed he sold HON but has bought UBER. (This writer is long UBER.)

Belski said that in the last couple years, when UBER's down, it's been a good time to buy.

Joe Terranova agreed and said "it's a perfect spot to buy."

Yet Steve Weiss doesn't own UBER and said it's because the consumer doesn't look great and Uber prices are too high. Weiss said he paid $250 for an Uber ride from JFK to New Jersey on Sunday night. Judge chuckled that he's seen on "social" that "JFK to the city is like 350," so it almost seems like Weiss got a good deal. Weiss said his flight got in "pretty late."

Meanwhile, Weiss sold VRT at 103, a "great sale," given where it's at Monday. But he bought more GXO, "the right kind of retail exposure."

Judge rattled off a bunch of software slumpers to Amy Raskin; Amy said she's not "jumping in" now because the charts look "very broken."

Joe said he'll stay with CRWD despite "very high" expectations, because "that's where the business investment is in cybersecurity."

Guy says meme stocks making ‘somewhat of a mockery of the market’

Dom Chu joined Monday's (6/3) Halftime Report to talk about the 49 stocks affected by a "trading glitch."

It reminded us of the time Judge was on air around the time of the Flash Crash and then spent months asking panelists if they can trust the market because of the Flash Crash. (How long ago was that.)

Dom said things are "fixed" and "resolved" before reading a laborious press release verbatim.

Dom said "these kinds of things can happen" when nearly all trading is electronic. (As if it's going back to open outcry.)

Brian Belski bought SBUX because everybody hates it and it's "really beaten up."

Amy Raskin owns and loves COST but noted "it's very expensive." Joe Terranova said it "needs a correction."

Judge said Mike Mayo raised his C target from 80 all the way up to 85. "We love the stock," Belski said.

Weiss said he bought India ETFs (INDY and SMIN) sometime last year when Jeffrey Gundlach was talking it up. Weiss said he's "surprised" India hasn't done better given that it's picking up supply lines from China.

Amy Raskin owns NTLA, she said it had good data over the weekend. Joe said "momentum is clearly lost" in ADSK and he wouldn't get excited about the pop.

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said she'd like to buy DELL but will abide by the "3-day rule."

Guy Adami opined on GME/Roaring Kitty and said "it's extraordinarily unsavory" and "makes somewhat of a mockery of the market."

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