CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

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

CNBC sics 2 staffers on fairly uninteresting Carl news

Judge waited 5 minutes into Friday's (5/31) Halftime Report to deliver his own scoop, that Carl Icahn owns "some stock" in CZR, that Carl likes the company and has no plans for activism.

Then Judge turned to Contessa Brewer, who said she had just been "playing phone tag" with Carl. (Why Judge and Contessa were each calling Carl at the same time, like 2 wide receivers ending up in the same pattern, we have no idea.) "When I got hold of him- and I just have a (sic) hung up with him Scott following your phone call with him," Contessa said, she found that her "takeaway" is that Carl thinks CZR is "undervalued" and "on fire."

Contessa suggested CZR and other casinos just might be "good value" right now.

Contessa said Carl said he's not in PENN.

Jim Lebenthal touted WYNN and expressed frustration about the stock and said casino managers including CZR are "killing it," even though the stock market doesn't "give a whit."

KSS a ‘disaster in a weird way’

Judge on Friday's (5/31) Halftime Report told Jenny Harrington that "Kohl's was a disaster" without noting that just a week ago (see below), Jenny announced that she put it in all the client accounts that didn't already have it.

Jenny on Friday responded, "I think Kohl's was a disaster in a weird way, similar to what- the way Dell was a disaster. Which is that the expectations were just too great."

Jenny said she's "OK" with KSS and is holding and will give it "2 more quarters." (As Jenny said a week ago, anyone who doesn't get "wishy washy" and doesn't bet against the consumer can put up long-term stock gains against literally anyone.)

Judge said KSS is down about 25% YTD; "looks bad until you look at LULU."

Rob Sechan said his LULU buy was "ill-timed." He said "we would be kidding ourselves" if his shop wasn't "entertaining" a tax-loss sale. Rob suggested "the competitive landscape has changed," citing Vuori. Nevertheless, Rob made LULU his Final Trade.

Sounds like grounds for liability with office door manufacturers

Rob Sechan opened Friday's (5/31) Halftime Report stating "I would expect volatility to continue" and that "there's fading momentum; there's fading breadth."

But, "We are certainly not bearish," Rob said, adding he's staying in buy-the-dip mentality.

Jenny Harrington suggested the market is like a person who unknowingly walks into a closed glass door, which she said she's done at her own office "an unfortunate amount of times."

Jim Lebenthal said "there are cross-currents all over the place" and that breadth, as Rob noted, has narrowed. But Jim said he's got faith (as he basically always does) that "the broadening will occur."

Brenda Vingiello said, "I think the case for bonds has become more attractive."

Rob says price hikes ‘behind’ MCD

Judge and Dee Bosa on Friday's (5/31) Halftime Report talked up the "nuclear winter" in enterprise software; Dee said it turned into an "apocalypse," and now it could be creeping into hardware such as DELL.

Jim Lebenthal shrugged off the impact of CRM on ORCL. "What's happening in the tech sector this week feels more like a giveback after a kind of blowoff top here," Jim said.

Jim said he added to ORCL a week ago Friday, "so yeah, I wish I had waited a week."

Judge said Bill Baruch put his CRM proceeds into COP. Bill joined remotely and praised the COP deal and said his energy exposure is just 9% and he wants to boost it. But Bill sold NUE.

Judge said JPM cut its SCHW target to 81. Jenny Harrington said that still suggests "14% upside."

Rob said he'd be "careful" with MCD; "everything has been driven- performance has been driven by price increases," and "we think those days are behind them."

Rob said he thinks consumers will continue to buy DECK. Another May winner for Rob was VST. Jim said any downdraft in GPC, a stock that's always recommended by Mario Gabelli (who doesn't come on the show anymore), is creating "great value."

Josh says Nelson is bragging on the golf course about his DIS trade

Taking up Judge's late-Wednesday scoop on Nelson Peltz, Josh Brown on Thursday's (5/30) Halftime Report said that Nelson on the golf course is telling people that the stock has fallen from 130 because he lost the proxy battle and the reason it ran from 85 to 130 is because he demanded cost cuts and that the company be "more serious" about content.

"This is gonna take years to fix," Stephanie Link asserted, adding that the $5.5 billion cost-cutting will climb to $8-$9 billion.

(Actually, we'd argue with the word "fix" ... what is Iger going to "fix"? Disney+? The only way to "fix" Disney+ is to drop it and instead license all the content to Netflix.) (This writer is long NFLX.)

"He has to spend a ton of money on streaming," Stephanie said. Judge noted "they expect streaming to be profitable (snicker) later this year."

Brenda Vingiello is long DIS. She's staying with it, explaining "Bob Iger's plan has yet to play out."

Kevin Simpson said if DIS gets back to 85 or 90, he'll buy it and so will Peltz.

Jenny was buying KSS a week ago for the portfolios that didn’t already have it

Thursday's (5/30) Halftime Report curiously gave a soundbite mention to KSS.

Curious, because Jenny Harrington was trying to talk it up less than a week earlier.

Stephanie Link on Thursday called the stock a "no touch" that she wouldn't buy.

Yet on Friday May 24, Jenny said, "Thinking about Kohl's, right, and I actually added it to the portfolios that didn't already own it, so thinking about Kohl's and thinking about what kind of consumer that is, it's really hard ... "

Jenny went on to say that by focusing on the long term and not betting against the consumer and not getting "wishy washy," she'll put her returns up against ANY investor.

Josh is lukewarm on the Mag 7

Brenda Vingiello opened Thursday's (5/30) Halftime Report saying CRM was experiencing "a little bit of an overreaction on the downside, honestly."

Brenda even said the profit margin improvement was "phenomenal," but it's reflective of how high tech expectations are.

Brenda said "we are sticking with our position here" in CRM and indicated she might be interested in buying if it drops more.

Bill Baruch joined remotely to say he sold CRM because it's potentially "dead money" for weeks or months.

Josh Brown said Brenda is right about expectations and that the fear with the CRM report is that the headwinds extend everywhere in enterprise software.

Stephanie Link talked about how semiconductor companies are going gangbusters with AI but software companies are not. Josh then wondered, "If the software companies aren't making money from this though, doesn't that put future semiconductor sales at risk?" Stephanie somehow said "No."

Soberly assessing the stock market's high fliers, Josh said, "The forward tech P.E. is definitely a concern. The last time it was 30 was like, uh, 2002."

Even pointing to NVDA and AAPL, Brown said, "I'm not looking for these stocks to lead the next leg higher. ... It's just hard for me to understand how Nvidia's gonna add another half a trillion in valuation, for example. Um, or why Apple is gonna blow through 200, for example."

But, on the lookout for the next big gainer, Josh pointed out DELL and GLW are names that have taken off in the enthusiasm for the cloud/data center space.

Judge promised "good guests" from WWDC on June 10.

Santoli can be more candid about the Fed than Liesman can

Steve Liesman delivered breaking news on Thursday's (5/30) Halftime Report, stating John Williams offered a "pretty benign outlook" about inflation.

Judge said it sounds like "Williams is making the case for cuts sometime this year."

The sharp assessment came much later though from Santoli, who said Williams was "almost explicitly going after his predecessor, Bill Dudley, who is out there on the tape saying, you know, 'Policy's not restrictive right now,' and 'maybe the neutral rate is 5% or, you know, including inflation.'"

Josh says WBD could rally if it loses NBA rights

Kevin Simpson on Thursday's (5/30) Halftime Report said he is trimming MCD and said Josh Brown was right to sell it a month ago.

"Fast food isn't as cheap as it used to be," Simpson said, citing the company's recent revelation of price increases since 2019. Josh said the company is sticking franchisees with a $5 value meal that some franchisees will lose money on.

Meanwhile, Josh suggested WBD might have a "relief rally" if it loses NBA rights, which would be a "shame," but it's a single-digit stock price and they have to care about costs. (Perhaps Disney+ can bid for it.)

Kevin Simpson bought more JPM. He thought there was a market "overreaction" to Jamie Dimon's comments. Kevin also bought HON and FCX and MRK, which Joe T. (maybe personally or maybe ETF-y) has also been talking up.

Kevin would look for "bigger pullbacks" before buying UNH.

Brenda Vingiello bought a "small position" in LLY on a "slight pullback" in April.

Brenda bought PLD, citing companies' need for warehouses related to ecommerce. Brenda trimmed WM.

Josh said PFE is "getting really good" at cost-cutting.

Judge actually calls in to Fast Money to deliver Nelson Peltz/DIS scoop

On Wednesday's (5/29) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said the COP acquisition of MRO is a "good deal."

Jim Lebenthal offered that oil is "consistently" around $80, and Jim once again touted the price of nat gas.

But Joe said that relying on the spot price of oil for making energy investments is "the wrong thesis to have." Joe, in fact, suggested energy's direction is contingent on the election. Joe said a Republican outcome would provide "far more incentive to increase production, lowering the price of oil itself."

Jim countered that "energy stocks did poorly under the Trump administration." Joe said yes, "That's exactly what I'm saying."

Jim is still wondering when DIS is going to wrap up the Hulu (snicker) thing. Jim indicated there doesn't seem to be a DIS catalyst until earnings (which, Jim didn't say, probably won't be a catalyst either).

Hours later on Fast Money, Judge dialed in with news of Nelson Peltz's DIS sale and said Peltz may be out of the picture for the company, but the DIS succession (snicker) issue "remains unresolved."

Joe opened his MRK commentary saying (as all CNBCers tend to do) "it's about 4½ percent off the all-time high."

Jim says only the NVDA blowout is keeping the market up

Even with market indexes near record highs, not everyone's convinced.

Early on Wednesday's (5/29) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal said "rates are weighing on the market right now" and then stated, "Let's face it, if we hadn't had the Nvidia blowout earnings last week, um, the whole market would be down."

"This is not a very healthy market right now," Jim said, adding it's a "wait-it-out period."

Even Nvidia's strength was being questioned. Judge said Josh Brown (who wasn't on Wednesday's show) is saying in a note (he apparently has to do notes as well as TV appearances) that NVDA's gains are "starting to seem way overdone."

Jim said of NVDA, "I've seen nothing like this in my lifetime," a stock going up 800% in 2 years with the multiple going down. He's staying long because of the split. Jim even made NVDA his Final Trade, prompting Judge to mock Jim's pre-earnings suggestion that the gains were already priced in.

Joe Terranova at the top of the show said he made "personal sales" in MS, V and MA; he said it's not really about the companies but the "macro conditions and the overall exposure that I have (Zzzzzzz)."

However Joe isn't selling GS; it has "further appreciation ahead."

Stephanie Link owns FTNT (but not NVDA).

Judge said Closing Bell will be live at WWDC on June 10.

Weiss’ instincts were correct on DKS; he shouldn’t have bailed last year after one bad earnings report

Judge on Wednesday's (5/29) Halftime Report noted the bad day of AAL.

Jim Lebenthal said he thinks it's an "American Airlines-specific problem" and cited passenger traffic. "The airlines look good," Jim asserted.

But Joe Terranova suggested AAL is a "read-through on the bifurcation that's going on in the economy right now," stating DAL and UAL cater to affluent or business travelers, while AAL's "core" base is a "budget-conscious flyer."

Jim said if that's true, "that actually says that the economy is doing pretty well," at least the "premium economy."

Jim said he doesn't want to be in Frontier or Spirit, not in the stocks and not on the planes, but decided not to elaborate. Moments later, he said he might've been having a "bad flashback" from a Spirit flight.

Then Jim told Judge, "You know what it is by the way," while Judge protested he has nothing to do with what Jim is saying. Jim then said Spirit charges for peanuts and carry-ons and "it's an unpleasant experience."

Judge said last Friday "was the busiest airline travel day ever" and wondered why Jim didn't bring that up; it's true that it would've bolstered Jim's AAL point. Jim said it's "exquisite (snicker) data" that anyone can look up to track the health of airlines.

Jim said it's "very easy" to own BRK-B even though it's hard for him to value all the parts. Joe said the JOET owns BRK-B, but he wouldn't buy it personally. Joe said the high was in February and it "might have a degree of difficulty (snicker) advancing further."

The JOET owns COST, but Joe doesn't own it ... personally. Joe said he would buy it here and would buy more on a decline. Stephanie Link wouldn't buy it, citing P.E.

Joe said the JOET owns NFLX and that he would be buying NFLX ... personally ... by the end of the day. (This writer is long NFLX.) On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said NFLX has had a lot of success recently in a number of endeavors, but, "At this level, I think I gotta sell some upside calls."

Karen took note of CRM afterhours trading. "This doesn't look as terrible as the reaction," Karen said.

Joe stiff-arms Jim’s ‘priced in’ call on NVDA last week

A curious revelation was heard on Tuesday's (5/28) Halftime Report when Stephanie Link admitted, "On the margin, I've been adding to technology. I don't own Nvidia unfortunately."

So, someone who's bought a bunch of tech stocks apparently doesn't think NVDA is as good as other stocks?

In this market??

What does that tell us.

(This writer has no position in NVDA.)

Joe Terranova crowed a little bit on his NVDA-$1,000-afterhours call of a week ago (which is one of the early contenders for Call of the Year, although it's a pretty short-term call so we're not sure it's "big" enough for the grand prize) and how Jim Lebenthal (who wasn't on Tuesday's show) thought all the growth was already priced in.

Judge started in on tech and specifically AAPL; the first thing Stephanie Link said was, "The stock is still down 4% from its high," a favorite metric of CNBCers. (Ah, that's the problem for NVDA. It's not down off its high.)

Bryn Talkington said AAPL looks "quite overbought." Josh Brown questioned how AAPL is going to sell a lot more phones. Link said that "the sentiment is so negative" because, between Link, Bryn and Josh, 2 out of 3 panelists aren't high on the stock.

Josh cut in, "Sorry, it's 28 times earnings, the sentiment is not bad."

Stephanie thinks AI is "going to be good" for AAPL, though we have "no idea" what it will mean. Judge suggested Stephanie is basing a bull case on "hope."

Joe hailed the market's resilience, saying that it's "void of a 10% correction."

Whew! Josh didn’t retell the story about the guy with a laptop who had to go to the lockers at Yankee Stadium and the Ticketmaster app prevented everyone from being late (or something like that)

Judge on Tuesday's (5/28) Halftime Report said Tony Pasquariello thinks the Mag 7 is both the "sword" and the "shield" of investing. (Judge was so impressed by this assessment, he brought it up at the beginning of Closing Bell too.)

Michelle Ross joined the set at Post 9 to talk biotech and ISNM, one of those binary-outcome stocks that had a good study (talk about gambling). (By the way, Judge hasn't mentioned in a long time Keith Meister's life-sciences ventures, which had Judge buzzing a couple years ago.) Ross also discussed MRUS and IDYA.

Judge said Northcoast moved LYV to the "penalty box." Josh Brown noted the stock was up on Tuesday. Josh said the government's case was "very general" and not highly specific, which Brown said will benefit the company. Brown said short-timers in LYV may not want this kind of "cloud," but long-term investors "can weather these types of things."

Joe Terranova agreed with Mark Mahaney's $700 target on NFLX, "easily." (This writer is long NFLX.)

Josh Brown's Final Trade was AMZN, saying under $200 is a "gift."

Jenny is either saying she matches/outperforms Dave Tepper ... or just buy the S&P index

Every now and then, Halftime Report episodes include pronouncements that really deserve one of those "fact checks" that they do after presidential debates.

On Friday (5/24), Jenny Harrington told Steve Weiss, "You (people in general, not Weiss) make a lot of money by being bullish ... You know what you learn when you're a long-term investor? Sticking with it for the long term because there's 2 truisms: You do not bet in the long term against the U.S. consumer, and the market goes up over time. So if you bet in line with the consumer and stick with it for the long term, and do not get wishy-washy and stick with a long-term earnings trajectory, I'm gonna put up market returns of anybody out there who just stays a long-term course trajectory, I'll put up their returns vs. anyone else's in that-"

Note that phrase: "I'm gonna put up market returns of anybody out there."

Weiss was having none of it. "I will bet you a hundred thousand dollars on that. I will put up Steve Cohn, I will put up Ken Griffin, I will put up Dave Tepper on their track record of the last 20 years. Against Buffett. Against Buffett," Weiss said.

"On their portfolio returns or on like other ways that they made money ... on carry from their clients, on their 2 and 20 fee schemes?" Jenny wondered.

"On their returns! No, on their portfolio returns!" Weiss said. "It's not even close Jenny ... 75% of long-only managers underperform every year. And you know what? It's not the same 25 that outperform?"

Judge, who didn't have the brass to analyze this discussion, abruptly ended it, but as they cut to break, the conservation continued, as Weiss told Jenny "You're so-" before the commercial kicked in.

Because Judge didn't analyze it, this page will.

Jenny is basically saying that "market returns" will match or beat anyone over time.

Yet Jenny, who didn't say a word about what her "long term" returns are, recommends single stocks, which means Jenny is arguing that she has superior ability to remain basically fully invested in the "market" over time while correctly predicting which components will outperform in shorter-term time frames.

OK.

Weiss admits his point isn’t clear

Things on Friday's (5/24) Halftime Report took a curious turn when the subject of "the consumer" came up in the A block.

Steve Weiss took issue with Tony Pasquariello's call on the consumer defying the bears; Weiss said "you can't group all consumers one way."

Jim Lebenthal and Weiss then clashed for some reason when Jim merely said "it's clear what you believe; you don't have to say it again."

"What do I believe? What's so clear?" Weiss interrupted.

Jim went on to make his own point, "The consumer is healthy."

Weiss then told Judge, "In terms of jobs, OK, we are seeing that the jobless claims are increasing. So he's talking about yesterday, and my job is to look at tomorrow."

"You cannot be serious! You cannot be serious!" Jim protested.

"You know what? Honestly? That's my thought. Is you cannot be serious," Judge told Weiss.

"One of us can be long and short and can look out. One of us gets paid to be bullish all the time," Weiss shrugged.

"No I don't. No I don't," Jim said. But even Jenny Harrington cut in, "No you do, because you make a lot of money by being bullish, because the right bets."

"He was also bullish in '22," Weiss said.

So much for Jim’s pre-earnings claim that NVDA growth was ‘all priced in’

Steve Weisss opened Friday's (5/24) Halftime Report saying "I'm not putting new money into the market now, but I'm pretty well loaded with the market."

But he would "take some off" because he sees "higher for longer" in rates, and the market hasn't "fully come to grips with that."

Weiss then triggered our Spider Sense (or whatever it should be called) when, like so many others recently, he used taxes as the reason for not trying to follow his own market-timing advice and "take some off" as he just indicated. Weiss said he's "more likely to hedge" positions than sell, because, "I don't want to pay taxes, you know, on nice gains that I'll only come back and redeploy."

That's basically what Karen Finerman said a day ago (see below). It all makes us wonder, given that stock gains (in taxable accounts) accrue a constant tax liability, what kind of strategy out there allows you to use the money/value from a stock that goes up and not have to pay the taxes until you're 100 years old?

Jim Lebenthal said he's having a "terrible day" because he agrees with Weiss on the market meandering without a crystal clear direction. Jim then complained that NVDA "sucked all the air out of the room" on Thursday. But Jim thinks that will continue, so he actually bought more NVDA after declaring Wednesday before the earnings report that "it's probably all priced in."

Obviously, whatever panelists are saying about stocks today might be a lot different in a day or 2.

"Intellectually, it leaves me very cold," Jim admitted.

Jim did say he can get intellectually excited about ORCL, which he bought more of.

‘This time is different,’ Weiss says

Bill Baruch dialed in to Friday's (5/24) Halftime Report to say he bought SPY put spreads.

Bill said he didn't like the market reaction on Thursday's opening bell. After Bill's audio briefly went out, Judge did do a good job of getting Bill to restate the trade, which is an SPY 520/500 put spread.

Bill also sold AMD. Bill said it hasn't recovered since April 4.

Weiss said everyone had been thinking "the market is entirely dependent upon Nvidia." But yesterday showed "the market is entirely dependent upon the Fed and monetary policy." Weiss said that means you want to be in Megacap Tech, because "they're the best story in equities."

Then, viewers got a major pronouncement.

"This is a new paradigm," Weiss said, adding he hates to say "this time is different," but "it is different." But he hasn't bought more NVDA because he can see a "10% drawdown" any time, so "why not wait" to buy it when that happens. (But he's not going to sell ahead of that 10% drawdown because he doesn't want to pay the tax.)

Weiss said sometimes "JOMO" (Joy Of Missing Out) trumps the FOMO, and he'd rather play the JOMO trade now. Jim Lebenthal said he likes NVDA for the split, citing TSLA and AAPL activity years ago.

"Idiosyncratic" was heard about 15 times.

Weiss got it on Judge Smails

Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (5/24) Halftime Report again made the "average age of cars on the road" argument in favor of GPC, whose performance he calls "perplexing." (Jim's argument that car parts stocks are going to surge because the average age of cars is about the same as it's been for 10-15 years is like the "people gotta eat" argument for fertilizer stocks in the early days of Fast Money.)

Even Judge said this time, "You've been talking about that for years."

After Jenny Harrington defended MMM saying there's "no good reason" for a selloff, Judge impressively pointed out, "You guys can't say when these things are having long losing streaks, 'Ah there's no good reason for it,' but when the stocks are up, you guys finding the reasons for it."

Judge asked about renewed headwinds in commercial real estate. Jenny Harrington of course said her stocks are fine even though some REITs are having troubles.

Steve Weiss said "there is a big problem" in commercial real estate and said the risk doesn't justify the reward.

Jenny was talking about adding the exciting company of KSS.

Judge called Weiss "Judge Smails" during Final Trade even though Weiss' gray jacket is a great one. Judge asked Weiss, "Did you get it?" Weiss said "I got it," then, as they cut to Kelly Evans, Weiss could be heard mocking Judge's question, "Did I get it."

From 161st & Jerome lockers to Delta Sky Club: Josh’s story about how Ticketmaster’s app helped him out at the Yankee game didn’t make any sense

Judge on Thurday's (5/23) Halftime Report asked LYV fan Josh Brown about the Justice Department's move.

Josh said "everyone knew something was coming," though Wall Street didn't expect a move to break up the company. Brown said there's a lot of political interest in targeting "things that young people are into."

Josh stressed that prices are set by the artists and that most of the fees in ticket prices go to the venues.

Josh told a story about how well the Ticketmaster app worked at the Yankee game on Wednesday when a friend brought a laptop that had to be put in a locker all the way around the stadium. "I had to share his ticket out of the 5," Josh explained, and a few years ago, this would've been an "insurmountable" problem in which Josh "would've missed the first inning." Josh said he's not a seller of LYV.

On Fast Money, Tim Seymour complained that concert tickets are still sold the same way they were sold 20 years ago. "I think they should be broken up, and I think they will be," Tim said.

Julie Biel, who obviously didn't hear Josh on Halftime, said "there's really no one that's gonna defend Ticketmaster at this point" and that "we can kind of all agree it's not a good service."

Steve Grasso said he "might not be the guy" to defend Ticketmaster, but he thinks "they're taking on a lot of flak" while "it really is the artists that are setting prices to a large extent" and this suit feels "a little more political" than just being about fees.

Back on Halftime, Steve Weiss revealed he sold UBER, stating "the rich are trading down" to shop at WMT (snicker). (This writer is long UBER.) He said UBER's high prices for a lot of people are an "affordability issue." Josh Brown said there's a "real problem in the economy."

Judge said Bernstein views TOST as a "great company but not a good stock." Josh Brown seemed puzzled and said they "literally have it backwards."

Josh says he wouldn’t start a new position in NVDA (even though Karen says going home long is the same thing)

Of course, Thursday's (5/23) Halftime Report had to open with NVDA.

Josh Brown said of the earnings predictions, "Were we bullish enough? ... They keep doing this." Brown said the 10-for-1 split was the "surprise" of the earnings call.

Josh said he's had the stock for a long time and can deal with the downturns, and maybe not everyone can, but he sees a "decadelong story."

Steve Weiss said "normally," the kind of "euphoria" associated with NVDA's earnings is reminiscent of the "tulip bulb" euphoria, but "I don't think that's the case here," though Weiss conceded "there's a lot of momentum in it."

Josh said if you looked at Big Tech charts without any context, "your assumption would be tulips," but the charts are justified by earnings, "it's not a multiple expansion story."

However, Brown said, "Is today the day you want to establish a brand-new position? My personal opinion, I don't think so."

Weiss said NVDA has an "80% share" of the market, and other companies won't want to rely on that, so "they can't sustain that share level," meaning market share, not share price (we think).

Weiss, like Josh apparently timing the trade, said there's "too much euphoria here right now," and NVDA will pull back, "and that's when you buy it."

On Fast Money, Steve Grasso tried his luck at that endeavor, suggesting NVDA may have a "selloff late June," just a "quick dip" before a bounce-back. Karen Finerman said NVDA had a "pretty impressive" day of trading Thursday given what the market did. Karen said she "did nothing" with the stock on Thursday; she has a "much lower basis" and said it would be really hard to correctly predict when and where the stock might fall and then sell the shares, and catch the rebound and make more on the rebound than she's paying in taxes. (Honestly, we don't have a Ph.D. in anything, but we think there are mathematical reasons why that argument doesn't really hold water.)

Liz Young on Halftime said, "So far, so good. I do think that as the year moves on, investors have to be careful about risk management," because people who have been in NVDA or other names a long time, "you're probably quite overweight."

No one credited Terranova (who wasn't on Wednesday's show) for his $1,000-in-afterhours call on Wednesday (see below).

Joe nails the NVDA reax

At the top of Wednesday's (5/22) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova expressed doubt that people would unload NVDA from portfolios if it happens to miss on the quarter.

Judge said "I do think though that if they miss, this stock could go down a lot. And the Nasdaq could, could go down 2%."

Well, they didn't miss. (This review was posted overnight Wednesday/Thursday.)

In one of the great, albeit short-term, calls this year, Joe said NVDA is "set up the right way" where it keeps moving higher and tops $1,000 in afterhours.

Jason Snipe said if NVDA comes close to a revenue guide of 26, it'll be a "blowout"; he thinks that's "likely to happen."

Jim Lebenthal, lukewarm on this name recently despite owning it at least Jim doesn't feel "handcuffed," as Rob Sechan does with some of his names, predicted NVDA will "beat" and "raise guidance." But he said "everybody" is expecting that, so "it's probably all priced in." So Jim is "not buying it here today."

Joe countered, "When people say it's already priced in, it's not already priced in."

However, Joe indicated a possible issue if indeed NVDA posted a great quarter/outlook. Joe said his "concern" is that it would add fuel to the prospect of a "return to 2023" with a "very narrow set of stocks" leading the market higher.

Joe even referred to his debate with Adam Parker on Closing Bell a couple months ago in which Joe said he's underweight the Mag 7. (That debate was at the end of February. Joe disagreed with Adam's call to have "at least" 25% exposure to the Mag 7. (Adam in recent weeks, as Judge has noted, has backpedaled on that tech trade a bit.) Joe explained to Judge back in February, "What I said to you yesterday was that you can have an equal-weighted strategy and outperform." Evidently Joe is wondering about that one.)

On Wednesday's Fast Money, Karen Finerman said of NVDA, "The bar was really high, and they did a nice job of stepping over the bar." Tim Seymour sorta bungled a double reference to Dick Fosbury. Moments later, Karen mentioned Dwight Stones.

Joe actually thinks Ackman hasn’t gotten enough credit

Judge on Wednesday's (5/22) Halftime reported on XOM facing a "shareholder uprising" over climate change policies.

Jim Lebenthal is long XOM and said shareholders aren't going to support the climate suit and stated, "If you want to get to green new energy, you're gonna have to use fossil fuel to get there. Better to partner with the Exxons of the world than to vilify them."

Then Jim talked up his new favorite subject, nat gas spot price.

Joe Terranova said Wall Street will cast the votes on XOM's policies; Judge indicated "we know which way they tend to" vote on these matters. Joe agreed but said "Engine 1 (sic no 'Number')" a couple years ago got 3 directors on the board.

Judge noted Matt Boss is bullish on LULU. Joe said you don't have to be "seriously concerned" if you own the stock, but you may have to "bide your time" with this one. "It could potentially be dead money over the coming quarters," Joe said. Jim said Joe is right, "This is guilty until proven innocent."

Every 2-3 days, Judge asks panelists about GS, and everyone always says the same thing. Jason Snipe said it's "prudent" to take a position and ride the "continued momentum."

Joe said TJX is evidence that low- and middle-income consumers are "buckling" under higher interest rates.

Joe talked up ISRG and questioned Citi removing it from its "Focus List."

In a helpful bit of information not often heard on the program, Joe said CMG's 50-1 split is set for holders of record on June 18 and takes effect June 25. Joe actually said Bill Ackman "doesn't get enough credit for the winners" but that CMG is one of the best trades Ackman has had.

Jim said ORCL's strength seems "so obvious" that he's surprised it "doesn't have more of a following."

Joe mentioned "Mercado Leeblay- (sic) er, Mercado Libre."

Steve Eisman predicts Trump win

On Tuesday's (5/21) Fast Money, famed investor Steve Eisman opined on the presidential election.

"My call is, that, with as much certainty as I could possibly have, I think Trump wins every single swing state and becomes president. Um, and, I don't think that has much implications for the market at all," Eisman said.

Bryn calls NVDA ‘underappreciated’

Bryn Talkington cued up the drama on Tuesday's (5/21) Halftime Report when she stated early in the program, "I think the earnings Oscars are tomorrow. And best picture will go to Nvidia."

Bryn actually said NVDA "continues to be somewhat underappreciated," which brought chuckles from Judge. Bryn said Dan Niles said on CNBC a day earlier that NVDA is trading 15% below its 5-year P.E. average. (Ah. Another indication of P.E. ratio predicting ... nothing.)

Jim Lebenthal, long NVDA (but only mildly enthusiastic about that fact; on the other hand, he didn't say he was "handcuffed" by the trade like Rob Sechan has experienced with other stocks), said estimates are up "a lot" from last year, and he wouldn't be surprised if the stock "popped in the afterhours" after earnings but "trailed off a little bit" by the end of the week.

Stephanie Link bought more FTNT. (So much for that conversation between Rob and Joe a day earlier.) (See below.)

Judge said Adam Jonas reiterated an "overweight" on TSLA. Bryn said 187 seems like resistance; she's selling calls and thinks the stock is in a "downward trend" for a couple quarters before it recovers.

Josh Brown, who curiously wore a scarf, opened the program discussing his GLW buy. Though GLW "might be a little bit short-term overbought," he said it's the kind of "technical situation" he looks for.

Josh noted that GLW was a hot name for fiber optics (snicker) during the dot-com era; "that whole thing is happening again, but now with AI."

Josh also bought SN, which he called "more of a flyer."

Then he said, "I definitely wouldn't touch it right at this price; I'm in it, uh, lower than here."

That's interesting, because as Karen Finerman always says on Fast Money, if you go home long a stock, it's like you bought it today.

Brown said SN is "one of the hottest brands in American appliances."

Josh said TOST has cooled off a bit, and it would be fine to take a "breather."

We were a bit surprised by how much time Leslie Picker and Judge spent at the Ares Management Investor Day. (The response to the question about NFL-private equity wasn't headline-making.)

During Final Trades, referring to Josh's scarf, Judge said, "I've been biting my tongue for the last 59 minutes and 30 seconds. ... The Jolly Rancher, that's your new nickname."

Josh shrugged it off and curiously offered MRNA as a Final Trade; that was the one Weiss talked about all the time in the 400s but stopped talking about it in the 100s.

Rob says he’s ‘handcuffed’ by stocks that make ‘no sense’ to sell

On Monday's (5/20) Halftime Report, taxes were apparently tying one of the panelists in knots. (No, it had nothing to do with Joe Biden's grandiose "fair share" thing that was heard during the State of the Union.) (Boy, that address sure had a lot of staying power.) (We're sure Lee Cooperman would have something to say about it, but he's not on the show anymore.)

Rather, it involved Rob Sechan's exposure to the consumer via AZO, DECK, HD, LULU, LOW, MCD, ORLY and RACE.

"It's a case of haves and have-nots," Rob told Judge, but then, it sounded like Rob was having Burger King for lunch, because he uncorked this whopper: "Some of those names are names that we're kind of handcuffed in. We've owned them for a very long period of time. And from a tax standpoint, it would make absolutely no sense for up- us to sell."

Now, we don't have a Ph.D. in anything, let alone stock-picking or "risk management"; around here, we can barely calculate a P.E. ratio.

So it's probably no surprise that we're scratching our heads trying to figure out Rob's long-term strategy here.

If it makes "absolutely no sense" to sell, how/when is he ever going to cash in on these stocks?

Or is the point to never sell, that our goal as stock investors is to pick something that over time either makes a lot of money that we can never ... use ... or hope that something with a long-term gain declines back to our basis so that we don't have to owe taxes on it?

We'll keep trying to figure it out.

In a sentence or two, Joe basically points out that P.E. ratio is perhaps, at best, a contra-indicator

In the 27th minute of Monday's (5/20) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova was talking about "Palo Alto," one of his longtime favorite names, as Judge brought up the cybersecurity sector.

Invoking show panelists' favorite statistic, Joe said "It's still well below where it was before it reported earnings." Joe further asserted that PANW will not get "the benefit of the doubt" in its earnings report. He likes CRWD better, "because it's performing a lot better."

So then Judge asked Rob Sechan about owning FTNT and not CRWD. Rob said he should own CRWD but it always felt like a stock he'd be "chasing," whereas FTNT was "a little cheaper."

Judge didn't have the brass to address that statement, but Joe did, stating FTNT is a "great example" against the "valuation argument"; that in the cybersecurity space, "the cheapest stock is the one that's actually underperforming the most."

Rob’s actually worried
about a ‘growth scare’

Joe Terranova got things rolling on Monday's (5/20) Halftime Report, stating at the opening that "it's obviously a very important week because of Nvidia," and that the bar is "incredibly high" for that stock.

Judge wondered about the notion of an "everything (snicker) rally." Shannon Saccocia said, "You want to be in the equity complex (snicker)," and she suggested "outside of the Mag 5."

Sarat Sethi observed, "The 2nd half of the year, comps are going to be really hard for the Big Tech companies."

Judge said, "I feel like the easy money has been made in Big Cap Tech."

Rob Sechan said "Seasonality's in a good place" but that the worry is a "growth scare (snicker)."

Rob mentioned Rick Rieder talking about how a rate cut would "slow down the economy a bit."

Joe reiterated his "firm landing" prediction but allowed, "I do see pockets of weakness as it relates to the consumer."

Sarat touted STZ actually as a "post-COVID" drinking play. (As if drinking wasn't available in March 2020.)

In what seemed like an endorsement for LULU, Rob asked Joe why LULU is trading at a "big discount" to its previous multiple. Joe said "the revenue growth has been the problem." Rob questioned how many times we've heard that about NKE "in the last hundred years."

Judge wondered about Jamie Dimon sounding "cautiously pessimistic." Sarat said Jamie does a great job of managing expectations, though he added, "You gotta take what he's saying with a grain of salt."

Sarat said demand for TDG's products/services is "through the roof."

Judge should be analyzing
the Tom Brady Roast

Judge on Friday's (5/17) Halftime Report asked Steve Weiss about NFLX, as Judge does about every other day. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Totally missing the trees through the forest here, Weiss said the stock is up a lot recently but had declined before that.

"I still think it's got room," Weiss said, adding that NFLX is not only the acknowledged leader (note to Weiss: "Streaming" isn't a sector) but has the money to finance deals, and there's "too many streaming options out there."

Fair enough. What Judge really should've thought about doing was adding some comedy to the show by discussing the Tom Brady Roast that aired on NFLX last weekend.

Important note: Roasts can be controversial, and this page does NOT take any stance on whether certain topics broached at the Brady Roast are out of bounds. On the one hand, great comedy should tiptoe around the envelope; on the other hand, people tuning in to be entertained for a couple hours shouldn't be traumatized. Make of that, and it, what you will.

But reviewing television is fair game. And the truth, which Judge and Weiss left out Friday, is that NFLX is a singular entity in pop culture that in fact is only gaining presence with events such as the Brady gathering.

OK, so how'd it go. It worked for a couple reasons — one of them being the teenager-like giddiness of a buncha 30- and 40-somethings who realized they could swear into a microphone and not be fined by Roger Goodell.

It was almost like pro wrestling theatrics, a bunch of guys racing for the mike to trash talk each other.

Now, is that giddiness stoopid? Yeah, but, admittedly, it was kinda funny.

And, 3 comedians — Nikki Glaser, Andrew Schulz and Tony Hinchcliffe — absolutely killed it. They easily made up for the Busts of the Night, a group led by Ben Affleck (by a wide margin) that included Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura, Bill Belichick (a lot seemed to be promised there, with little delivered, and others couldn't stop making the same Bill Belichick joke over and over), Dana White, Julian Edelman and (mostly) Kevin Hart, who stumbled out of the gate and either really was laughing hysterically at weak material or practicing performance art but did gain a little momentum in the latter half.

Will Ferrell and Peyton Manning and Drew Bledsoe, we're going to charitably pronounce mediocre. Randy Moss was flat as a pancake and almost seemed like too nice of a guy to be taking part in something like this.

It seems ridiculous to believe, given that his own spiel wasn't great, but we actually started wondering if Tom Brady, as the one who evidently engineered this production, might actually be an All-Pro at comedy. #notgoingthereyet

It's worth stating again: Did watching this event make you feel like you are 14 years old? Honestly, yes.

And that's kinda funny.

‘For the last 15 years, always a V-shaped recovery’

An argument (that's a stretch) nearly got started on Friday's (5/17) Halftime Report when Judge served up a preview of NVDA earnings.

Steve Weiss contended that "the earnings report will not be a proxy for earnings- for the AI movement. That's going to continue. Even if they miss."

"I think that's debatable," Judge countered.

Judge had opened the show talking about "The Everything Rally." Judge aired Josh Brown's comments from a day earlier (see below) about earnings surprising the bears.

Weiss on Friday wasn't too impressed, stating, "He's right, but guess what — that's the same view you could've had for the- since the buttonwood tree. Because markets go up 90% of the time."

Weiss asserted something that he occasionally brings up, that "for the last 15 years, always a V-shaped recovery," so people are conditioned to it, a fair point.

Weiss said, "Even '08, not quite a V-shape, but pretty close."

That one got our attention, because '08 is sort of the tipping point. The dot-com bubble is hated by everyone, who wishes they sold on Y2K. The March 2020 bottom is hated by no one, who wishes they had backed up the truck. In between is 2008, in which hatred of the September-October disaster is sort of outweighed by the joy of being long in March 2009.

Meanwhile, Kevin Simpson bought more AMGN. He said he wants to "look for things that haven't moved."

Judge said Kevin had DUK energy "called away," not something you tend to hear very often. Kevin noted utilities have been "trading like AI stocks" and shrugged off having the stock called away.

Weiss yet again harped on how some people are living "paycheck to paycheck."

Judge said, "Now everybody, literally (sic), is talking about utilities as AI plays." Jenny Harrington said NEE "is still way way way way off its highs," a popular measuring stick of Halftime panelists.

Jason Snipe bought more GS and basically touted most or all of the company's business units. Weiss endorsed GS and said "the pipelines are huge," but he doesn't see the IPO market heating up until "next year."

Contessa punts on Josh’s question about ‘innuendo’ related to Warren Buffett’s regulatory interests

In the latter half of Thursday's (5/16) Halftime Report, Contessa Brewer joined the panel at Post 9 to discuss Berkshire's (extremely exciting) investment in CB.

Judge pointed out that Josh Brown, one of the panelists, had guessed that AMZN might've been the new BRK.A buy. Josh wondered if he could ask Contessa a "crazy question."

"Sure," Contessa said.

Josh asked if Evan Greenberg is Hank Greenberg's son (yes, said Contessa), "and wasn't there some innuendo back in the day that Warren Buffett may have been partially responsible for the troubles that AIG had from a regulatory perspective. But, like, maybe that was all fake and made up on the internet."

"That's a very in-the-weeds ques- question going back, like, way longer than I have been (unintelligible)," Contessa said.

"You can punt on that one. I- I give you permission," Judge assured Contessa.

Meanwhile, Bill Baruch bought some more UBER, citing a "partnership with Costco" and shuttle business at concerts. (This writer is long UBER.) Josh said UBER is "9% below its 50-day. It is not trading well," but he shrugged that it seems to be "part of a, a stock in an uptrend."

Jim’s looking over his shoulder (at least until the big whoosh down)

Most people on Thursday's (5/16) Halftime Report were optimistic about the stock market, so it was a bit curious to hear Jim Lebenthal of all people expressing fears.

(Then again, it's not that curious, as Jim is obviously still lamenting that April's pullback wasn't as big as he hoped and he never got the "big. Whoosh. Down.")

Citing Loretta Mester's fresh comments, Steve Liesman told Judge it sounds like key Fed figures believe the current rate "is enough to bring down inflation."

Jim offered, "You would be a fool to not be nervous and be long here."

Judge wondered, "How the hell can you be nervous if you're long small caps and adding to them recently."

Jim said, "Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is action in the face of fear. It is wise to be looking over your shoulder."

Josh Brown said the bears have gotten the macro right, what they missed was "the unbelievable earnings power at the 500 best companies in the world."

Judge said technology is the best sector since the April 19 close, which Judge said was the "April lows."

Bill Baruch said "there's some tailwinds that haven't- we haven't seen yet from Apple as they start to spend on AI."

Judge said energy is "the only sector that's negative" since April 19. Jim protested that since the October lows, "energy has been a wonderful place to be." Jim said to look not at oil but nat gas and stated, "That's where the puck's going, Scott."

Jim and Bill noted that farmers are dealing with slumping crop prices, which is a headwind for DE.

At one point, Jim said he listens to earnings calls rather than just reading the analyst reports a day later, "because you listen to what the analysts are questioning, and it kind of figures things out."

Jim said he's going to give CSCO "another quarter," after which it could be "off to the races."

Much later in the program, Josh advised Jim to "blow out the Cisco" and put the money in QCOM. "Thank you, my brother. I love ya," Jim said. Judge said, "I thought the response was a little patronizing." "I didn't mean it patronizingly!" Jim said, adding, "What do you want me to say?" Jim said he's "got a lot of Qualcomm."

Karen reveals the 3 worst names of all time in retail

In Wednesday's (5/15) Fast Money intros, guest host Joe Kernen (he usually doesn't do afternoon appearances) said he wants to pronounce Steve Grasso's surname as "Grosso." Steve confirmed, "It's pronounced 'Grosso.'"

Steve reiterated his forecast for 2024 rate cuts: "I'm still at 3."

On inflation, Karen Finerman opined, "I think a 2-handle is enough to declare victory."

Joe kept complaining about the "mess" of the "Drudgington Post" website. Steve "Grosso" said "I haven't looked at it in a very long time."

Karen told Joe that Fifth Third bank is one of the "3 really dumb names." The other two are "The Athlete's Foot" and "Dress Barn." Karen stated, "If you're a woman, would you wanna shop at 'Dress Barn'?"

We've heard Karen make this observation previously, but honestly, we thought "Dress Barn" was kinda cute (but apparently not).

Joe actually asked guest Michael Pugliese, "Is everyone FOS?" (Different FCC standards in the afternoon than morning.)

Joe says AAPL management ‘punished’ the nonbeliever investors (a/k/a How’s MRNA doing)

CNBC's gorjus Kate Rooney interviewed Visa CEO Ryan McInerny about midway through Wednesday's (5/15) Halftime Report. McInerny said people are looking for weakness in the consumer, but Visa is seeing "consistent, resilient stability."

Steve Weiss, though, who was late to Post 9 for Wednesday's show and had just barely taken a seat, warned afterwards about the "consumers who are stretched," then claimed that's what Jane Fraser has been talking about.

Joe Terranova personally bought AMGN and MRK. The curious thing about that is, how come nobody talks about MRNA anymore (Weiss was still talking it up when it was in the 400s). (Works until it doesn't, apparently.)

Weiss, joining in progress (he cited "New York traffic"), bought more CAT, citing "inexpensive" (Zzzzzzz).

Joe declared again that AAPL is "going higher."

Then Joe bluntly claimed that "Tim Cook and the executive management team punished the investors" who had expected underperformance all year; Joe said it was because of AAPL's "capital allocation strategy."

Judge said Weiss has "dumped on it a lot" but just bought AAPL for a trade. Weiss started to downplay the buyback as "relatively small" but admitted it's "accretive to earnings." Weiss said the stock's trading up in advance of its usual September refresh.

"I bought it as a pure momentum trade," Weiss said, protesting, "The valuation relative to their growth rate is way out of line."

Judge wondered why Weiss doesn't own FCX any more. "Since time memoriam (sic), uh, commodities are a trade," Weiss said, "and when everybody's going one way, it's time to go the other way."

Belski would’ve gotten more headlines with an even 6,000

Judge opened Wednesday's (5/15) Halftime Report by saying "what, uh, an incredible (snicker) morning it's been" and that "we have big news today from one of our own."

That news was that Brian Belski has raised his S&P target "to the highest on the Street," or 5,600.

Brian wasn't a panelist but joined remotely. "I think the market is gonna correct from a higher level," Belski said, and "there's no point in, in trying to time this."

Belski continued, "I think this is the final unwind quite frankly of 'stocks only go up if interest rates go down.'"

Judge said Tom Lee on Tuesday's Closing Bell is also "more bullish" (not an unusual event); Tom said on that program that May figures to get better than it already is.

Kari Firestone, on Judge's panel Wednesday, said, "You have to in this environment go with the momentum and the trend."

Judge noted that the "correction" in April wasn't what some regard as your "typical flush." (Translation: You always know you're in a bull market when you hear CNBC panelists clamoring for the "big whoosh down" so they can start buying again.) Joe Terranova said the reason we didn't get that flush is "because the eco-data (sic) is in the perfect spot," which Joe said is in between hard and soft landing, "it's the firm landing, it's the right landing."

Judge said there are indications that PCE is "cooperating." Joe concluded, "This is a bull market. We're in the middle of it."

Jim claims ‘traders are awesome,’ then sorta indicates why they’re not

Tuesday's (5/14) Halftime Report actually didn't have much news going on, but Judge, to his credit and his panelists' credit, ran a crisp show, one of his best in weeks, chock-full of rapid-fire stock calls and some informative disagreements.

Amy Raskin opened things by saying she's "had it" with NKE and sold it. Judge said the company "blamed remote work" (snicker) for its "innovation slowdown."

Josh Brown lumped in SBUX with NKE and said "what's plaguing these companies I think is just fatigue on the part of the consumer," and according to Brown, it typically takes "more than 1 quarter" for companies like these to get going again.

Amy also sold CVS; "the execution is just terrible," though she admitted, "I might be selling at the bottom." Sarat Sethi though called CVS a "deep value" play and said he'll be "doubling up on taxable positions" and that investors "could see something happen" in terms of a catalyst.

Sarat bought LW, which he said sells fries to MCD and has been stung by GLP-1 "noise." Amy's buying more VRTX.

Jim Lebenthal sold CPT, saying on the one hand everyone wants inflation to go down, but owning this company means hoping that rents go up, which Jim said is one of those "intellectual conflicts." Josh Brown though said "it's a hedge."

Jim crowed about the capex spending of ORCL supposedly paying off. "I'm not putting down traders. Traders are awesome. But Sarat and I invest. We look at things like that capex and we say it's gonna pay off, and here it is," Jim said.

(Note: We'd prefer the photo above show Jim smiling; but despite generally upbeat commentary on Tuesday, the look above is how Jim generally looked during good camera angle shots, so hey, we just had to grab one. If any gripes, this one's on Jim.)

Josh said ORCL is nearing "taking out a new valuation level, but it's not overbought at all." Josh predicted $150 on ORCL.

Jason Snipe, who wasn't a panelist Tuesday but briefly joined remotely, said he is buying UBER on the pullback, acknowledging "slight misses on delivery and freight," but he expects those to be "temporary." (This writer is long UBER.) Josh Brown called it a "smart buy." Sarat cautioned, "The question is the cash flow growth."

Amy Raskin said it's "a little scary" that people sound "bulled up" like there's "no downside" to the stock market, but Amy admitted, "As long as we're pending rate cuts, it's hard for the market to go down a lot."

Josh pins a 250 on AMZN

Dee Bosa on Tuesday's (5/14) Halftime Report previewed the big Google event at Alphabet on Tuesday.

Jim Lebenthal stressed that every selloff of Alphabet on AI reasons has been a buying opportunity. Amy Raskin sort of waffled like L'Eggo my egg'o on owning Alphabet; Jim questioned why there's "dissonance" (snicker) in Amy's statement and eventually said, "I can't tell if you wanna own it or not."

Amy said, "I do own it, so I do wanna own it, because I do own it, but it's not a huge bet for us."

Judge asked Josh Brown to settle it regarding Alphabet, but Josh also kind of waffled like L'Eggo my egg'o.

But Josh did say he doesn't understand why people in the market a long time may "not see" that AMZN is going to 250.

Judge asked Sarat Sethi about his "speculative" (Sarat's term) position in RBLX. "I like the business they're in," Sarat said, though "their execution has not been good." Sarat asserted though that "the stock's gonna do well." Sarat qualified/couched his answer to Judge's question as to whether he's a "long-term holder."

Sarat talked up EIX, an interesting trade that he said got caught in California wildfire concerns. However, we checked the chart, and it seems like kind of a constant yo-yo.

Bob Pisani discussed some of the top ETFs of the last 5 years. Judge said he's "pretty surprised" that the XME "would be up every year double digits for the past 5." Bob said that ETF is "probably 30% gold stocks."

Judge noted Josh Brown's recent buy of WBD is on a 4-day win streak. "I think I got lucky on the timing," Brown said.

Weiss hasn’t had anything new to say about NFLX in weeks months years but keeps getting asked about it anyway

Fairly early into Monday's (5/13) Halftime Report, we heard Jenny Harrington state, "It's just as easy for me to use bing search on my phone as it is Google search."

Well, that's true.

On the other hand, more than a year ago, the computers at CNBCfix HQ actually switched over search pages from Google to bing, for at least a month.

And frankly, it seemed like bing sucks.

Just too many fringe or obscure results than are expected from Google, and nowhere close in image searching.

But whatever Jenny wants to do.

Giddy just last week about owning stocks, Steve Weiss was Mr. Cool on Monday's Halftime.

Judge started the show asking Weiss about trimming Alphabet and selling the QQQ. (This writer is long GOOGL and QQQ.)

Weiss said that when Alphabet (we're guessing GOOGL but not sure) was in the 130s with all the "noise," he thought there was "no there there" to the complaints and he started to "supersize the position," now he's just trimming it back. He said selling the QQQ is just "risk management."

Weiss said he "will lighten up" on META because it's just too big of a position.

Moments later, Joe Terranova offered, "I'll tell you the risk in selling the Q's right now — Apple's going higher." And, Joe said there could be another "parabolic move" in NVDA post-earnings.

Joe tried to explain to Weiss how hard it is to outperform when not owning AAPL while it's going up, as Joe says it is now.

Weiss said he didn't want Joe to take it personally, but it's "gettin' old that you gotta own Apple." Weiss said the earnings growth is driven by buybacks, not fundamentals.

Jenny said AAPL "can't" use its pile of cash to do deals. Judge asked, "What do you mean they 'can't'?" Jenny said, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Weiss admited that he keeps calling NFLX the "leader" in streaming. (This writer is long NFLX.) "No sense repeating it, but I will," Weiss said. Then he compared Netflix to Secretariat. "You're datin' yourself, Weiss," Judge said. Joe said NFLX is still 15% below its all-time high. Joe did NOT say that any stock is guaranteed to go back to its all-time high. #howfarisPelotonofftheall-timehigh

Weiss yet again predicted AMD will take a "steady march back up to 80."

On GME, Weiss suggested that Roaring Kitty may have "tapped the kitty too much" and "is broke" and now needs to get it "roarin' again." Weiss said he thought everybody "tapped out of this one the last time."

Judge referred to the text at the bottom of the screen as the "deco, as we call it."

Karen says iPad ad is ‘terrible’
(a/k/a every bracket is better off)

The crew on Friday's (5/10) Fast Money took up the controversial iPad ad, with mixed reviews.

Tim Seymour said he's not offended at all by the ad; "there's social media outrage on almost anything."

However, Karen Finerman stated, "I actually thought it was terrible." Karen questioned what Steve Jobs would've thought of such a destruction of creative tools

Steve Grasso offered that this is how technology improves things, and "Ford never apologized to horse and buggies," and in AAPL's case, "It shouldn't have been an apology; it should've been a rephrase of what they're exactly trying to get to with the ad."

Meanwhile, Karen said some upper-income people shop at COST because they find great value and find it "totally fun."

Grasso stated, "Every income bracket is doing better off than they were pre-pandemic. Every one." Steve said that's based on "net worth" and the "amount of debt that they're carrying."

Weiss is ‘longest in memory’

Judge opened Friday's (5/10) Halftime Report saying "the big news" (snicker) is that the S&P is within 1% of a record.

Get ready to pop the corks.

Judge said Tom Lee and Jonathan Krinsky, who hasn't been on the show for a while, see more gains. Steve Weiss revealed, "I'm on that page for now," before sounding giddy about virtually every stock on the program.

Weiss said Jay Powell "put a floor under the market" by indicating "no more rate increases."

"I'm the longest I've been in, in, in memory, actually," Weiss revealed, catching Judge's attention.

Weiss told Judge he's surprised at the market's long-term resilience. But Weiss said there's "even more pressure" now on those living "paycheck to paycheck."

Not quite as giddy as Weiss, Jim Lebenthal said he had to note that "every time the rally has broadened, it has reversed seemingly a week or two later." Jim said the market is "hinging on" next week's PPI and CPI, and while it "may seem counterintuitive," Jim wouldn't be surprised if inflation is soft and the market still goes down because it might be near or in full-value territory.

Jim explained, "The correction we had in April didn't seem deep enough." (The funny thing is, we remember Jim saying the same thing all through April 2020, that the late March bounce-back couldn't be trusted because obviously the market still has farther to go lower.)

Bill Baruch, though, happily declared, "Buy in May, and this bull market is here to stay." Bill said other sectors have taken leadership, but he thinks the "thrust" is still coming from tech.

Hard to find a stock that Weiss doesn’t like

It only took 10 minutes on Friday's (5/10) Halftime for Judge to get to another Tony Pasquariello note, which basically just observed that Megacap Tech giants earn more money than other companies.

Steve Weiss said that you might think MSFT or AMZN is "overvalued," but "it's only a moment in time they're overvalued."

Weiss is back in ASML with a smaller position; "I was clearly wrong in selling it."

Weiss doesn't own C but Jim Lebenthal does; Weiss nevertheless said Jane Fraser has done a "phenomenal job" and praised Fraser for moving into the "high end of wealth management."

Weiss congratulated Bill Baruch (who was on the show) and Kevin Simpson (who wasn't) for recent buy-CAT calls. Weiss has added a small position.

Weiss bought more NFLX and said "you have to buy this one when it's down." (This writer is long NFLX.) He said Netflix is "No. 1" but the "Disney-Hulu combination" will be among the "2 leaders."

Weiss said once ADM clears its restatement hurdle, "the stock should go back to 80."

Weiss said DKS works because people spend on their pets and their kids, and he regrets selling it a lot lower.

Steve Liesman said Michelle Bowman doesn't see rate cuts being "warranted" this year. Steve isn't sure that's any kind of change in Bowman's position.

Bill Baruch said a lot of the "spend" is already in for T and he thinks it could start expanding margins. Weiss questioned if the stock's rally is tied to rates.

Bill said MCD's promotion plans aren't enough to get him "excited" about the stock, but he is interested in the digital marketing initiative.

Bill actually mentioned "BRICS," first time we've heard that term on the show in maybe years; Bill said those central banks are "buying gold hand over fist right now."

Dom Chu reported late in the show that Jim Simons has died at 86. Judge, Santoli and Weiss discussed Simons' legacy and impact on quant investing. "It was mathematical, it was statistical arbitrage," Santoli said.

Josh says utilities ‘caught fire’ as AI trade, but it will ‘end in tears’

Josh Brown opened Thursday's (5/9) Halftime Report saying SHOP and ABNB are "fine," but the outlook just wasn't as great as people hoped.

Liz Young said if we could "parse out" how much the rise in some of these tech stocks was multiple expansion vs. fundamentals, we'd find that what they're "giving back" is just multiple expansion.

Jim Lebenthal said the problem with chasing tech stocks is that "you lose sight of the fact that outside of technology, there's a lot (snicker) of areas of this economy and the stock market that are actually doing really well right now."

Josh said you have to decide if you're an "investor" or a "trader," and if you're a trader, are you a "momentum player" or something else. "If you're a momentum trader, you're in the utitlities right now," Josh said. He said "utilities caught fire as like an AI play," however, he said, "That's gonna end in tears by the way."

In what may have been the show's most intriguing suggestion/observation, Josh noted AMZN is at an all-time high; "this is the new Apple" and the name everyone is "chasing."

AMZN does seem a little bulletproof. (This writer has no position in AMZN.) And we wondered about Brown's comment when Bryn Talkington dialed in to discuss the "overreaction" to RBLX's guidance, suggesting she "will be adding" on Monday after giving it 3 days to cool off. Bryn said it's trading like a "Snapchat quarter." Honestly, we don't quite get why Bryn is so plugged in to this stock, especially as Josh noted, she can just buy AMZN and probably expect to do better.

Josh said the problem with RBLX is that it's "very lumpy."

Kevin Simpson sold some calls on AAPL, saying "we were purchasing it 164 2 weeks ago." He said "it gives us a little bit of a hedge to the downside," and he wouldn't "lose any sleep" if it got called at 195.

Kevin sold AVGO, calling it "fully valued."

Jim elucidates another argument for small caps

Judge on Thursday's (5/9) Halftime Report said Jeff DeGraaf is touting small caps, and Judge asked small-cap fan Jim Lebenthal for an opinion.

Jim said "I think it's right" and said he wanted to "elucidate" (snicker) that thesis a little more. Jim said the argument against small caps most often is higher rates, but it's a "trite phrase" because interest expense is not a big cost for these companies, it's really what rates might do to the broader economy.

Josh Brown said he was "drinking margaritas" with DeGraaf the day before Cinco de Mayo and that Jeff is looking for areas where "there's really no one left to sell."

However, Josh said the issue with small caps is that "the best companies in the index get promoted and leave," which means "over time, the small caps are actually some of the worst companies."

How many people has Jim encountered who told him they’re eager to buy a GM product

In a trade he wasn't too interested in defending, Josh Brown on Thursday's (5/9) Halftime Report discussed buying WBD, but with a stop loss, citing the no-one-left-to-sell argument.

We did hear Brown say "Now they're making money though on the streaming platform" (uh oh) and even mention "Hulu" (uh oh). Anyway, he thinks "the reward outweighs the risk."

Jim Lebenthal said he bought more DIS, claiming with a straight face that "streaming is the future (snicker) of this business." Jim acknowledged the linear headwinds but said linear companies are transitioning to streaming; "It's not the newspaper business" of the 1990s.

Jim actually suggested $70 for GM. (And once again, he just mentions "results" and buybacks and not any specific product that people are dying to get.)

TOST hit a 52-week high; Josh suggested maybe fears of competition are overblown.

Josh said the big success of the Berkshire meeting was showing that the "next generation" of company leaders are "ready, willing and able" (NOT a pun on Greg Abel's name) (then again, maybe it was) (have to think about the spelling of "able" there) to continue the work of Warren and Charlie.

Jim said RIG has regained all of its earnings knockdown; Jim said the stock is fairly valued until the "cold-stacked idle rigs" ... do something or other; then the stock will climb, Jim said.

Judge said PFE "hired a sell-side analyst," but it's not "the most bullish person on their stock," but rather the "opposite." Josh said "that's so gangster" and praised the company for adding a voice that may have helpful criticisms that can improve the leadership.

Bertha Coombs reported on News Update that Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are "stepbrothers" of Barron Trump, and that Tiffany Trump is Barron's "stepsister." (Just because someone writes this copy doesn't mean the presenter has to say it.)

So much for all-day breakfast — people have ‘never heard’ McD’s make these kinds of comments about the consumer

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (5/8) Halftime Report waffled as to whether there's concern about discretionary spending.

Joe said there's a correlation between "off price" names such as TJX and ROST and yields.

Kari Firestone said DIS "raised price too much" at the parks. (But it's got a streaming platform that according to Weiss is going to be a "winner.")

Hours later on Fast Money, Grandpa Guy Adami, who's been complaining about the Fed/warning about the economy since Kiner was leading the Senior Circuit in home runs, said that while they've been doing the show 17 years, they've "never heard McDonald's say the things they've said over the last couple months in terms of their consumer."

Karen Finerman pointed out that in contrast to MCD, CMG is surging, "doing something right every single time."

"I'll say again," Guy said moments later. "The revisions (snicker) that we conin- continue to see with these job numbers, it's gonna catch up at some point."

Joe apologizes for something he needn’t apologize for, doesn’t know why his own ETF found SHOP a compelling buy

Judge on Wednesday's (5/8) Halftime noted that SHOP is in the JOET.

Joe declared, "This stock is technically and fundamentally broken." (The term used to be "penalty box," but since the JOET, Joe doesn't refer to "penalty box" anymore.)

(Note: We would say "sorry about the glum picture above," but that's exactly how Joe greeted viewers during the intros at the beginning of the show; this one's on Joe.)

Joe said the "larger question" for him is why "the rules" put it in the JOET. Joe said he found there's been a "reawakening" in emerging software companies including ZM, but this "reawakening" has a success rate that's actually "very low."

Joe said he probably wouldn't buy DDOG at 116, though he might if it moved higher.

Bill Baruch joined remotely to talk about his AAPL buy. Bill said there could be a "tailwind" into the Worldwide Developers Conference that lifts the stock past 190 in the next month.

Bill also added AMGN, which launched the group into a discussion about the diet drugs and whether users/insurers can keep paying for them forever, whether they be weekly shots or monthly, as AMGN's is. Kari Firestone said if AMGN's drug works, people wouldn't have to take it for the entire rest of their lives.

Joe said "the comps get easier for health care," and, "I'll apologize to the viewers: I fell asleep on this one. Merck." He said he got out "around 110 last year," now it's 130, and he hasn't yet gotten back in. (Yowza. He actually did not invest in a stock that's up less than 20% in 6 months.)

Kari says Belski might be ‘a little early’ on real estate

Kari Firestone on Wednesday's (5/8) Halftime Report talked up CNX, suggesting nat gas has "bottomed." (We've heard that before.)

Kari bought AFHTF, a stock that surely has never been mentioned on the show before; it's the top rival to URI, Kari said.

Joe Terranova again talked about how $65-$85 oil is the "sweet spot" for energy stocks.

Kari owns SHW and loves the Evercore upgrade. Joe said the JOET just added SQ, which Judge said is "increasingly likely" to join the S&P 500, according to Barclays. Joe lumped in SQ with his "reawakening" names he mentioned earlier.

ODFL got an upgrade from Baird; Joe said it's in the JOET, "and truckload is in a bad position right now," even though "the group trades at a premium to the S&P 500," or 12% above its 1-year average.

Kari said "TripAdvisor is a company in chaos."

Judge said Brian Belski has a new note claiming real estate is "oversold." Kari Firestone said that call "could be a little early." Shannon Saccocia said "you can be selective in this space."

Joe praised ANET. Kari said she sold ALGN when she was "starting to worry about China." Joe said the JOET unloaded ALGN at the end of April.

The Fast Money crew chuckled about Brian Chesky apparently blaming ABNB results on the "timing of Easter."

Pulling his leg: We forgot to post images last Friday from Bill Murray enjoying Santoli’s Midday Word at Berkshire meeting in Omaha

At the top of Wednesday's (5/8) Halftime Report, Judge wondered if the growth trade has headwinds.

Joe Terranova called the UBER reax "a great example of a measurement for sentiment and positioning (Zzzzzzz)." Joe said 92% of the analyst community has UBER as a buy. (This writer is long UBER.)

Much later in the show, Mike Santoli described UBER as a "supercrowded" hedge fund name that is spending gobs each quarter "on legal stuff."

Kari Firestone said it's not about whether the growth trade is "tired," it's whether stocks have run so much that "they're getting a little tired just of the ascent."

Kari noted that megacap earnings are up 39% while "the rest of the S&P" is at -3%, "so they are still pulling their weight."

Joe said if NVDA misses, "The market's going down."

Karen Finerman wonders about the timing of DIS’ good and bad quarters (as well as Howard’s letter ...)

It appeared during Tuesday's (5/7) Fast Money that you can count Karen Finerman among those wondering how lucky it was for DIS management to post a great quarter ahead of the proxy fight while saving the bad quarter for after the proxy fight was settled.

"I can't help but wonder, the timing of this release relative to the proxy fight ... now that it's over, not such a strong quarter." Karen said, chuckling that she might just be "overly, you know, conspiracy theorist or something."

Karen said there "could be some more downside" in the stock.

Tim Seymour asserted that "the streaming losses dynamic is still the most important part of this story." (But Steve Weiss claimed recently that DIS will be a "winner" in streaming. How many more years does it need.) (See below.)

Tim said Disney's linear business "sucks," then said "sorry for that."

But Karen wasn't done. Karen pointed out that these DIS results are for the quarter ended March 31, while the annual meeting was April 2, "so they had to have some sense of how this current quarter was going."

Karen also said it was "sort of odd" that Howard Schultz made his SBUX gripes public, explaining that it "certainly serves to undermine the CEO."

Adam Parker actually claims that investing in Megacap Tech carries ‘increasing risk’ (a/k/a Dinner with Dan Ives)

Judge said on Tuesday's (5/7) Halftime Report that Adam Parker issued a note about "increasing risk" in Megacap Tech investments, citing beta.

Jason Snipe said there could be something to it, but right now, "they're a safe haven."

Josh Brown said Adam "absolutely has a point" (snicker) but that beta issues matter differently to different investors.

Judge opened the show announcing that Bill Baruch (who wasn't one of the day's panelists) bought CRWD.

Bill connected remotely and said he had "stayed away from traditional cybersecurity" out of fear that "hyperscalers" would dominate. But Bill said he had a conversation with Dan Ives at dinner in February. Bill said Dan said, "I've been getting that question ever since Tom Brady was playing football at Michigan." Bill said that "spoke a lot to me" and convinced him he needed CRWD exposure.

Joe Terranova brought up PANW (the stock he loves to mention) and noted its "significant decline" in February, but he said CRWD has had a good recovery and recently was added to JOET, so Joe is "all in on the cybersecurity trade."

Joe outlined the difference between PLTR and DDOG. Joe said the JOET added PLTR at $16 in January. Joe said the free cash flow generation took a significant drop, and you'll have to be "patient." Joe said he'd be less excited about buying DDOG.

Josh hung a $200 on AMZN in Final Trades. Joe said there's "no stronger case" for momentum than in GRMN.

Brad Gerstner expects a ‘negotiated settlement’ over TikTok

Brad Gerstner, the star guest of Tuesday's (5/7) Halftime Report who was live from the Milken conference, actually brought up Larry Summers' opinion (snicker) on interest rates while describing pretty much the entire stock market/AI backdrop.

It was 24 minutes into the interview when Brad finally brought up his Invest America idea, the "401(k) from birth," the congressional prospects of which this page has already outlined (see below) (spoiler alert: Don't count on this passing either house of Congress). (There was nothing about The Board Challenge, which apparently is now defunct.)

Brad said it "makes sense" if someone wants to trim from AI-related names because of how great the stocks have already done year to date.

Judge asked Brad about META and its bad April. Brad pronounced META as "the single greatest benficiary of the AI boom" and pointed out its revenue growth since 2022.

Judge asked Brad, a recent critic of Alphabet, about that company. Brad said he actually bought Alphabet around $130 because of its declaration about making "structural changes." However, Brad said it needs to "get fit" and deal with competition.

Brad said his expectation is increasing that there will be "some negotiated settlement" with TikTok.

Jim says he doesn’t want an ‘inane conversation,’ but Judge insists it’s not inane

Shortly into Monday's (5/6) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal started talking up owning the IJR; Judge seemed to think Jim was claiming he bought it in December (he apparently did) when in fact, "You bought small caps recently," Judge insisted.

Jim clarified that he started in December, and "I did add to it recently."

Jim said he chose the IJR because it "purposely excludes the non-earning companies, because I didn't want to have this inane conversation which is what people throw at me every time I try to say this is a good- a good place-"

"My first time!" Rob Sechan cut in, for some reason.

"It's not an inane conversation," Judge cut in, saying that "every time" Jim argues that small caps are "the place to be," it's "not necessarily been the case."

Joe Terranova protested that "if we're prioritizing quality, the IJR should be outperforming the Russell."

Joe bluntly asserted, "The problem with small caps is they don't have the exposure to artificial intelligence." (We think that's a major reach, but it is an interesting argument.)

Jim shrugged, noting, "Artificial intelligence has been talked about now for 18 months, I mean, that could be a little long in the tooth at this point in time."

Steve Grasso still sees 3 rate cuts

Judge opened Monday's (5/6) Halftime Report asking Rob Sechan about the catalyst for the next rally.

Rob said "Momentum is with us here for now," but beyond that, it's about GDP revisions and earnings delivering. But he thinks we're in a "good spot" in the short term.

Jim Lebenthal contended that what Powell said last week "really pushes off the idea of the recession."

Jim conceded CVS had an "awful" report and the company's a "mess."

Judge asked Rob about selling CMCSA; Rob called it a "tax loss" to offset portfolio gains.

Bryn Talkington, participating remotely, said AAPL has just had an "extreme shift" in technicals.

In a point that wasn't made with enough completeness, Joe Terranova said Warren Buffett was just questioning if people would choose between "getting rid of their iPhone or maybe having 2 personal vehicles." Joe said Warren said people would get rid of the vehicle over the iPhone, one of the reasons being the existence of UBER.

If we understand that question correctly, it sounds like Warren Buffett is asking people with 2 cars (presumably households of 2 or more people), if they had to get rid of either one of the cars or their iPhone, they'd choose the car. We're not sure why anyone would be faced with that decision, and we're not sure how the answer would be any different than the answer from 80 years ago.

Judge did break his streak of mentioning that Toni Sacconaghi says to "buy the fear" in AAPL that, had it occurred Monday, would've been about the 5th or 6th day in a row.

After the A Block, Judge was jabbing Jim about BRK.A selling PARA and calling it a "dud"; Judge told Jim, "At least they sold it," prompting chuckles around the table.

Judge noted that Jim, Rob and Joe all own VRTX. Rob and Jim wouldn't explain why it's underperforming. Joe told Judge the stock is underperforming "because of the potential $5 billion deal with Alpine." Jim insisted the stock's been a "home run" prior to 2024.

Briefly discussing DIS, Jim brought up, once again, Hulu (Zzzzzzzzzz).

Tyler Mathisen on The Exchange praised Judge for the "quickest Final Trades ever."

On Fast Money, Steve Grasso said he still expects rate cuts in 2024. "I'm still betting we're gonna have 3," Steve said.

Judge yet again says that Toni Sacconaghi (who hadn’t been mentioned on the show prior to this week in probably more than a year) says ‘buy the fear’ in AAPL

The Legend of Tony Pasquariello surfaced again on Friday's (5/3) Halftime Report. Tony, whose notes have become a daily soundbite for Judge like Santoli's Midday Wrap, apparently thinks the market is in "choppy waters" and recommends "simplify your portfolio" and own Megacap Tech and other obvious choices.

Steve Weiss said he appreciates how Tony arrives at his conclusions; Weiss said "there's no point in getting over your skis here," he doesn't see the market "running away to the upside."

Weiss said the market multiple is the type of multiple you get during easy monetary policy.

Judge had opened the show declaring the market got "a perfect jobs report for the bulls and for the Fed." Weiss agreed it's not any more complicated than that. Weiss said Powell gave a "very dovish" press conference.

Kevin Simpson said that in the morning at the open, "We wrote a covered call in Apple." Weiss said, "You know, Apple would have no earnings growth without their buybacks. It's all financial engineering."

Judge claimed with a straight face that for AAPL, "AI may very well be what leads to the next great refresh cycle."

Late in the show, Judge called Mike Tirico an "NBC Sports legend." When Mike reported from Churchill Downs, Mike impressively pointed out one reason why Bob Baffert may not be at the Derby this year (it's the 150th anniversary and they don't want controversy).

Weiss said he bought more GS on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Judge opened the latter half of the show returning from a commercial and stating, "Berkshire Hathaway's annhole (sic) share- annual shareholder meeting kicking off less than 24 hours from now ..."

‘I don’t think the correction’s over’

Honestly, this page really couldn't discern a headline from Thursday's (5/2) Halftime Report, so we're basically just going to report it chronologically.

Judge opened asking Josh Brown, "Did a more dovish Fed chair just settle the market for another leg up?" Judge quoted Powell, "I don't see the stag — or the flation."

Josh said "the Fed doubled down" on the outlook being 1 or 2 or zero cuts.

Liz Young said "we're either getting a hold, or a cut."

Brian Belski said "we are transitioning to normality" (snicker) and said he was "completely confused" about the chatter of raising rates heading into the meeting.

However, "I don't think the correction's over, by the way. I think we have a little bit more to go," Belski said, saying calls for just a 5% drop are "too cutesy."

Judge aired a clip of Jeffrey Gundlach bringing up a common slogan a day earlier on Closing Bell: "I don't like really risk- risky stuff, because I think higher for longer is gonna start takin'- taking some of the bodies out." (Sounds like more of Steve Weiss' lag effect.)

As for the day's big earnings report that was yet to happen, Josh Brown said the market just has to realize that companies as big as AAPL can't grow as fast as smaller companies.

Judge even mentioned that Toni Sacconaghi advised earlier this week to "buy the fear," the 2nd reference to Toni this week after seemingly years without one. Belski said he's focused on AAPL tailwinds, not headwinds, said AAPL is "humble" about AI and predicted AAPL will "crush it."

As for reasons to upgrade a phone, Josh joked, "I need a 5th lens like I need a 3rd nipple. ... Am I in trouble now?"

(Later, Closing Bell featured Joe Terranova and Bryn Talkington. Judge brought up the rebalancing in the 2nd minute. Joe again explained (for different viewers, apparently) why the JOET ditched AAPL. Joe said he can't remember quarterly expectations for AAPL being so low. Bryn said 172 has been support for AAPL. Judge mentioned Toni's "buy the fear" yet again (for those who haven't already heard it). Joe said he'd be "surprised" if AAPL delivers a "weak quarter" and the stock sells. Joe was correct; the stock rose.) (This review was posted overnight Thursday-Friday.)

Meanwhile, Josh declared PFE "one of the most mispriced securities in the market right now." Belski said "I think it's dead money." Belski said PFE needs an "entire year" to right the ship.

Right after the A Block, Josh said he sold EBAY because "earnings were weak" and the stock is "basically sitting on support."

Belski talked up REGN. Josh said SHAK is "one of my biggest winners ever personally."

Judge hailed Josh's start-of-the-year contrarian Trade of KWEB, which Brown doesn't even own. Josh cited Jim Grant, "Good things happen to cheap assets." Josh said he still thinks it's a contrarian play and China thinks those stocks need to work. Liz Young said her concern is that it goes "nowhere."

Brian Belski noted, "The whole energy sector is 3% of the S&P, that's uh, about half the size of Apple." Josh Brown touted IEO. Liz said, "I like energy a lot."

Judge wished Belski a happy birthday during Final Trades.

Steve Liesman basically declares that inflation is a free-market issue, not a government/Federal Reserve issue

Every day, there is lots of commentary on CNBC about the Federal Reserve and inflation. (And some of it's bogus.)

So we were practically astounded to hear CNBC's Steve Liesman during Wednesday's (5/1) Halftime Report telling Judge what is basically the absolute truth about inflation.

"What is supposed to happen? Well maybe this is what's happening: Companies raise prices, prices get too high, too hot, and people back off buying it, and that causes companies to eventually reduce their prices or compress their margins. ... That's a process that normally happens."

And we thought it was Jay Powell who makes people buy things.

We were hoping Steve would address whatever happened to the "lag effect," a concept that Steve Weiss is always talking about, from those 2008-2020 ZIRP rates of ... 12 years, but we're grateful that Steve Liesman said what he did.

Liesman even added, "The Fed is not gonna solve the inflation problem the American people care about, which is the price level. It's targeting the rate."

We'll put it another way. Everyone notices the car tire is going flat. The Fed stops the car. The Fed doesn't change the tire.

Steve also said Larry Summers has the "more extreme ideas" of rates not being "sufficent" to bring down inflation.

Steve pointed to SBUX' results as a sign of economic headwinds. Judge pointed out that Chipotle raised prices, and its report a week ago was a lot different than SBUX's.

Steve Weiss tried to claim that "competition" is hurting SBUX; Judge scoffed that the comps weren't down by this "magnitude ... as a result of competition."

"Inflation is a domestic problem," offered Joe Terranova, stating it's coming down "aggressively" in the "rest of the world."

Jeffrey Gundlach on Closing Bell told Judge he doesn't see more than one rate hike this year.

Judge says stocks cast aside by the JOET may be ‘troughing’

The day after Joe's quarterly rebalancing of the JOET quite frankly is not one of our favorite Halftime Report days, given that it ends up being about a half an hour of Joe telling Judge that the computer detects a loss of momentum. We honestly can't figure out why Judge is asking Joe about decisions Joe's computer is making; why doesn't Judge just ask the computer.

Judge on Wednesday (5/1) said the "big news" of the day is JOET rebalancing; Judge said the biggest move is that the JOET sold AAPL and TSLA.

Joe said AAPL was bought at 169 and sold at 170, "basically a scratch." Joe cited "declining revenue growth."

Viewers also learned that the JOET sold LLY. Joe said he would've preferred it stay in; Joe called LLY "probably a $900 stock" at some point.

Judge wondered if the "danger" in the JOET strategy is that things appearing to lose momentum actually may be "troughing." Joe said if the strategy is working, it "corrects that mistake" in the next rebalance. (That's encouraging — miss on a stock, wait 3 months to maybe play catch-up.)

Joe said of AMD, "There was obviously a (sic not 'an') overbought condition." Judge was obsessed with the AMD fundamentals. Joe pointed out that the AMD earnings were released after the JOET rebalancing.

Joe says market going ‘nowhere’ for months (a/k/a Jim Cramer complains about service at Starbucks)

While Wall Street and beyond tries to figure out exactly what Jay Powell means on days such as Wednesday (5/1), the Halftime Report crew was sorta wondering the same thing regarding Joe Terranova's assessment of the stock market.

"I think the firm landing is here," Joe stated, adding he doesn't see the Fed putting another rate hike on the table and thinks it won't be "too disruptive" on Wednesday to the markets.

Judge asked what that means. Joe continued, "I actually think you get the rate cut at some point in 2023."

Steve Weiss said it sounds like Joe was implying the market is a "buying opportunity." Joe said "the market's gonna run to a lot of different places over the next several months and ultimately go nowhere"; for now, "5% either way," it's a "coin flip."

Well, given that, honestly, we gotta wonder, shouldn't the JOET dump all its stocks and buy bonds to make some guaranteed interest until August or so?

Weiss said he's in the camp of "wait for opportunities." Weiss is suddenly claiming again the lag effect of rates, citing "this tightening policy that's been going on for a really long time right now and should've hit the economy sooner but hasn't because of all the policy liquidity that's put into the market."

Judge said Jan Hatzius is still predicting rate cuts this year, "probably twice."

On Fast Money, Mel was obviously told to highlight what she described as the "cringeworthy" Cramer/Faber SBUX interview from Squawk on the Street.

‘I think we’ve had 1 bout of stagflation in, like, 50 years’

Extending a dry season in Halftime Report subject matter, Judge opened Tuesday's (4/30) show hinting at stagflation.

Stephanie Link declared it's "way too premature to talk about stagflation." Judge wondered why, if things are so great for the consumer as Stephanie indicated, consumer confidence is so weak. Stephanie said there are "ebbs and flows."

"I don't think stagflation is the issue," Jim Lebenthal offered. Jim said he remembers the '70s, and, "This just doesn't remind me of it."

Judge told Jim and Stephanie that they seem to be "explaining away it all." Stephanie fired back with more stats.

Josh Brown, taking part in the show remotely, asserted "there's no stagflation."

Josh in fact said we have to be "really careful" about "prophecying stagflation." Judge said about 3-4 times, "No one's calling for it," but Judge said it's "obviously" in the conversation.

Josh said tech and discretionary stocks wouldn't be where they're at if the market believed the "stagflation narrative." Judge protested that they've only spent "a day" or just "a few hours" discussing stagflation, not "days and weeks." (Just wait.) (Well, actually, the "higher for longer" narrative didn't last for very long, nor did the notion of higher rates being stimulative, nor did the notion of (not an actual quote) "Steve Mnuchin wouldn't be in NYCB if there wasn't value there.")

Later, after cycling through an AMZN preview and another go-round on chips, Judge brought in Steve Liesman for a Fed preview. Steve told Judge, "You know, Scott, I'm sort of curious as to why stagflation has become such a go-to possibility. ... I think we've had 1 bout of stagflation in, like, 50 years."

LYV fan Josh Brown quoted the Deutsche Bank bull call, which apparently says the "most likely outcome" of regulatory scrutiny is stagflation pro-consumer reforms that won't be "materially disruptive" to the business. Josh said that under $100, LYV is a "gift."

Jim said more Wall Street analysts should've started believing in C "a long time earlier."

Josh Brown asked Jim why RIG hasn't done a reverse split. Jim suggested it's because "it's so darn volatile." Judge chuckled off all the technical glitches during Final Trade.

Steve Grasso on Fast Money said he "just recently noticed" that Amazon Prime now costs $140 a year.

Jim says the robotaxi is a ‘huge canard’

Judge returned to the Halftime Report helm on Monday (4/29), but the show couldn't have been sleepier.

We're not even sure what to begin with.

Adam Parker, the star guest (that's correct), is ... just not quite as bullish as maybe he recently was.

Strapped or desperate for headline material, Judge actually brought in Adam remotely in the 9th minute to discuss Adam's "bit of a pivot" (that was Judge's term) from a more bullish outlook to what Adam described as a "more balanced" risk/reward positioning, partly because of stalling in China.

Adam cautioned that if "stagflation" gets more into the everday "vernacular," that's trouble.

At another moment, Judge brought up Toni Sacconaghi, whose name Judge hasn't mentioned in ages, saying Toni is advising buying the fear in AAPL. Joe "Rebalancing" Terranova said of AAPL, "In the near term to me, the technicals don't look good (Zzzzzzz)." Jim Lebenthal said he disagrees with Toni's timing; Jim doesn't want to buy in front of earnings.

Judge even mentioned something about Jonathan Krinsky (who's not on the program very often anymore) (that's what happens when bear markets become bull markets) seeing "flags" raised, but Judge admitted, "Let's be honest: The technicians since the October bottom have been run over by the bull train."

Judge opened the program saying he's "not so sure" sentiment has changed a whole lot given that the previous week didn't feel as great as it apparently was (Zzzzzzzzzz). Joe Terranova said this is a big week because of AMZN.

Jim noted his year-end S&P target is 5,100, and that's where the S&P is at right now.

Joe said, "I think you're gonna see money managers be risk-averse (Zzzzzzzzz)," which Joe said is the "right disposition" for "several months."

Jim said he's waiting for an "entry point" on UBER. (This writer is long UBER.) Joe asked Jim about buying in reaction to Tesla's robotaxi issues. Jim said the robotaxi is a "huge canard" in this space.

Courtney calls Weiss ‘Jim’ and ‘Joe’

On Friday's (4/26) Halftime Report, guest hosted by Courtney Reagan, Josh Brown discussed buying NFLX. (This writer is long NFLX.)

"Right now it's a trade," Brown said. He said he's "done this before with Netflix," when it "blew up" in April 2022 and was "one of the best buying opportunities" that year for a large cap growth name.

Brown said, "I can't believe that we saw reaction like we did about them reducing the subscriber guidance. It's such a childish metric to begin with."

Steve Weiss said he's got a "small position" (snicker) in NFLX and that Brown "laid it out perfectly, very articulately." Weiss said his long-term rationale for NFLX is that "you're seeing the competitors fall by the wayside." Despite what he said a while back at DIS' streaming prospects (check our archives), Weiss said "Disney'll be a winner in it, but that's it." (Really. How will they be a "winner" in it. Are there more costs to cut?)

Weiss bought more META at 416, citing the slogan "Scared money don't make money."

Jim Lebenthal's buying more NVDA but "not adding big positions." Bryn Talkington praised that move and said "All roads lead to Nvidia."

Josh Brown said the "optics" of Alphabet have been "horrendous" and that the company "almost looks like a college campus." But there's a "tailwind" from AI and ad spending.

In the 17th minute, Courtney first called Weiss "Jim," then "Joe," without correcting herself.

Bryn said BHP is in the "penalty box" and outlined the copper/iron scene. Courtney said, "Wow, lot of angles to that story, Bryn."

Josh Brown explained how MTTR, despite surging Friday on deal news, was a bad trade for him because he bought it in 2021.

At the end of the show, Weiss said he unloaded all of his bitcoin, basically it sounded like he thought the trade had run its course.

We did catch Thursday's (4/25) Halftime, guest hosted by Courtney, but we weren't exactly paying close attention what with the NFL Draft in the works that day. We did notice Bill Baruch saying he added to META before the quarterly report, but he's not (yet) adding more after the selloff. Bill said it'll be essential for META to spend on AI, and he thinks election-season spending will boost later-in-the-year results.

Elon was either ‘the adult in the room,’ or a master manipulator

In the 16th minute of Wednesday's (4/24) Halftime Report, Judge brought up TSLA.

Bryn Talkington said she said a day earlier on Closing Bell that she wouldn't short the stock into earnings, "I thought it was a very good earnings call. Elon was like the adult in the room (snicker)."

Bryn said "I don't wanna hear about robotaxis" but that Tesla can build a cheaper car on the "same theoretical chassis." Bryn thinks the stock will "find a floor."

Then Judge turned to Steve Weiss, who famously clashed with Bryn on this subject a week ago. "She had a brilliant call going into the quarter," Weiss said, revealing he covered "half" of his short going into the quarter.

But as for fundamentals, Weiss said it was "as if Elon sat in a room with, uh, with the CFO and said 'What can we say that's going to- that's going to hit everybody's hot button, put their fears aside and have those announcements not really take place, the productivity of those announcements, for a few quarters or a few years or a decade, and let them hang on to the dream."

"We've seen this movie before," Judge said of TSLA.

Weiss conceded Musk is "one of the top entrepreneurs of all time." Weiss said his own TSLA stake is a "very small position" and he "cut it more after the opening," but "at this point, it's a nuisance." (Translation: The trade went against him.)

Judge then asked Joe Terranova about TSLA in one of the longest, Marichal-esque windups of all time, asking Joe, "Take me through the thought process" (sigh). Joe started off by noting the stock is "27% below its 200-day moving average," always a favorite stat of CNBCers. Joe then said "Bryn" 4 times while trying to describe what Bryn is thinking about TSLA. Joe said he himself is "extremely (snicker) neutral" on TSLA.

Could be the catalyst — or could drop like NFLX

Judge started off Wednesday's (4/24) Halftime Report comparing expectations for earnings growth between Mag 7 and the rest of the market. "This is unbelievable," Judge claimed with a straight face.

Joe Terranova said META "could be the near-term catalyst for the market." On the other hand, "it could be a scenario similar to Netflix." (This writer is long NFLX.)

Steve Weiss said after the A Block that he bought more NFLX. "Still a small position," he said, as he says every time.

As for tech earnings, Weiss contended, "It's still clearly on, on, on Alphabet, is where the pressure is" and where the "daggers are lining up."

Weiss said META has the "easiest pathway to showing the impact of AI."

Joe said if META, MSFT and GOOGL fell, he'd buy the dip. Bryn Talkington said "theoretically" she'd buy the dip in MSFT, but it's "very very very unlikely Microsoft even has a dip." She wouldn't buy Alphabet though; "I don't know who runs this company."

Weiss called VRT "the safest way to play AI growth."

Leslie Picker reported on the latest Greenlight letter. Judge emphasized that Einhorn doesn't think value investing is "dead," just the value investing INDUSTRY is "dead," a catchy slogan that David has been dispensing that doesn't really make any sense.

On Closing Bell, Adam Parker revealed he's more bullish now than he was at the beginning of the month.

Karen says ‘so many things to not like’ at TSLA

In an episode of the Halftime Report on Tuesday (4/23) that was basically Jim's Greatest Hits (Zzzzzzz), the most interesting news was Judge reporting that Jamie Dimon was speaking at the New York Economic Club and that Jamie pronounced the economy "booming" and said it has been "booming for a while."

So there you go.

Jim Lebenthal said if the market drops by only 2%, "it is very unwise to sell in anticipation of that."

In the 10th minute, Jim started talking up cyclical stocks and "strong demand," including airlines. Judge threatened to walk off the set if Jim mentioned "TSA." Jim continued, "There have been only 4 days this year where TSA passenger counts-"

"I'm out," Judge chuckled, standing up and sort of taking off his mike before reattaching. (He didn't actually walk off the set.)

"There's only 4 days this year where there has been lower passenger counts than last year," Jim finally continued.

Judge pointed out that Jim bought small caps last week, while the Russell is down 6% this month. Jim insisted that small caps "were actually up on Friday."

CNBC's Kate Rooney briefly joined remotely to discuss people taking short bets against the "Magnificant" (sic) (there were a couple mispronunciations, then the correct version) 7. Kate suggested that shorting Megacap Tech may be for hedging purposes.

Jim once again dismissed TSLA as a "car company." On Fast Money, after the TSLA results were out, Karen Finerman said there are "so many things to not like here" that, according to Karen, the company decided to "distract you" from the bad things by talking about lower-priced cars. Tim Seymour called the late TSLA gains a "relief rally."

Meanwhile, Jason Snipe bought "a small position" in UBER; "they are hitting on all cylinders." (This writer is long UBER.)

After the A Block, Judge brought up CLF and said it's "gotten more mention (snicker) on this program than arguably anything else in the history of this broadcast." Jim addressed Tuesday's CLF selloff as "sometimes the market does things that are unexplainable and gives you an opportunity. And (of course) I think this is one of those times." Eventually Jim conceded a "slight decrease in buying ... after the UAW strike." But "that is behind us," Jim said.

But Jim wasn't done about the UAW or another of his favorite stocks, GM. "This idea that the UAW took GM to the cleaners is an absolute farce," Jim said, though conceding "the UAW got a good deal."

Judge said DIS was "reitermated" (sic) (snicker) by Wells Fargo as overweight before correcting himself. Jim mentioned the "Hulu deal" again.

Judge noted the slide Tuesday of JBLU, long one of Jenny Harrington's favorite stocks for valuation. (Jenny wasn't on the show Tuesday.)

Judge's top guest on Closing Bell was Liz Ann Sonders, who kind of knocked the "parlor game" of guessing when the rate cuts start.

Bill is able to talk about buying TSLA without Weiss hectoring him about admitting all the facts (a/k/a Judge thinks it’s funny saying ‘squat’)

On a quiet episode of the Halftime Report on Monday (4/22), Joe Terranova said if Mag 7 earnings come through, he's not sure there's "that much downside" left in the market.

Joe doesn't think it looks like the same upside as we had from autumn into February, "but I do think the market's trying to bottom here."

Joe said he's not seeing "broad-based, universal selling," pointing to gains in health care.

Steve Weiss said Monday's market only had a "muted bounce" because of "PCE" on Friday. (Note: If Weiss had waited 3 hours, he would've seen more than a "muted bounce.") (This review was posted overnight Monday-Tuesday.)

Judge said Powell last week "sort of front-ran where PCE's gonna be."

Judge declared, "PCE's your friend. CPI's been your enemy."

The headline of the hour was Bill Baruch's dial-in to discuss buying TSLA during which Bill mentioned "dollar-cost average in" (snicker).

Bill said TSLA hit a March 2020 trend line low of 140.

Judge scoffed that he was going to have Weiss have a talk with Bill, "One of my problems with technical analysis is, Trend lines don't mean squat if the fundamentals of a story change."

Bill said he's not arguing with that; he's taking a "calculated position."

Bill also scooped up some more META, he thinks "they could have a really good report."

Kevin Simpson bought more AAPL, at 165. "We will buy more on weakness," Kevin said. Kevin said he's got "about 10% dry powder right now."

Weiss sold ASML; he said he sold part before the earnings. Weiss rattled off the other tech names he's got and how he finds this one expendable, though he could still jump back in before earnings.

Joe said he needs more of a washout to step in to CDNS.

Santoli said, "The bond market has done nothing for a week."

CNBC's AI (er, spellcheck) had trouble with the ARK Venture holdings during ETF Edge.

‘Jay Powell can’t do anything about the price of anyone’s car insurance’

Friday's (4/19) Halftime Report featured a couple of provocative comments about the state of the U.S. economy and what interest-rate moves actually accomplish.

Joe Terranova said Josh Brown (who wasn't on Friday's show) has been talking about, and Joe has been speaking "privately" with financial advisors about, "Are higher rates actually stimulating the economy."

Joe said AXP earnings are "evidence" that there's something to that theory.

This is becoming a popular theory and Judge even mentioned it this week. But we can't help but note that numerous people on this program in 2022 and early 2023 kept talking about how "the end of free money" was going to be so bad for so many ("lazy," according to one pundit) companies. But now, it's apparently boosting the economy, which keeps inflation high. (That's the whole #chasingtails thing.)

Bill Baruch said he thinks 3 cuts in 2024 are "on the table." Stephanie Link though said "I don't think they're gonna cut at all this year."

Guest host Sully, The Funniest Anchor on CNBC (and quite possibly the Funniest Anchor on All of Television) (#paytheman,KC!) bluntly declared, "Jay Powell can't do anything about the price of anyone's car insurance." That's a fantastic observation and one that deserved a lot more conversation. #chasingtailsagain #giveeveryonearaisetodealwithinflation

In a bit of a head-scratcher, Bill curiously claimed that "there's also people moving into more of an entrepreneurship-type role, distorting the job market."

Hmmmm ... "entrepreneurship-type role" ... we're guessing it probably means something like people who were laid off, or people who started working from home in 2020 and didn't want to return to the office, are either turning to freelancing or selling stuff on YouTube rather than taking up traditional jobs.

We doubt it means that a bunch more people from Google or Meta are launching their own companies than usual, given that borrowing costs are a lot higher than a few years ago.

Joe noted it's Friday, and we have "a lot of systematic, algorithm selling that's going to occur on a Friday."

Bill Baruch actually said with a straight face, "After the election, no matter who wins, as we look into next year, they're gonna have to crack down (snicker) on this fiscal spending in general."

Bad bargains: Spending ‘mental capital’ on PARA

Jim Lebenthal joined Friday's (4/19) Halftime Report remotely about halfway through and congratulated guest host Sully on a "great A Block."

Jim was apparently extended an invitation to talk about PARA. While we totally understand extending an invitation to Jim, we don't understand having another discussion about this stock.

Jim claimed there's "2 huge positives" for PARA. One was that it's doing better than expected "operationally" (even though all it's probably done is cut costs); the other is that, Jim claims, "People wanna buy (snicker) this company." Jim went on about how Shari wants to do a deal with SkyDance and how that's pressuring the stock, way too deep into the weeds about a stock that doesn't matter and is little more than some rich legacy's personal bank account and that no one including Jim should care about.

Joe Terranova impressively had the brass to ask Jim if all the "mental capital" he has spent on PARA has been worth it. "Absolutely not," Jim admitted, calling it a "great question." Jim conceded "this has been an absolute horror show" and "frankly I'm embarrassed by it," but not too embarrassed to discuss it on nearly every episode.

Meanwhile, Joe said "don't chase" UAL. Sully told United, "You're welcome," because "I've been on like 40 flights already this year."

Joe's Final Trade was supposed to be UBER; he called it "Uner" (sic) but corrected himself. (This writer is long UBER.) Joe said, "Don't be afraid of the pullback."

If Joe’s interest in being long NFLX is based on whether the insufferable quarterly subs miss or beat, he might as well be buying lottery tickets

Joe Terranova on Friday's (4/19) Halftime Report said he wasn't happy about NFLX because "I stuck my neck out yesterday on, um, on Closing Bell and I said they're gonna deliver on margins, they're gonna deliver on the profitability, you're gonna see one of the strongest quarters that you've had for this company since 2020."

And then, in one of CNBCers' favorite pastimes, Joe noted Friday, "I pointed out the fact that it was 13% below its all-time high." (This writer is long NFLX, like Steve Weiss a "small position," as of Friday.) (#thankyou,market)

But Joe said the company decided to "change all the rules on me" as to releasing subscriber data.

Guest host Sully said Joe was actually "right, on the, on the metrics." Sully said Laura Martin is "probably the most influential analyst on Netflix" and upgraded the stock on Friday.

Joe protested that he's not advising people sell the stock, he's just "disappointed in what I heard yesterday afternoon."

Joe completely whiffed on the strength of this company; the reason to buy the stock is because people who subscribe to the service would pay a lot more for it than they currently are. (But note, this writer has a small position in NFLX.)

Joe tries to claim that commodities are in a ‘secular phase’ in which they presumably won’t bust

It's always a setback when Judge has the day off, but Halftime Report viewers on Friday (4/19) got a treat when Sully, The Funniest Anchor on CNBC, got the helm.

"I'm clearly not Scott Wapner," Sully said at the opening, noting tech was "getting hit" and someone (apparently Stephanie Link) came up before the show and coined the term "ABT," for "Anything But Technology." Sully started off though by asking Stephanie about SLB (Zzzzzzz) and of course got the earnings and EBIT percentage gains and the multiple and (as always on CNBC) how far down it is from its high and all sorts of other stats.

But it wasn't until the 12th minute of the program that Joe Terranova said the market's "in a very precarious place," noting AAPL at a 6-month low and saying Megacap Tech has to "deliver."

Joe earlier suggested that "for the very first time," commodities are maybe no longer "boom bust" but "entering a phase, a secular phase, where they belong in investor portfolios."

Sully told everyone that "energy is my jam," but it was producers' decision, not his, to bring it up to start the show. Sully claimed "even the most bearish estimates" for oil have it "growing" for years and maybe decades. Joe advised, "Do not look at the spot price of oil as the ultimate referendum on what you're doing in investing in energy. You have to look at the long term."

Joe said oil is in backwardation and acknowledged "there could be some headwinds on price itself," but as long as it's $70-$85, it's "so beneficial" to oil companies.

Josh seems to indicate that shorting TSLA is a bad idea

On Thursday's (4/18) Halftime Report, Judge couldn't resist recapping the Weiss-Bryn debate on TSLA from a day earlier, despite the fact neither one of those parties was on Thursday's show.

So Judge turned to Josh Brown. Josh noted that TSLA right now is "still up 770% over 5 years" and that he "missed the entire run higher." Brown noted Weiss being short probably has his "finger on the trigger" (translation: once this trade goes bad, Steve will get out of it quickly), but for most people, shorting TSLA is like "playing with fire" and brings to mind the old adage, "Never fight a land war in Asia."

"It is just a car company," Jim Lebenthal insisted of TSLA, as all the skeptics out there insist that now's the time for the chickens coming home to roost (as Weiss said) and for victory laps. Jim said margins are coming down and that TSLA is "locked into a price war."

Josh opened the show agreeing with Judge's suggestion that the market needs Big Tech. "Spiritually, this is still the leadership group," Brown stated.

Liz Young cautioned that "investors have really high expectations" and pointed to JPM's reax to earnings.

Jim bought more AMZN after buying a little a couple of months ago. Jim was talking about MSFT's PEG ratio. (Zzzzzzzzz)

Dividend investor Matt Powers talked up MA, he said its dividend isn't as high as he'd like, but that the dividend has grown 27% a year for 10 years, so "they've got a lot of space to grow." He also likes HSY for "cocoa prices."

Powers told Josh Brown that the difference between his analysis and the aristocrats' is that the aristocrats are evaluated over 25 years while he sticks to 10 years.

Weiss calls Musk ‘pathological liar’; ‘You just don’t like Elon’

Judge and producers of Wednesday's (4/17) Halftime Report decided to pit Bryn Talkington and Steve Weiss in a TSLA debate, and at least Weiss participated.

Bryn recapped her TSLA plays since January 2023 and admitted, "This stock could go lower" and "looks broken." But she wouldn't "discount" Elon Musk. Bryn suggested Weiss' TSLA short is "probably a trade."

That sounded pretty plain vanilla. But maybe it was the "probably a trade" remark (which assuredly is true) that got under Weiss' skin.

Weiss questioned how Bryn as a "fiduciary" of investor capital can invest in a company with "no governance." Bryn said she owns it "personally" and it's "not a fiduciary position."

(That's interesting, actually. Is Weiss correct that people shouldn't be in this name as fiduciaries?)

Bryn further stated, "I think you just don't like Elon."

Weiss responded, "Everything I said is a fact, Bryn. It's a fact." Bryn offered that "the 2 companies where ... the best engineers want to work are SpaceX and Tesla." Judge started to ask Weiss about TSLA's governance; Weiss pivoted to say the fundamentals, especially in China, are "horrendous."

Weiss even said, "The guy is a pathological liar to keep his stock price up."

"Once again, you just don't like Elon, by the way," Bryn said.

Moments later, Weiss stated, "Bryn's entirely wrong about their ability to retain talent," pointing to the departure this week of "2 critical people" and stating turnover at TSLA is "legendary."

Judge noted how much TSLA is up over 5 years. Weiss protested twice he hasn't been short the stock for all of the last 5 years, only recently.

Weiss asked about Tesla price cuts in the last 5 years. Bryn concluded with this thought-provoking summary: "Steve. Wisdom is chasing you if you would just stop. OK. Like, seriously."

"What the hell is she saying? I don't even get it," Weiss said. "Just admit you're wrong and the stock is going lower. And I'll buy more lower. That's what she should be saying. Facts are facts."

"There's no 'fact' to the stock is doing anything from here," Judge said. Weiss continued, and Judge said, "Bryn, we'll see."

"Yeah, we will," Bryn chuckled.

Weiss is back to talking about the lag effects of rate hikes

Wednesday (4/17) was a bit of a retro day on CNBC's Halftime Report, as Joe Terranova was talking about time corrections again and Steve Weiss was talking about lag effects of rate hikes again.

Joe started off the show warning, "First of all, you have to understand, time is the enemy, because this correction could be more prolonged than we have become accustomed to, uh, in, in recent years."

Joe said to be "patient," but if you have to do something now, look for industries with "pricing power." But Joe also stated, "There's a couple areas of the market that you absolutely need to avoid."

Jason Snipe suggested being long energy, which he said has "pricing power."

Bryn Talkington said if your "playbook" found it "necessary" to have rate cuts, "you absolutely need to kind of throw that playbook out."

Bryn advised, "Think about selling some calls" for pressured stocks, among other things.

Then Weiss got his chance. "I think the dialogue's all wrong here," Weiss said, explaining, "There's a time to invest, and there's a time to protect your cash and protect your holdings and protect your capital overall. This is that time. ... The market's gonna go low."

OK. That really sounds like Weiss is suggesting selling.

But other times on the program, Weiss will explain how he never wants to sell anything because then he pays taxes.

Now, he's suggesting timing the market and reducing exposure.

Weiss said there are firms still looking for "3 cuts this year."

"I don't know what planet they're living on, but come to Planet Halftime," Weiss said, adding, "I've taken my net exposure down to about 20%."

Weiss noted the government has put in "a lot of liqudity," and wondered whether a Republican administration would keep doing that (snicker), concluding, "I think they cut it back (snicker)."

As for the slide we're already in, "4%'s not enough for a correction!" Weiss claimed.

Judge noted that Jay Powell hasn't said anything about hiking rates again. Weiss said, "It's the impact of higher rates for longer. You don't need hikes."

"We've gotta hear about that again? Of the lag effects of the rate hikes?" Judge wondered.

"Yeah. Absolutely (snicker)," Weiss said.

On Fast Money, Steve Grasso said, "I still think we get 3 cuts."

There’s actually other people whom wisdom might be chasing ...

Mike Santoli on Wednesday's (4/17) Halftime Report described the stock market this way: "The dip buyers are patient, and the sellers are motivated."

Joe Terranova said 5 of the Mag 7 report earnings next week, which is "really gonna define the direction of this market."

Joe said to avoid utilities and REITs and said the Russell is 20% below its all-time high; he "wouldn't touch" it.

But Joe also said there's "another Treasury refunding" on May 1, and previous ones have been "positive catalysts."

Judge questioned the impact of a 5% 10-year. Steve Weiss said equity investors will lock up 5% rates in the 2-year, not the 10-year. Jason Snipe suggested maybe the 2% Fed target will move to 3%.

Weiss trimmed ASML, saying we got "more than a miss" than the Street was expecting.

"Nvidia's in correction territory," Joe asserted.

Weiss said AAPL is "dead money at best."

Joe said UAL was benefitting from "low expectations."

Jason said "pay sharing" is the key metric for NFLX. Weiss for the 4th or 5th time said he only has a "small position" in NFLX.

Judge, Jim trade ‘C’mon!’

Honestly, for whatever reason, we couldn't really get "into" Tuesday's (4/16) Halftime Report. Just one of those days.

Judge and Jim Lebenthal argued at the end of the A Block about "cherry-picking" time frames to prove how strong, or not strong, NVDA and the Mag 7 are. Jim apparently at one point was trying to make an argument for small caps.

Josh Brown said he's been thinking the government headwinds on LYV have "already been fully discounted into the market," even though Tuesday's market action indicated otherwise.

Jim said the fundamentals of GPC should be "intact" because, "We know the average age of cars on the road is very long, uh, those cars need to be repaired." He already said it a few days ago (see below), and people have been saying it on Halftime/Fast Money since the shows began, um, about 17 years ago. (Tip: 2 years from now, the average age of cars on the road is going to be about the same as now, and 2 years ago, the average age of cars on the road was about the same as now.) It's like the old buy-fertilizer-stocks argument because "people gotta eat."

On Fast Money, Melissa Lee and Karen Finerman noted how the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft is getting a contract worth far (far) less than the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. Karen promised that with a new WNBA TV rights deal, "salaries will go up." Dan Nathan suggested Karen hire Caitlin Clark at Metropolitan Capital for $150,000 a year.

Jenny’s a long-term investor (except when she’s timing the market)

On Monday's (4/15) Halftime Report, Jenny Harrington and Steve Weiss argued about almost everything. But it was actually Jenny's revelations about investment philosophy that caught our ear.

For example, Jenny explained that she regularly times the market and knows when stocks are "up too much."

"All of our accounts are separately managed," Jenny told Judge. "So people come in, they send cash, and then you don't buy their whole portfolio on day one. And there's always stocks that are up too much."

Jenny singled out how she "didn't want to buy" OGN and SLG a couple weeks ago, but by waiting, "I was able to buy them significantly cheaper than they've been trading just the week before. So I just layered them into the new accounts that had cash that didn't already own them."

And so we wondered, how come a couple weeks ago on TV, Jenny wasn't telling viewers which stocks were "up too much."

Moments later, Jenny cited Pat Gelsinger's interview with Jon Fortt; "I was driving along listening."

Jenny said Pat said that if you're one of those people who wants a portfolio "pop" for 2 weeks, "I don't want you." Jenny noted that Steve Weiss indeed bought INTC a couple weeks ago for a "short-term catalyst" that didn't work, but that "everything's the same still" as when the stock was 44 a couple weeks ago, and people just "freaked out" about the foundry business when "nothing's changed."

"It has changed," Weiss asserted. "How can you say it hasn't changed."

Weiss said of Gelsinger, "First of all, kudos- kudos to him for reading that book, CEOs That Are Failing And Have Really Bad Stock Prices, this is the quote you've got to send out to potential investors. That don't count- don't count on our stock going up anytime soon, but if you look 25 years from now, this stock's gonna be a lot higher. So kudos to him for writin' that down, because he found people to buy it."

Weiss said the foundry was not supposed to report a $7 billion loss, but did, and "that's major."

Furthermore, "If you go back to everything Gelsinger's promised in the first couple years since he took over, you wouldn't find anything that came to fruition," Weiss added.

Jenny concluded the discussion with this: "I find that the best investments that I've ever made are from distressed situations where everybody else hates it," Jenny said.

That's curious, because 1) she didn't say INTC is in a "distressed situation," and 2) Karen Finerman says her best investment was bitcoin (when was bitcoin ever "distressed"), and the Charlie Munger obituaries mentioned Charlie's belief that it's best to pay up for the best businesses.

But Jenny, evidently, is a distressed-company investor.

Weiss, by the way, is timing the market too, stating early in the show, "It's not a time to put new money into the market. We're still in a consolidation period."

Jenny likens market
multiple to March 2000

There was one thing Steve Weiss and Jenny Harrington actually agreed on during Monday's (4/15) Halftime Report.

Jenny said, "We're trading at 21 times ... last time the market traded at that was January 2022, um, and March — this is really inspiring — March of 2000." (Uh oh. Sell all your stocks. Except INTC.)

Weiss agreed that the market's trading at an "accommodative" multiple when this is a "restrictive" scene.

Weiss said consumers have been "skating through" the rate hikes but cautioned: "You can drink a milk shake every day for 4 days, you can say, 'Oh, my weight's fine.' But, if you drink it for 4 months, your weight's not gonna be fine."

Judge opened asking Joe Terranova if the market is still vulnerable. Joe said the "easy answer" is that, "We're still vulnerable for a little bit of a deeper decline."

Joe said CRM is testing its 100-day for the first time since November. But he said "there's a little bit of fear" about dealmaking and "the investor community is saying, 'Uh oh, let's not do this again.'"

Weiss: GS was sandbagged by people on the inside ‘planting stories’ about David Solomon

A little debate took place on Monday's (4/15) Halftime Report over GS.

Joe Terranova said GS "spent 2023 kind of redefining the company." Joe said it's back to being the company he used to call "the world's largest successful hedge fund."

Steve Weiss said "it's always been the same old Goldman" and he doesn't think it "ever left." Judge noted "the stock, at times, left." Weiss said "that was headlines, it was driven by David Solomon, you know, going after him, because, politically, some people inside planting stories and trying to get a new CEO."

Judge countered, "They had at least one significant stumble in their trajectory of the business." Weiss said yes, "They addressed it almost immediately."

Jenny Harrington scoffed that for GS, "it's all about the story," but at SCHW, which she likes, "it's all about the numbers."

Joe protested, "How is it not about the numbers at Goldman?"

"They're not like this. They're not as good as Schwab's," Jenny claimed.

"28% jump in net income!" Joe continued.

Defending GS, Weiss said that "unlike Jenny, I don't have to malign another stock." Weiss said GS is far more levered to the potential IPO or "M&A cycle" and has "excellent business lines."

Joe asked how far down SCHW is from February 2022 and how far down is GS at the same time. Joe's point was that SCHW is down since that time, while GS is up.

Weiss claims Fed wouldn’t even ‘start to worry’ until unemployment almost doubles

Steve Weiss was a quote machine on Friday's (4/12) Halftime Report; unfortunately, many of the quotes were head-scratchers.

Weiss said at the top of the show, "The story's coming out that Iran's gonna attack Israel in the next 2 days. And then we have the other story, which is, Biden is committed to defending Israel, so, you don't wanna go home long with that kind of setup for the weekend."

That's interesting, because 1) Weiss said at the end of the show that if he thought Friday's market activity "was all about geopolitical," he'd buy, because it's "always an opportunity to buy."

And 2), Weiss will sometimes explain that he won't sell stocks, at all, because he doesn't want to pay the taxes, but here he's suggesting not being long just for this weekend.

Then there was this: Weiss mentioned Fed mandates and actually said with a straight face, "You could see unemployment almost double, at least go up 60%, before, to get to around 5% or 6%, before they really start to worry."

OK. Sure. Check out the chair's testimony to Congress when that happens.

Weiss described ARKK as "like seeing a movie, and the 2nd half is phenomenal but the first half really sucked. ARKK is still down from its peak of 140."

When has anyone ever seen a movie in which the first half "sucked" but the 2nd half proved "phenomenal"?

And Weiss actually said with a straight face that Donald Trump is saying "enough stimulus."

Jim’s a little negative (not ‘negative on the markets overall for the rest of the year’)

Amy Raskin on Friday's (4/12) Halftime Report suggested the "narrative" may be changing to "inflationary boom," in which case, you want to own commodities, and value over growth.

"You still have a disinflationary environment," Judge stated, though noting "a turbulent week."

Jim Lebenthal, clearly getting out in front of any of Judge's descriptions, said, "I'm gonna say something negative Scott, but I don't want it to be taken as 'Lebenthal is negative on the markets overall for the rest of the year.' Right now, I'm a little negative."

Jim said that speculation about hiking rates is "not an outlandish discussion to have." He said he's going to "sit tight," and "not buying today."

Kevin Simpson, though, said, "I think the bull narrative is intact. And I don't think we need any rate cuts." Still, Kevin stated, "The next move will be a rate cut."

Steve Weiss also said he was "perplexed" by the market's move on Thursday.

Judge insisted at the end of the show that "the overall narrative hasn't changed. It. Has. Not. Changed." Weiss struggled to explain whether yields were going up or down.

A day earlier on Fast Money, Guy Adami stared into the camera and stated, "Given everything that I'm seeing, a rate- any rate cut this year doesn't make any sense."

But on Friday's Fast Money, Steve Grasso asserted, "I do believe we're still going to get 3 rate cuts this year."

‘Things have been pretty dull at Cisco’

Judge on Friday's (4/12) Halftime Report curiously showed a chart showing Megacap Tech climbing even as rate-cut expectations have fallen, which apparently is Tony Pasquariello's point, while Judge said Michael Hartnett is warning of a 1999-like bubble because the Nasdaq is moving higher as yields move higher.

Judge suggested both "can technically be true," if those stocks are indeed working now but it leads to a bubble.

Steve Weiss doesn't view big tech as a bubble, just "slightly overvalued here."

Amy Raskin said of ASML, "I just think the space is probably a little overdone."

Bill Baruch dialed in and said AAPL is "innovating" and that it rebounded from dipping into the 160s.

Jim Lebenthal explained why he's not buying AAPL now: "Right now, my gut, my experience in the market, says the market's going lower from here, and Apple with it."

Kevin Simpson bought HON, suggesting it can benefit from BA's troubles. Weiss bought more LDOS. Jim said CSCO is a bit of a "show-me story," and said with a straight face, "Absent Splunk, things have been pretty dull at Cisco to say the least."

Weiss said he'd be "hard-pressed" to find a week where "some analyst" didn't raise their NFLX target.

Kevin Simpson said he wouldn't buy UNH ahead of earnings and noted he bought a month ago at 470.

Jim touted GPC, citing the "average age of cars on the road is very, very old," a comment we've been hearing on these CNBC shows for probably 15 years running.

On Closing Bell, Bryn Talkington suggested the selloff was "more geopolitical" than related to rates.

No updates on the status of Invest America making it through Congress

Josh Brown opened Thursday's (4/11) Halftime Report show taking up sort of what Jim Lebenthal brought up a day earlier, as Josh affirmed he's looking for a "buyable selloff," and Josh concluded Wednesday was a "countertrend move."

We were agreeing with that on Thursday, except that on Friday, there was a bigger "countertrend move." (This review was posted Friday 4/12 afternoon.)

Rich Saperstein said, "Anywhere you look, the economy is doing well, so we're fully invested." Judge demanded an explanation of "fully invested" in terms of equities. Rich said a client who typically is at 50% equities may have been down to 45% equities a while ago but is now back at 50%.

Shannon Saccocia said bulls are "emboldened" because manufacturing is in expansion.

Jason Snipe said he doesn't think it's either too early to sell or too late to buy; rather, he thinks it's a time for people "to get in and stay in." (Unfortunatetly, it wouldn't have hurt for those buyers to wait at least 1 day.)

Jason trimmed NVDA.

Josh said he would argue that the "prospect" of Fed rate cuts is greater than the cuts themselves. Josh went on to argue that P.E. ratios are higher than historical levels because there's less stock in the world every year due to buybacks.

Rich Saperstein said he's holding big banks, but as far as adding more, "probably not." Rich is overweight oil as a "geopolitical hedge."

Josh Brown said JPM being down on Thursday was a "little bit of a gift."

At the end of the show, Rich discussed buying FIS, but we didn't hear any strong catalysts, other than maybe buybacks.

At the top of Power Lunch on Thursday, Tyler Mathisen went to Rick Santelli at the CME and Rick acknowledged Tyler; after talking about seasonal adjustments to gasoline, Rick said, "Deirdre, back to you." Tyler pointed out, "Actually it's Tyler and Contessa today."

Joe Terranova was on Closing Bell and said, "The bull market continues to get stress tests" and that the Mag 7 is what led the market this week back from what looked like a worse correction. (Although Friday sort of resumed that correction.)

Karen Finerman on Fast Money said she's long MS and addressed the breaking news, "I'm not delighted by this," though she wouldn't say this is a "giant disaster."

Judge and Weiss eventually settle whether next move is hike or cut, tangle over amount of options for Federal Reserve

Shortly in to Wednesday's (4/10) Halftime Report, Judge asked Steve Weiss, "Is the next move from the Fed a cut or a hike?"

Weiss answered, "The next move from the Fed is no move."

"No no no. Don't give me that nonsense," Judge warned.

"No it's not nonsense. It's factual!" Weiss said.

"That's not a move! Are they gonna cut next or hike," Judge persisted.

"They're probably gonna cut," Weiss admitted.

"OK thank you," Judge said.

"Hold on Scott, that's not the answer-" Weiss continued.

"It is the answer-" Judge said.

"No it's not the answer," Weiss said.

"I just asked you the question, what is their next move," Judge said.

"You still have Bowman out there saying 3 cuts, you have 'em saying 6 cuts, now it's 3, it's probably gonna go to 2, and if you're basing a case on that, then you're wrong," Weiss explained.

"No, no you're not," Judge shot back. "If you knew that the first move of the Fed at the beginning of this hiking cycle was gonna be a hike, you'd be negative, like you were. Like you were."

"What if the next move is not this year but next year," Weiss countered.

"OK, if you wanna start pushing the timeline back that far then obviously that's a, a risk," Judge said.

"Exactly. That's my point!" Weiss said.

What a difference .3 makes (a/k/a Jim tries to redefine ‘resident bull’ after getting buffaloed out of buying)

Judge wondered at the start of Wednesday's (4/10) Halftime Report "if anything" has changed for the market with the CPI report.

Bryn Talkington said anyone "expecting to come in at .3" and having the market "cruise on" were "sorely mistaken."

Bryn said "the last mile" of the inflation battle, which we're hearing ad nauseum on CNBC, "may be longer than a mile."

Bryn advised that you may have to "think through certain sectors that you may have been overweight."

Judge called Jim Lebenthal "our resident bull." Jim said something is changing "on the margin." Jim said he had to "parse" the "resident bull" comment; it's true that he has been, but he's been trimming recently and has got "cash on the sidelines."

Jim then curiously revealed, "I came in, I woke up this morning, I was actually ready to buy. I was waiting for that CPI report, and when it came out, everything that I wanted to buy started going down and it's been going down ever since, so I'm sitting on my hands. ... I'd like the market to find its footing, and then I'll- and then I'll come back in. But right now, today, there's absolutely no reason for me or any other participant (snicker) to buy."

That sounds like Jim was simply momentum trading, wanting to buy a stock except when it's going down.

About 20 minutes later, Steve Weiss said kind of out of the blue, "I'm still confused that Jimmy came in today wanting to buy stocks that were higher, and now that they're lower, he doesn't wanna buy 'em. ... I'm still trying to work that out from the A Block."

"I spelled that out. What are you being, purposely dense?" Jim chuckled.

Sully reveals what would cause him to retire

Wednesday's (4/10) Closing Bell Overtime on CNBC was guest hosted by Sully, the channel's funniest anchor, who took note of what a Halftime panelist said on Closing Bell. (Yes this entry spans 3 programs.)

Sully said, "I heard Josh Brown in the previous hour, he said it's a risk-on, you know, risk-off, rate cut-on, rate cut-off market." But Sully wondered if "PCE" (he said "PCE" with a deep, strong voice) comes in "cooler," does that change the inflation "narrative."

Ed Yardeni said he's glad Sully brought that up, then leaped into the deep end of the PCE pool, citing what Ed admitted may be just "minute little changes."

Sully made a joke to Santoli about 5,150 on the S&P 500 ("sounds like investors want the best of both worlds").

Sully also quoted Forrest Gump while asking Neil Dutta, "Why are we even talking about rate cuts when inflation is reaccelerating?"

Sully said, "If there could be a day where I don't talk about the Federal Reserve, I might just retire, be the best day of my life."

Joe says to own commodities, insurers, private equity

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (4/10) Halftime Report said the Fed is looking for "reasons" to cut, and Wednesday did not give them one. But Joe said the diminishing forecast of 2024 rate cuts does not change how he wants to invest "at all," explaining he hasn't wanted to own real estate and Wednesday is a good day not to own real estate.

Steve Weiss said, "To me, this puts any rate cut this year in doubt." Weiss said of Powell, "He's neutral right now; he's not dovish." Weiss said if pushed he'd probably guess we get 1 cut, but even 1 is not a "slam dunk."

Steve Liesman said there's now "additional risk," that being either no Fed cut or that the Fed has to "reverse course." Steve said the recent data "violates" the theory of what should happen after raising rates "at the speed of light." Steve said the Fed needs to be "mindful" that "The theory of it being restrictive is not necessarily uh taking place in the reality of the economy."

(Wonder if Steve thinks the Fed also needs to be "mindful" that the 2020s inflation story is all about dogs chasing tails, companies paying their workers more so that workers can grapple with inflation while the companies raise prices to cover the increased labor costs, and maybe the government can send everyone $600 or $1,200 checks again ...)

Bryn Talkington advised sticking with "high quality tech, which would be the Q's" and predicted a "big separation between the wheat and the chaff."

Joe's list of must-owns include commodities, insurance companies and private equity. Joe said, "It is imperative that you own commodities in this environment."

Weiss said he's "astounded" that DE and CAT were "flat" on Wednesday.

Jim stressed that the market is merely reacting to "marginal data" on Wednesday that's negative.

Judge jokes that restaurant diners bail when Weiss walks in

Bryn Talkington on Wednesday's (4/10) Halftime Report suggested gold is a "macro play" on the country's interest on the national debt (snicker). However, "Gold is very overbought right now," Bryn said.

Joe Terranova actually referred to Bryn as "Blin" (snicker) but quickly corrected himself.

Steve Weiss then uncorked this rationale for not being long: "I don't know how you value gold. It's an emotional buy; it's an emotional sell."

That's a fair point. But unlike cryptogarbage, there's a couple thousand years of price history.

Weiss joked that if he got into gold, that'll be the "end of the time it works." Judge cracked "like most everything else," that when Weiss walks into a restaurant, everyone says "Check please."

Joe asked Weiss how gold is different than bitcoin, which Weiss has recently owned.

"Good. Question," Judge said.

Weiss said it's a "softball question," and he's betting on "momentum" and "marketing strength" of financial companies bringing people into bitcoin. (So it's OK to momentum-trade bitcoin, but too hard to momentum-trade gold.)

Jim Lebenthal talked up CLF again. Joe chuckled, "Cleveland Cliffs, never heard that before." "Never ends," Judge agreed.

Kinda funny that CNBC wouldn’t put on the Najarii but will run their ads

Judge on Wednesday's (4/10) Halftime Report noted Ed Bastian yet again talked up how robust air travel is.

Jim Lebenthal said the stock was down on "profit taking," though Jim didn't want to "blithely" dismiss that. "Let me be blunt, folks — this is an opportunity to buy Delta," Jim said.

Bryn Talkington sold ABBV at 178 after a "really good run."

Bryn hasn't talked about RBLX for weeks; on Wednesday she again said it needs "more profitability" to get past $40-$45.

Judge said ALB got upgraded by Bank of America. Bryn said the time to buy commodities is when there's "blood in the streets," as with this name, and she "wouldn't be surprised" if her shop adds this stock in the next few weeks.

Joe Terranova asked Bryn, "Does this feel like natural gas (snicker) to you?" "A little bit, right," Bryn said. Joe said he might buy ALB or even "a little natural gas."

Jim said Adam Jonas, despite an outperform rating, "hates" GM; "I don't understand it."

During Final Trades, Judge said to Joe, "Somebody asked me for the ticker of the JOET."

On Fast Money, Karen Finerman said the CPI number is "a little bit more scary" than previous indications of persistent inflation. Karen also noted the activity in M and indicated she thought it might've moved higher on that news but it wasn't a good day for stocks.

‘Enormous amount of money on the sidelines’

Agree with him or not, but Rob Sechan easily made the call of the day on Tuesday's (4/9) Halftime Report.

Rob said "there's an enormous amount of money on the sidelines," which got nods and backing from his fellow panelists, if not Judge.

Rob said "animal spirits are picking up" and he thinks any dip from "a hot number" on Wednesday will get bought.

Josh Brown said, "I actually would root for a panic, and I'll buy it." Josh pointed out that the average 10-year yield going "back to 1926" is 4.8%, and that he didn't hear any of the other panelists linking their investing strategy to a rate cut.

Joe Terranova, who had a quiet show, said, "I do believe in the last week and a half, we've worked off some of the overbought conditions" and even added an "element of bearishness" into the market.

Brian Belski is "a little bit more cautious" in the near-term because "a lot of the easy money's been made," but he's still "super bullish" for the longer term.

Karen: ‘I just cannot believe how bad Siri is’ (a/k/a FAA calls Phil during soundbite)

During a rather tepid conversation on Tuesday's (4/9) Fast Money about GOOGL and AAPL, Karen Finerman reiterated a product review.

"I just cannot believe how bad Siri is," Karen said. "It's amazing to me."

On the Halftime Report, Stephanie Link said "you're not gonna make a lot of money" from BA in the short term. But Brian Belski predicted that BA in the next 5 years "is gonna be the next GE."

CNBC's Phil LeBeau was delivering an update on the BA story when he got a call. "This is the FAA," Phil explained, so he had to bolt.

Josh Brown touted Morgan Stanley's upgrade of NDAQ. "The big driver here is going to be new listings, in my opinion," Brown said; it's one of the "cleanest ways" to play the IPO calendar.

In a discussion about Morgan Stanley's energy upgrade, Joe Terranova said, "You absolutely want the refiners." Josh Brown again touted the IEO. "This sector is in a bull market," Brown said. Rob said he's been overweight energy all year, and now it's "starting to play (sic) dividends." Brian Belski though claimed it's "too late" for a bullish energy call.

We don’t think we heard ‘higher for longer,’ perhaps because Carter Worth mocked it

Judge and his panelists on Monday's (4/8) Halftime Report were oblivious to the solar eclipse, but they weren't oblivious to everyone's favorite dog-chasing-its-tail story, inflation.

Steve Weiss opened the show saying this is a "critical" week because we've seen "such a big backup in rates."

Jim Lebenthal said 3 hot price reports in a row would mean "inflation is not under control."

Weiss said 3 months as a measuring stick is important because that's how trends are determined.

So, we gotta ask, because no one on the show did ... if everyone is getting pay raises because of inflation, doesn't that prompt those employers to raise prices, thus creating more inflation?

Judge questioned, "Aren't rates going up for the right reason?"

For about the 5th time in 3 weeks, Weiss was asked to talk about a NFLX upgrade. Weiss admitted he "keeps sayin'" that he wishes he had bought more.

Jim said RIG got a contract extension above $500,000 a day, the first time at that level in maybe 10 years or so.

Weiss said he's still in bitcoin.

Jim impressively admitted, "I am an idiot for owning Paramount." Weiss said, "That's my favorite soundbite. We've been doing this show 14 years, that's my favorite soundbite ever."

Weiss: AMZN doesn’t ‘need to have streaming’

Steve Weiss on Friday's (4/5) Halftime Report was declaring victory in the streaming world.

Weiss again said he wishes his NFLX position was bigger. "There are gonna be 2 winners in streaming. You know, Amazon's already cut back their production, it's a non-event, they don't need to have streaming, have content for you to join Prime. So it's gonna be Hulu/Disney, and it's going to be Netflix. That's it. Nobody else can afford to spend on it ... Netflix will be the major winner."

We're not sure it's going to be quite that simple. We don't agree that streaming is a "non-event" for AMZN; we would say it's sort of in a bad no-man's land, it's one of a few factors in whether someone subscribes to Prime, and the company wants to be "competitive" in streaming but also isn't interested in trying to outdo Netflix.

Weiss is obsessed with the notion of a streaming "winner." For now, the quality of offerings on Disney, Prime, Peacock, Apple TV and Paramount probably do not affect for most people whether they subscribe to NFLX. And the reason most people actually "subscribe" to many of these services is because they're getting free trials when they buy phones or order certain cable channels.

The issue for NFLX is whether it can either 1) gain more subscribers and/or 2) charge the subscribers more than it's charging now. This page believes the answer to 2) is an absolute yes, so we would agree with Weiss that it's a good stock, although it was a better stock a year ago. (This writer has no position in NFLX.)

On Fast Money, Tim Seymour said NFLX has been a free cash flow "machine" and he'd stay in the stock with earnings approaching. Guy Adami said NFLX is "right up against" its November 2021 high of 645-ish; he said it does have momentum and Guy would "maybe" hold it into earnings on the 18th but he'd be "a bit weary (sic) or leery" of holding it after that.

Weiss unloads INTC

Steve Weiss on Friday's (4/5) Halftime Report said we got a "Goldilocks" employment report; most importantly to Weiss, "Wage growth came in as expected."

Weiss said "geopolitical concerns" related to Israel and Iran are "always very temporary."

Weiss said Thursday was "a little bit painful," but not "meaningful."

Jim Lebenthal said it's only on the "distant radar," but if we keep getting hotter-than-expected inflation stats, that would concern him.

Weiss is suddenly out of INTC, selling it "down 10%," after defending it just a couple days ago. "I bought it a little early. And clearly it was a mistake," Weiss said, adding it's "not cheap" and too hard to pick a bottom on it.

Jenny Harrington protested, "I wouldn't be surprised if you get back into it at some point."

Weiss said VRT "should keep goin'," but he's "not buying it up here."

Steve Liesman delivered breaking news on Michelle Bowman's speech. Judge observed, "This sounds like both Bowman and Powell are on pretty much the same page."

Jenny Harrington revealed, "I have a friend who started doing the GLP-1s, and lost a ton of weight, and went out and had to buy an entire new wardrobe."

On Fast Money, The extremely cute Constance Hunter of MacroPolicy Perspective said the increase in the labor participation rate is a "really good piece of news." Grandpa Guy Adami, who won't say what a gallon of milk/gas/carton of eggs should cost, said "Part-time employment is going through the roof. Full-time jobs are going down. That tells me ... people need more jobs, 2 jobs, because they're trying to combat inflation any way they can." Tim Seymour said April historically is favored in stocks; "This is one of the best investment times of the year."

Nelson says DIS board never even interviewed Chapek (a/k/a the question isn’t why everybody hates PARA; the question is why Jim keeps liking it year after year)

Thursday (4/4) was such a sprawling day on CNBC, we had to watch at least 4 programs to find the good stuff. Which included Bob Iger, Nelson Peltz, and a market plunge around 2 p.m. Eastern.

David Faber did note how Bob's always got an answer for how successful the Fox acquisition was. But Bob (with apologies to David) said absolutely nothing controversial nor even newsworthy, which is why the Hollywood Reporter headlined the interview with Iger's remark about "woke."

(Even so, Karen Finerman on Fast Money was impressed, stating, "It was a great interview. I mean, David really pushed him hard, and- on a lot of different things," including "the idea that they hope to be No. 2 in streaming ... It's over, right? Netflix has won.")

Nelson, on the other hand, had good stuff, about a half-hour or so after Iger, telling Jim Cramer, "We've been told, on very good sources, that Chapek never even had, uh, an interview with the board directly."

In a tremendous question, Jim told Nelson that Jeff Sonnenfeld apparently says that Peltz is "finished." Jim asked Peltz for reax. "I do not even know how to pronounce his name," Nelson said.

On the (sleepy) Halftime Report, Josh Brown offered up new terminology, suggesting the market is toggling between "cut on" and "cut off" on a daily basis.

Touting IEO, Josh went to lengths to explain why "overbought" doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Bill Baruch asserted that the Fed is "a bit more political than people think."

Bill said he's "staying very far away" from natural gas, a commodity that Jim Lebenthal (who wasn't a panelist on Thursday's show) keeps talking up.

Speaking of Jim, more than halfway through, Jim joined the crew remotely to discuss not nat gas but one of his favorite stocks, PARA. Jim openly wondered, "Why does everybody hate this stock?" Jim suggested there's "2 answers," one that Shari will favor A shares over B shares, which Jim doesn't think is "likely." Judge cut Jim off before he could supply the 2nd answer. Moments later, Jim said "the other answer" is that "nobody in the analyst community trusts management."

We checked in with Judge's Closing Bell to learn if anyone was aghast about the late afternoon market reversal. No one really was. "None of this is a reversal of trend," Santoli said.

Steve Liesman on that program noted the market went "straight down" as Neel Kashkari "said what for some is the quiet part out loud."

On Fast Money, Tim Seymour called Mester "Meister" but corrected himself.

Tim also stated, "I think this was all about the Fed." Karen Finerman pushed back that "we've had people coming up, Bostic yesterday, Gorman ... a number ... saying no cuts."

Pointing to NVDA, Guy Adami labeled Thursday's action as a "continuation of March 8th."

No one’s brought up ‘higher for longer’ since Carter mocked the phrase

Wednesday's (4/3) Fast Money had one advantage over the Halftime Report; it wasn't at Sohn, which wasn't exactly producing fireworks.

Grandpa Guy Adami was asked to opine on Jay Powell (see below) and mentioned the "not even thinking about thinking about thinking about" thing and eventually declared, "The inflation battle's far from over."

Guy asserted, "Inflation is what's killing people," and went on to state that the reason Joe Biden's approval rating is "historically low" is because people feeling "pain" from "paying too much for things."

Or, maybe his approval rating is low because this is a person who barely mustered about 5% in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020 before the Democratic Party decided to hand the nomination to him.

Mel didn't ask Guy exactly what price people should be paying for things. What should a gallon of gasoline cost; what should a gallon of milk cost, what should a Denny's Grand Slam cost.

For the umpteenth time, Karen Finerman, who stunned in new blue outfit, questioned why the Fed would cut. "I don't understand why they would need to do this," Karen stated.

Karen said when she saw ULTA down 13%, she thought, "this is crazy," and she bought more, ignoring her 3-day rule, only to see the stock fall another 2%.

David Einhorn suggests Fed is ‘motivated’ to keep the president ‘in power’

Judge's interview Wednesday (4/3) at Sohn with David Einhorn (it occurred during Power Lunch, not the Halftime Report) lasted about 12 minutes, and it wasn't until the very last moment that they got to the good stuff.

That was when David said it "seems unlikely" that there'd be a Fed hike, at least before November, stating, "They seem very politically motivated to, um, uh, try to keep the president in- in power."

David presented SLVYY at Sohn; he told Judge he owns "a little bit over 5% of the company." We're sure it's an interesting investment, but it's also fairly obscure and we doubt too many viewers are going to jump in.

Einhorn explained that he bought NYCB and other acquirers of the fallout assets of the March 2023 bank troubles, but he sold NYCB after the recent bad news and took a "very small loss."

Much of the interview dealt with "value" investing (snicker). David asserted that "The value investing industry and value investing are 2 completely different things."

"Gold is a very large position for us," Einhorn said, citing a "problem with the overall monetary and fiscal policies of the country." David said that "the deficits are ultimately a real problem" and that it's just a "math thing" to realize it.

Nevertheless, "I don't particularly think we're in a bubble," David said.

Weiss’ ADM buy remains early contender for Call of the Year

Live from Sohn on Wednesday's (4/3) Halftime Report, Josh Brown said he's looking at RSIs and found that "the market is almost completely stalled out here." But he said the Russell average RSI is at 52, highest since February 2023.

Kari Firestone said the market is "grappling" with whether stronger growth that pushes off rate cuts is worth it.

Steve Weiss agreed with Kari; "that really is the debate going on."

As happened throughout the day on CNBC, Judge aired clips of Steve Cohen on Squawk Box saying AI is a "really durable theme." Weiss said Cohen gets the "best information" from his 1,000-person team, many of them traders.

Josh said "this is a very different environment than bubbles past." Josh and Weiss agreed that the performance of some slumping tech stocks wouldn't be happening if this were a bubble.

Jim actually said that the DIS board battle is "great drama." Jim mentioned the "Hulu transaction" (snicker) again but claimed Iger has "got one ace in his sleeve," which of course is "streaming" (snicker).

Leslie Picker rattled off a list of Sohn stock picks, none of which we heard of, which included a "Norwegian digital media company."

Weiss for some reason owns INTC and claimed it was "holding up reasonably well" down 7% on its foundry business. Weiss said it easily could've been at $35 and claimed it's a 2nd-half story. Josh said he'd take a "2nd look" at the stock if it can hold 38 for a few days.

Kari said baby boomers are "traveling constantly ... I'm one of them." She likes BKNG.

Seema Mody is back and did the CNBC News Update.

In the latter half of the show, Michelle Ross of StemPoint sat in with the crew to discuss her biotech presentation on CRNX at Sohn; she thinks it's got room for inroads in GLP-1. She said SNDX has a drug in the works for childhood leukemia, and that MRUS is addressing head and neck cancers.

Josh said LYV is a "crown jewel" in the "experience economy" despite the fact Piper Sandler is apparently down on the stock.

Weiss touted TDG and also Judge gave him an update on ADM, so far one of the best trades of the year. Weiss pointed out he bought the stock on that accounting-issue collapse and "I'm actually up 20%."

Dan Nathan: TSLA going to 100

Bryn Talkington made a stark pronouncement at the top of Tuesday's (4/2) Halftime Report, stating, "We've been overbought in this market really since early February."

Josh Brown said, "When you saw that activity happening with the Donald Trump SPAC, uh, you just knew that there were games being played that we really haven't seen since, like, late 2021."

Brown said, "I also notice some of the worst people on social media beating their chest again about bitcoin and this and that."

Late in the program, Bryn said she could see bitcoin being either $100,000 or $20,000. "I still don't understand the use cases for it," Bryn admitted.

Meanwhile, Sarat Sethi said the market needs to "digest" the big run of the last several months.

Bryn said there's been a recent "obsession" with small caps, but she expects them to continue to lag. She said the Fed will be "more neutral" near the election and that the "sweet spot" for cutting rates would be in the summer.

Jim Lebenthal said "we don't need rate cuts," and he insisted he's not being "blasé" about it either.

Midway through the show, David Faber reported that Endeavor is going private. On DIS, David said the company is "certainly in a very good position to prevail" against Nelson Peltz. But as to whether it could be 70-30, David said "no way," maybe like a vote total in the "high 50s." Judge wondered if the closeness of the vote would matter in any way. David indicated probably not unless it was extremely close.

Jim again said it "can't hurt" to have Peltz on the board, but he's definitely not selling if Peltz loses.

Jim again said "the future" of DIS is Disney+ streaming (snicker).

Bryn said TSLA's Chinese competitors "have caught up," and it's a question of how well TSLA can compete in that market. Bryn predicted "a bad Q2" and "rough year" for TSLA and said she'd wait "a couple quarters" before looking to buy.

Gene Munster basically seconded that notion on Fast Money. But also on Fast Money, Dan Nathan said TSLA is "probably going to a hundred," calling it "one of the worst-looking stock charts I've ever seen in my life."

Dan also said that some people claim to see clarity from the Fed on rates, but "I don't think they (meaning the Fed) have a clue."

Judge promised a "big show" Wednesday from Sohn and said he'll be live with David Einhorn at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.

Guy suggests downside revisions to unemployment statistics might be like the unheeded ‘warning signs’ of 2006-07

Grandpa Guy Adami, who's been complaining since Benny Goodman was The King of Swing that the Federal Reserve has lost control of the bond market, was challenged by host Missy Lee about his perpetual warnings on Monday's (4/1) Fast Money.

Guy had stated at the top of the program, "I think people are wishing for rate cuts, and I've said, be careful what you wish for," adding, "The inflation genie I think is right back out of the bottle."

Moments later, Mel noted stock market positives and asked Guy, "Why so grim?"

Guy referred to the beginnings of the show around 2007 and the subsequent housing/financial crisis and assured "I'm not suggesting we're there" at '08-'09 but stated, "The fact that people came back and said, 'You never told us all the bad things that were going on, you never warned us,' so I vowed from that day on, if I saw things that were, to me at least, alarming, I was gonna bring them up."

One of those "alarming" "warning signs" is apparently the "revisions to the downside" (snicker) in unemployment reports.

So, "Things aren't as great as they appear."

However, Guy did allow that no rate cuts (or less than 3) would be the "most bullish thing that could happen" for the financial markets.

"I'm surprised there's still 3 on the table," offered Karen Finerman.

Dan Nathan said he has "no idea" what would happen in the markets if Jay Powell declared there would be no rate cuts this year.

Carter says when you hear a mantra like ‘Higher for longer,’ you should ‘run the other way’; Judge opened his show with it and no one bolted

At the start of Monday's (4/1) Halftime Report, Judge asked Stephanie Link, "Is this the quarter ... where we start worrying about higher for longer," probably not realizing that Carter Worth hours later on Fast Money was going to mock the "higher for longer" sloganeering, saying it started around 5.02%.

Stephanie said "we probably are higher for longer" and that there might not be cuts this year and Monday's ISM was "pretty hot."

Judge said investors are at their most bullish in 18 months, but Jason Snipe said he doesn't think the market is offsides.

Jim Lebenthal insisted this is a "Goldilocks environment" and that inflation is "coming down" even if not as much as people want.

Judge asserted the rising 10-year rate could be trouble. Stephanie said "5% is the number that I would worry about" for its impact on housing, and the market can "handle" 4.5%.

Jason said he recently added to CAT, which is "hitting all-time highs."

Judge asked Jim about banks and noted the highs in many of them. Jim said they're due for a "pause" at some point but he doesn't see any looming fundamental issues. "Green shoots are there," Jim said.

Jim again talked up the potential of nat gas without really explaining why it might go up.

Judge asked Jim about being bullish on the economy and market while being overweight a "defensive area of the market," health care. Jim conceded that health care even typically does badly in election years, but he sees a "snapback after a terrible 2023."

Jim told Judge that he doesn't think you necessarily have to have rate cuts for small caps to work, just a strong economy. But Jason said rate cuts are "important" to the small cap story.

Jim said he's "very bullish" on DAL and the gushing MS upgrade is a "fun note to read."

Jim's 3-point plan for DIS success includes "profitability in streaming" (snicker). Jim said if Peltz wins, he won't "distract" Bob Iger and can't hurt, and if he doesn't win, at least the stock is up a lot recently. Stephanie said if she owned DIS, she would sell it if Peltz does not win the board seat.

Judge promised David Einhorn at Sohn on Wednesday.

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