CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

2017 in review: The best, and a bit of the worst, of the Halftime Report (and related CNBC programming)

It's that time of year.

We're not sure how many hours of programming of the Halftime Report and Fast Money occur in a given year (lessee ... 10 hours a week, 52 weeks, minus a few holidays ...), but given that this page observes many of those hours, we like to throw our own holiday party of sorts and recognize some of the programs' best moments of the past 12 months, including the always-popular Call of the Year.

(And, we might as well note a few of the less-than-stellar moments, to maintain our objectivity membership card.)

So open a Malbec or a Hamm's (please only if not driving; always drink responsibly) and see if we're on to something here ...

Best interview of 2017: Bill Ackman tells Judge, ‘The index funds control America’

Judge on Nov. 6 put together the best interview yet with Bill Ackman, mostly tackling the ADP situation for about 30 minutes but then crossing over into other favorite subjects.

Bill got great questions and was given ample time to provide answers.

Bill not only said the word "comportment" 3 times (that's because of Lee Cooperman, see below), he made a grand statement about proxy battles:

"The index funds control America," Bill asserted, before clarifying, "I would say the proxy advisor and the index funds control America."

2nd-best interview: Judge confronts protester at Trump’s inauguration

On Friday, Jan. 20, CNBC sent the troops out to D.C. to cover the inauguration of President Donald Trump, and Judge found himself assigned to street duty.

With live cameras rolling behind him, Judge approached a couple of unhappy folks in the crowd. "You say you're peaceful protesters, but yet I've seen you physically restraining people from going through. Why?" Judge asked.

"But are we physically attacking them?" one fellow responded. "Is there a difference between restraint and attack; are you trying to pose that question to make us look violent?"

"Why are you restraining them when they're- why you're physically restraining them (sic grammar)," Judge retorted.

"It's not restraining. Look up the dex- look up the definition of restraint," the fellow demanded.

"Why are you here today" Judge asked.

The protester was silent. "That pretty much says it all," Judge shrugged.

3rd-best interview: Judge gives Richard Fisher his first combative CNBC interview

Judge on the Aug. 16 Halftime landed an interview with Richard Fisher, who apparently was actually expecting to discuss monetary policy.

Judge said Fisher is on the board of PEP and T and asked if he believes that either Randall Stephenson or Indra Nooyi should exit Donald Trump's advisory panels in the wake of the Charlottesville fiasco. Fisher responded, "You know, I never comment on the boards that I sit on, or on the CEOs that I have the privilege of working with. So, I'm not gonna comment on that. How's that?"

Judge said part of being on a board, "other than collecting a handsome fee," is to discuss difficult issues with the "steward" of the company. Fisher actually said with a straight face, "I think the greatest responsibility of a board member is discretion, and focusing on the company's business, and that's what I do as a board member … Sorry to disappoint you," Fisher said, adding he was happy to talk about monetary policy or national economics, but "this is just not my forte."

Judge said that if Fisher doesn't want to talk about Stephenson or Nooyi, "I get it, unfortunately."

Had it just ended there, it likely wouldn't have made the list. But Fisher concluded:

"This is the first combative interview I've ever had on CNBC."

4th-best interview: Lee Cooperman says SEC’s first offer should’ve been as good as its last

Judge landed a coveted interview on May 30 with Lee Cooperman, who had just disposed of his SEC troubles. In a candid but limited conversation, Cooperman revealed, "I've entered into what's called a no-admit, no-deny settlement, which prohibits me from commenting on the government's allegations or the strength of my defenses. I believe that the outcome speaks for itself, um, and I'll leave it at that."

He didn't quite leave it at that, admitting, "If they asked me initially for the final ask, I would've accepted it knowing it would've saved my business."

Judge asked about the SEC's initial insistence on a 5-year ban that didn't happen.

It was a mostly defiant but reasonably humble Cooperman. "The process was extraordinarily abusive," he asserted, adding his business was affected "dramatically, way out of proportion to what was, uh, reasonable."

He also reiterated how he has made the Giving Pledge.

This case was very prominent in the financial media, not so much in mainstream media. It's definitely possible there could be split opinions as to whether Lee got a raw deal or a big break because of his wealth.

5th-best interview: Kevin Plank likens himself to Tom Brady, says having a business-oriented president is a ‘real asset’

Judge on Feb. 7 elicited a rare interview from beleaguered Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, who was only about to get a lot more beleaguered.

Plank said, "You know, I think a lot of people, you know, they bet against Tom Brady the other night too."

This page took note of that. What it didn't take note of was this Plank comment: "To have such a pro-business president is something that's a real asset for this country."

That got back to Steph Curry and made national news for weeks. Unfortunately, we were asleep at the switch on that one; our bust of the year.

6th-best interview of the year: CNBC, Scaramucci shake hands for 8 seconds

Not only was it a reunion, it was newsworthy.

Former CNBC contributor Anthony Scaramucci, who split with the channel a few years ago when he restarted the "Wall Street Week" franchise (which now is presumably gathering dust at Fox Business unless anyone is actually watching it), returned triumphantly for an interview with Judge on Jan. 18 about Scaramucci's supposedly ascending role in the White House.

Scaramucci's title then was to be: "Assistant to the president, director, office of the public liaison."

He said CEOs who weren't excited about Trump were "coming around." (Many of those made a U-turn after Charlottesville.)

Despite some of the criticisms about Scaramucci's personality, at the time, we figured it was a plus for the White House to have a guy like Scaramucci around to kind of get everyone together and show everyone a good time. Unfortunately, in his brief tenure (he didn't get a position until later, and it was actually a bigger title), he vowed more firing than hiring; we didn't realize he might go ballistic over a leaked dinner invitation.

Scaramucci actually told Judge, "As you get closer to the White House and you get closer to being a voice for the administration, I have to start really being careful about who I'm meeting and what I'm saying, and I respect that."

Best public service: Joe, others on panel stress colonoscopies

Colonoscopies actually surfaced as a topic of short interest on the Halftime Report in 2017. For the purposes of this item, we're not going to bother rehashing that debate. Rather, we'll note that Joe Terranova (as well as short seller Andrew Left) reminded viewers not to avoid this potentially life-saving procedure. Do yourself a favor, and get it done.

Worst interview of 2017: Robert Shiller maybe thinks stocks can go up 50%

On May 24 (picture above from a different day), Judge ushered in the latest installment of pointless interviews with Robert Shiller, who likes to chuckle about how the headlines on his reports are always not quite right.

Judge on this program stated that Shiller is saying stocks could go up 50% "from here," which prompted Shiller to hem and haw.

8 minutes into the show, Stephen Weiss said Shiller was actually making a 10-year assessment. Pete Najarian said of Shiller, "He said 10 years, but he said somewhere between now and 10 years."

2nd-worst interview: Jay Williams says ‘It’s not OK’ that some college basketball coaches make about as much as some NBA coaches

Jay Williams on the Sept. 27 Halftime Report critiqued the FBI investigation of college basketball (not sure how this is a stock-picking subject and Harvey Weinstein isn't) and (aside from not saying anything that high school kids couldn't have said) grumbled, "The FBI's investigation actually proves No. 1 that the NCAA is somewhat obsolete."

Moments later, Williams said, "The game just got sold the rights to the NCAA Tournament (sic grammar) to CBS and Turner for 10.9 billion dollars."

Williams also complained, "The term student-athlete is not the case. It's athlete, athlete, athlete, then maybe student." OK. So drop college athletics entirely.

Despite his emphasis on "athlete," Williams complained that they're not paid. "It's OK for everybody else to profit but the kids," he told Judge.

Making very little sense, Williams ultimately complained, "I can compare the top 10 coaches in college basketball to some of the top NBA coaches salary-wise. You tell me that's OK. It's not OK." He also wants to force basketball players to stay in college 3 years. "If you go to college you have to go to college for a mandatory 3 years," he actually said. Perhaps we can apply that to the general population so that we'll have no more dropouts.

3rd-worst interview: Andrew Left faults analyst for having target at level of stock price

This was a head-scratcher.

(Obviously the CNBC Booking Dept. had run out of gas or something.)

On Nov. 29, Judge pitted ROKU skeptic Andrew Left against bullish analyst Laura Martin, allowing Left to do the grilling.

Except Left's beef was only that Martin had raised her target from 28 to 50 within 3 weeks not (according to Left) because of fundamental change but simply because the stock had indeed gone higher.

Martin said there were "a number of data points" in the 3rd quarter. The stock has easily surpassed Martin's 50 and has even made it look modest. Left is a great guest. This was buffoonery. The only thing that saved this pointless confrontation was that Martin was a good sport about it.

4th-worst interview: Mick McGuire suggests BWLD 450

It had to be one of the Halftime Report's loopiest subjects. Multiple interviews with Mick McGuire over his bizarre interest in a pointless stock, Buffalo Wild Wings.

The stock and activism were a disaster for most of the year until a November buyout gave it life. On April 20, McGuire told Joe Terranova that he could see a possible 450 share price, but only if the company could hit the "value drivers," including margin improvement and the "highly franchised model." Steve Weiss told McGuire his target is "pretty hefty."

5th-worst interview: Judge shamelessly cross-promotes CNBC’s stale Shark Tank reruns with check for entrepreneur

We don't want to be hard on an industrious go-getter who is just starting to hit it big.

But enough is enough when it comes to Shark Tank. (Isn't 8 reruns a night enough exposure?)

On the Nov. 30 Halftime, Judge welcomed Benjilock founder Robbie Cabral, who apparently made a deal with Kevin O'Leary on Shark Tank about padlocks. Judge even brought in Kim Kelley, CEO of Hampton Products, which is apparently the distributor of the product, who presented Cabral with a check for $100,000. Cabral got choked up with tears in his eyes and said it's the "American Dream."

Overdue: Time for Nik Deogun to give Seema a shot at Halftime guest-hosting

"Judge" Scott Wapner doesn't often take time off.

When he does, Halftime Report viewers tend to get Sully, a fine chap whose strengths and weaknesses won't be reanalyzed here, or Mel, rock-solid after doing this for, what, 8 years now (and like Sully, also has another show)?

It certainly wouldn't hurt for CNBC to give some of the upstarts a chance during this hour and seeing what they can do.

They said it: John Harwood claims ‘this president and members of his family are in deep trouble’

When word broke Dec. 1 of a legal deal involing Michael Flynn, CNBC's John Harwood was to quick to pounce during the Halftime Report.

Harwood scoffed that it's a "nice try" for the White House to shrug off Flynn's plea, "but this president and members of his family are in deep trouble right now."

"The circumstances here are very, very dire for the White House," Harwood added.

That was before ABC's Brian Ross was suspended for his erroneous report on the matter.

They said it: Ross Levinsohn claims SNAP $160 in 12 months wouldn’t surprise him

Ross Levinsohn on March 17, before he was running the L.A. Times, said he "wouldn't be surprised" if SNAP was 160 a year from now, but he would be surprised if it's $5.

They said it: Karen Finerman calls Jeff Immelt a ‘great CEO’ victimized by ‘things that are beyond his ability’

Karen Finerman on the May 24 Fast Money said of the Dow's laggards, "GE is probably the most interesting to me."

But Karen also said Jeff Immelt is a "great CEO" plagued by "a lot of different things that are beyond his ability to, you know, the financial crisis, and GE being in that situation they were in."

She didn't say anything about flying empty 2nd jets.

They said it: Steve Weiss says Donald Trump ‘should resign’

On Aug. 16, Stephen Weiss called for a change at the top.

Noting CEOs creating space from Donald Trump, Weiss said, "He should resign."

Jim Lebenthal agreed, stating, "That's exactly right. You said it; I'm gonna agree with you ... We need new leadership."

They said it: Rob Sechan insists it’s not a bad idea to roll student loan debt into mortgages

Rob Sechan on the Oct. 20 Halftime Report revealed, "The mortgage industry too is working on a solution in terms of how to figure out how they deal with student loans, and student loans potentially rolling into mortgages."

Jim Lebenthal opined, "This sounds awful."

"It does not sound awful," Sechan said. "It will completely change the pace of household formation."

Jon Najarian astutely noted that student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy, but you can "walk away" from a mortgage. "So if you could roll student loans into a mortgage and then walk away, I think you'd accelerate the walkaways."

"The devil is in the details," Sechan said.

They said it: Tom Lee touts CRAP stock acronym

On March 15, Tom Lee — who’s had a dubious year, to say the least — explained what his CRAP trade stands for:

"The C is tel- technology, computers, right, which is old tech, which would be an example like Oracle, Microsoft, Intel, automation. R is for resources, which is energy and basic materials. A is American-based banks. And the P is for telecom carriers, phone carriers."

They said it: Lee Cooperman calls Ackman’s ADP move ‘foolish, inappropriate and irresponsible’

On the Aug. 7 Halftime, Lee Cooperman tackled the ADP showdown and stated, "I know and respect Bill Ackman … Notwithstanding, I consider his behavior to be in this instance somewhere between foolish, inappropriate and irresponsible."

Lee said he was "somewhat incredulous" when he heard about Bill's move.

Referring to Bill's push for a nomination delay, "Either finish your work in time … or be a gentleman and wait for the next year's nominating committee to be open," Lee said. "They were right in not delaying."

Later, Bill would claim that Lee was only disgruntled because Bill had targeted Glenn Hubbard.

Showdowns: 20-year-old honored for calling PYPL a short at Ira Sohn runs into Jim Cramer May 9

Judge on the May 9 Halftime welcomed a 20-year-old who was honored at Ira Sohn for promoting a pairs trade of long EBAY/short PYPL. (This writer is long PYPL.)

This fellow's argument was, "eBay is a long, but, embedded in the idea that eBay is a long, implies that PayPal is also a short. Because there's a peer value transfer from PayPal to eBay, about $1 billion in earnings starting in 2020, in perpetuity."

Josh Brown said that when this youngster made his pitch at Sohn, "I was in the audience," and "everyone was like very into the idea," which indicates that the Ira Sohn crowd is hardly infallible.

Judge invited Jim Cramer to the set (what a surprise, he was nearby); Cramer took a seat and stated PYPL "perhaps is not a great short." As for the trade, Cramer said, "I would flip it."

Actually, EBAY has done well; no need to short either one.

Still better to be long PYPL, up about 50% since that day.

We're not mentioning the youngster's name because there's no need to pile on.

Best joke: Tim Seymour on May 26 says ‘I like to buy other people’s problems’; Steve Grasso asks about Tim’s shirt

It sort of got the Ambassador to stop talking. Maybe for a moment. (And note the price of VRX in that graphic.)

Bust of the Year: Pete from June 12 onward starts talking about SNAP in ‘single digits’

This one really hurt. (This writer was long SNAP in 2017 but has no position.)

Few well-known stocks were as awful as SNAP in 2017, a banner year for just about everything else.

In June, Pete Najarian started trumpeting the carnage in this name and began a refrain (echoed by Guy Adami) that SNAP was headed to "single digits" and that put buyers were indicating as much.

On July 13, Pete affirmed, "I've been saying for a while now that I think you're gonna see single digits, and I think that happens after the lockup."

Indeed, that appeared to be the trajectory ... except it actually bottomed in mid-August — at $11.28, according to both Google and Yahoo finance — and even crossed 15 by the end of that month and has roughly held that level into year-end.

At one point in late summer or fall, Steve Weiss actually bought it for a successful long trade.

So basically, at this time, SNAP is a great trading stock (albeit mostly down) rather than an utter disaster stock (that would basically be Sears or JCPenney).

We also heard all spring and summer how Mark Zuckerberg was going to destroy SNAP. Haven't heard much about that in months. Nor have we heard much about the single digits in months.

Call that might’ve been great or might’ve been a bust; we’re not sure: Weiss buys X

On May 24, when it closed at 20.55, Stephen Weiss bought X but assured on the Halftime Report, "10% and I'm gone."

Indeed, in an update on June 7, Weiss said he tried to trade X but quickly got out because there was no bounce; he'd "stay away." Which is too bad, because it closed the year at 35.

2017 Call of the Year: Paul Richards declares 2017 a year without a big correction

Heading into year-end, we were leaning toward handing the 2017 Call of the Year award to Josh Brown, for his steadfast belief in riding NVDA not just for a massive gain in 1 year but for at least another year and another massive gain. (This writer has no position in NVDA.)

But then we decided another call was even more relevant.

Paul Richards, who was hardly on the show in 2017, made his limited appearances count.

Back on March 10, Richards, always a very cordial and agreeable fellow on television, sat in with the Halftime Report and stated, "I really love big corrections in markets. This is a year we're not gonna get them."

Richards added, "As long as we can get through France in May, we should be absolutely fine."

Right on.

We'll close the way we always do — We're here because you are. Talking stocks. Reviewing television. (Sometimes even dabbling into football and film.) Connecting with people who watch business television and constitute basically the most astute media audience in existence. Attempting to inform in ways the mainstream media and their still-large bankrolls can’t or simply don’t. No ads, no logins, no gimmicks, no javascripts that slow down your computer. 100% free. Wishing success for anyone who stops to take a look. Happy 2018 ... and HAPPY TRADING!

[Friday, Dec. 29, 2017]

Mel unable to get Billy Gibbons to make a call on oil stocks

Dick Bove, who made a bear case for the banks in 2017 that proved terrible (though honestly we agreed/agree with him that banks have no vision #oops), surfaced on Friday's Halftime Report to tout GS.

Bove insisted he's not changing any of his previous criticisms of Goldman Sachs, but now it's in the "exact right environment" to do its best, hence his upgrade to buy.

Basically, he just thinks the company has stumbled into the right place at the right time. "Everything that could go right, in terms of the environment, has gone right for Goldman Sachs," Dick said.

Guest host Mel pushed Dick's previous comments about how Lloyd should get the boot. Dick said his belief about that "hasn't changed in any way, shape or form."

Kevin O'Leary said he's one of the GS skeptics who thinks the company is "not in a great place" and lacks great margins. Bove said "investment banking is the high-margin business." O'Leary shrugged that "your call is on the IPO market basically, right." Bove insisted, "It's only 1 part of it."

Pete Najarian said GS "has some wind behind it right now" though he likes BAC better. Jim Lebenthal said he agrees with Bove that the banking environment will be strong. But Jim said the "X factor" is what happens with trading.

O'Leary grumbled that if you buy Dick's deregulatory theme, "why wouldn't you buy the midsize banks."

Mel did NOT ask Dick about his claim that James Gorman is the "Babe Ruth" of banking.

Meanwhile, Jon Najarian said he expects AAPL to top $1 trillion "long before" BABA does, unlike what MKM says. But Pete Najarian said BABA "very easily could be No. 2."

Grandpa Kevin O'Leary said BABA is "not compliant with many institutions in America" and said he's an "Amazon guy."

Jim Lebenthal said there's "no rush" to get into GE. Kevin O'Leary said he anticipates another dividend cut by June and called the company's year a "disaster."

Doc said he's "a little nervous" about CAT and DE because the dollar might not slide 9% again.

Jim said absent a buyout, TIVO is "really going nowhere."

Doc likes the fact that PCLN's IBM dispute is over.

Kevin O'Leary said the drug lobby is "so powerful" and that aging people consume pills "like candy" and so AZN is in the space where "you gotta be." Mel joked that's the "Peter Lynch approach."

Pete says SD pulling out of an acquisition "makes sense to me," but he hasn't looked at the name very closely.

Doc said 155 calls in PLCE were popular. Pete said February 25 calls in GDX were getting bought.

Billy Gibbons dialed in to praise Kevin O'Leary's guitar playing. Mel tried to ask about Billy's investments, but Billy and Kevin mostly talked about 1960s guitars. Eventually, Billy said the energy sector "doesn't show signs of slowing down just yet" and is "not a bad place to be."

OK.

Billy said 2019 marks 50 years of ZZTop. Mel called that a "tremendous landmark." Let's hope the 50th anniversary concert is more rehearsed than what Bob and Phil and Bill and Mickey put together for Fare Thee Well (still a great party though).

CNBC bitcoin reporter Seema Mody took a seat with the panel and mentioned companies that accept Cabbage Patch Kids for payment. Mel said, "I believe you can pay taxes in Japan in bitcoin" without a ton of certainty. Doc said, "Venmo and PayPal were where bitcoin is now 5 years ago." Hmmmm. PayPal was worth $18,000 a share 5 years ago?

Kevin O'Leary said he owns some bitcoin. Seema said the SEC has a cryptocurrency unit that is "dedicated purely" toward ICOs.

Mel predicted Seema would do the "same package next year."

O'Leary's first trade for 2018 was a Russell 2000 subset. Doc said FDC and called Stevie Cohen "a friend of mine." Jim Lebenthal said to buy ROKU. "The growth is there," Jim said.

Desperate for participants during a year-end holiday week, Mel actually summoned Gina Sanchez for Friday's 5 p.m. Fast Money. (And when was the last time you heard about the forecasts of Nouriel Roubini?)

Coming up this weekend ... a matter of hours ... our 2017 Halftime Report/Fast Money Year in Review.

[Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017]

Cathie Wood says fundamental case for bitcoin is that it’s about ‘rules-based monetary policy’

Missy Lee, guest hosting Thursday's Halftime Report, asked guest panelist Cathie Wood about the ... Cabbage Patch Kids.

Wood said she bought GBTC when bitcoin was "below $250." (That's a great idea for anyone who can go back in time.)

Mel pointed out Andrew Left's argument that GBTC's premium to bitcoin's price is outsized and that Xapo, or whatever it is, has "the bunker storage in the Swiss Alps" (snicker) but "can't get insurance" for the bitcoins in its custody.

Wood said she believes the premium in GBTC will disappear when the "friction" of bitcoin transactions is eliminated.

"This is so much bigger of an idea than even Apple, which is a pretty big idea," Wood actually insisted.

Jon Najarian and Kevin O'Leary mentioned "the Winklevoss guys" (snicker).

Joe Terranova, on fire this month and once again knocking one out of the park, asked Wood what bitcoin has "fundamentally" going for it. Wood's answer was that she got Arthur Laffer, "my mentor," to collaborate on a paper about bitcoin. "He said, 'Wow, finally, it's a rule. They're bringing rules-based monetary policy back.'"

Doc said bitcoin has a "plus" over bitcoin cash, because the latter has a "big problem" in that there's only "2 guys in charge; one of 'em is an anarchist, maybe both of 'em."

Desperate to spend as many minutes as possible on this subject (as always), Mel later brought in Don Steinbrugge, who said there are "about 150 hedge funds" focused on cryptocurrency.

Steinbrugge twice answered Mel's questions by stating it's "all of the above."

Doc questioned how South Korea cracks down on something as decentralized as bitcoin. Steinbrugge said all these "currencies" are being driven by "supply and demand."

We're not really sure why Steinbrugge was on the program.

Cathie Wood says Tesla buyers will be able to resell their cars to fleet operators for $100,000

Cathie Wood on Thursday's Halftime wasn't just giddy about Cabbage Patch Kids, but TSLA.

Wood actually called TSLA "an autonomous taxi network company" and trumpeted a timeline of "5 to 10 years."

Kevin O'Leary, who had an excellent show including with the guitar, correctly asked, "What happens if it's just a car company trading at a crazy multiple."

It was actually Pete Najarian who responded, "It's not. It's not. It's a software company, right."

O'Leary said he bought his wife a Tesla. Cathie Wood told O'Leary he'll be "delighted" he bought that car because "some fleet operator is gonna come to you once these networks launch and offer you a hundred thousand dollars for it."

O'Leary, not particularly impressed, wondered of the automakers, "Why aren't they all just utilities." That's when Mel of all people jumped in and stressed the miles and how Tesla has a "jump start" on miles data.

Sarat Sethi insisted he thinks GM will be one of the winners in the auto space.

WYNN is going to make a lot of money from not having a building next to it undergoing construction

Pete Najarian early on Thursday's Halftime said Steve Wynn "led the way" in buying his own stock, though he's not sure how much growth is left in that name.

Later, guest host Mel brought in Robin Farley on the phone to talk about Farley's great call of WYNN.

Farley said she sees Macau catalysts for WYNN in 2018.

Joe Terranova retraced WYNN's chart and questioned if it can revisit its 249 high of March 2014. Farley chuckled that her target is only 174 but one catalyst is actually MGM opening in Macau in January, from foot traffic and "from just not having construction on that side of the building."

Mel flagged Farley's 174 target with the stock at 169. "It doesn't sound like you're very confident," Mel said.

Farley stammered that "all of these names are fairly volatile ... so that's where we are now."

Farley said she also likes the cruise lines, CCL and RCL.

Grandpa Kevin O'Leary wondered about Wynn's debt and whether "we don't care about that anymore." Farley said its "major project" is open in Macau and will increase cash flows.

Why is this January going to be like 2016? Why not 2017? 2012? 2005? 1979?

Joe Terranova on Thursday's Halftime said what many have said the last couple weeks: "A lot of people are talking about the potential for January 2016."

We'll take the other side of that one. It's not going to be like January 2016. #thankuslater

Joe revealed, "I sold out of my, uh, CRM and my Adobe just the other day," though he's holding MSFT and SAP.

Pete Najarian said he doesn't know if MU is a buy on Thursday but it's still a very "compelling" stock.

Sarat Sethi said that in big tech he prefers ORCL, which hasn't had a huge run.

Cathie Wood said the winners "are on to something" and trumpeted the "S curve."

Kevin O'Leary said he's been "mining" MTN and IDCC. He made MTN his final trade.

Jon Najarian thinks financials will just "gear up" in 2018.

O’Leary out of GE (and if oil is going up, shouldn’t they start releasing from the SPR?)

Riding the energy wave, Joe Terranova on Thursday's Halftime said he's long FANG (the stock, not tech collection) and will hang on. He also touted shale plays CXO, EOG and PXD.

Pete Najarian said RRC is still "virtually sitting on the lows of the year."

Jon Najarian said JBHT had a "horrible announcement."

Kevin O'Leary said "nobody cares" that NTDOY is pushing out revenue forward.

Sarat Sethi said he likes SYF.

Doc said February 42 calls in EWZ were bought by a "smart buyer" (not sure how he knows the buyer is smart).

Pete said 10,000 February 20 calls in FCX were getting bought.

Anthony Grisanti told Seema Mody that cold weather can lift nat gas. Jim Iuorio said 2.5 is "significant support" and he sees it heading to 3.2. Seema promised David Stockman (snicker) (although he probably agrees with us on going into debt for corporate tax cuts) on Futures Now.

Joe said 2018 "sets up nicely" for LB. Doc also endorsed the name for tax benefits and prospect of "cannabinoids" (or whatever) in lotions.

Sarat Sethi likes Hudson's Bay (we think that trades in Toronto). Pete likes BBY.

Kevin O'Leary said he finally unloaded all of his GE, "a $13 stock trading at 17."

Pete Najarian's final trade was MSFT. Doc said LLY. Sarat Sethi said BAC. Joe hung a 70 on DNKN.

Mel and Kayla Tausche said they look forward to going to work every day.

[Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017]

If oil is going up, shouldn’t they be 1) investigating all the oil traders and stocking up on the SPR and 2) reversing the tailwind the economy supposedly got last year from plunging gas prices?

Guest host Sully, best known on CNBC for claiming a year or so ago about every 5 minutes that consumers were spending their gasoline price discounts on convenience-store cigarettes, oversaw on Wednesday's Halftime a decent conversation on energy names that frankly could've been a bit more comprehensive.

Pete Najarian has seen "so much paper" in the options space in energy, and "this time," it looks different.

Jon Najarian said they're still buyin' upside calls in XLE.

Jim Lebenthal said as a value investor, he's managed to stay away from RIG though it says "buy me," probably the first time since Dan Dicker's been on the program (we're talking years, not months) that someone suggested RIG is saying "buy me."

Jim told Sully that he doesn't think Sully's view that rig count is hampered by a lack of Williston workers is correct. Jim said it's about wells that were drilled but not completed, and that the move to drill could be good for RIG.

Sully cautioned that RIG operates in "super deep" and "super expensive" projects and that for companies to invest in those projects, you've gotta be "doggone sure" that crude will hold up.

We heard about 2 or 3 times — on the heels of Tuesday's and Friday's shows in which we heard it at least a couple other times — that XOM and CVX constitute 40% of the XLE.

The star guest, Doug Terreson, dialed in to explain what he meant by his "transcendental change" report on what higher oil prices mean, basically that Big Oil policies are good for CEO pay but not shareholder returns.

Terreson stated that energy companies employ strategies of "CEO pay incentives" that emphasize production growth but don't coincide with shareholder return. Nevertheless, he lists the biggies, RDSa, BP, CVX, COP, PSX as buys because they're "pledgers" of returning value to shareholders.

Terreson said XOM isn't on the list because it's not a "pledger."

Jim questioned if the RDSa dividend is sustainable. "You should stop worrying about it," Terreson assured, acknowledging a high payout ratio when crude was 55.

Doc asked if someone might take a "nibble" at ANDV. Terreson said we're not going to have "the golden age of refining," but he got more positive a couple months ago, with a note titled "it's not your father's golden age (sic dreadful cliche), but we'll take it."

CNBC superfox Seema Mody explained WTI's dance with 60.

Doc: Look at COF

Wilf Frost, whose niche at Englewood Cliffs has been deemed banking (as opposed to, say, "Frost/Nixon"), reported on bulge bracket prospects for 2018 during Wednesday's Halftime Report.

"I'd say this is a really big, big year for Goldman Sachs," Frost said.

Jim Lebenthal contended, "Volatility will pick up." And he predicted a new wave of M&A (has anyone on CNBC ... ever ... not predicted in December that there will be more M&A in the new year?).

Wilf actually mentioned something Sully doesn't know (that even we did) (snicker) (actually the first couple times we heard it, we didn't know what they meant either): "CCAR." Sully said, "What is CCAR, I'm sorry, I should probably know this." Sully realized it's "the more official name" of the stress test. Sully then diverted the conversation to English Premier League. Pete Najarian insisted on talking about a top pick among the banks; Wilf said, based on regulatory easing, GS.

Jon Najarian floated the idea of COF, an interesting call, stating he likes it because it hasn't had the ride of JPM. Wilf at one point said "rate rike" (sic). Sully, to his credit, pounced on that one.

Big-government conservatives running the country (cont’d)

Jumping on the caution bandwagon (but not quite as cautious as Howard Marks, who questions the notion of sell point), Jim Lebenthal on Wednesday's Halftime said next year won't be as good as 2017 because "really the only good news" he sees on the horizon is a "maybe an infrastructure spending bill," though he'd prefer that to be "back-end-loaded."

And why shouldn't the country spend some more money it can't afford when we've got a Goldilocks economy?

Even better, why not just do stimulus programs ... forever? All the time? No matter what GDP or unemployment levels are?

Pete Najarian said a lot of tax reform may not yet be priced in. Jon Najarian brought up Josh Brown's caution from a week ago about the first week of January being as bad as 2016. Doc said VIX futures aren't pricing in a 16 until September.

Doc said holders of April 135 MAR calls were exchanging those for the 140s. Joe's been calling this one for a while; Judge tried to ride our coattails last week in pointing out Joe's on fire, which this page had noted a week prior.

Pete said February 230 calls in STZ were getting scooped up. He said he'll buy the stock and sell calls against it.

Doc said there'll be a "better price in 2018" for TSLA.

Pete said it'll take "a lot of time" for GE's turnaround.

Jim Lebenthal agrees with the CELG downgrade.

Doc said the sell call on ELY is just taking money off the table.

Pete advised against jumping in to MAT.

Jim said SHPG is a "good company to hold" amid prospects of M&A.

Bob Iaccino told Seema Mody that copper has more room to run given "supply disruptions." Anthony Grisanti said the market's a bit "toppy" and he agrees with Iaccino on a short-term pullback, maybe to 3.15, "but definitely should be bought."

Jim suggested DKS amid the 2017 retail "bomb." Pete suggested TGT. Doc said WBA and said to buy it on the dip when AMZN gets in the space.

Pete's final trade was GM. Jon Najarian said BABA. (Sully said they should talk about ORLY too so they can do "BABA O'Reilly.") Jim said RDSa.

[Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017]

Unbelievable — an entire episode without a Cabbage Patch Kids conversation

Guest host Sully helmed a low-key, modest Halftime Report on Tuesday in which the most provocative comment came from Joe Terranova on the subject of consumer electronics.

Joe said, "I have the iPhone X, and utilizing the iPhone X ... I don't need to see a text message in the form of an animal, uh that's not so exciting to me."

But Joe said, "it's faster, it's quicker" and endorsed cloud names MSFT, SAP and RHT.

Kari Firestone said AAPL is up 47% this year, so she can see some selling.

Kari added, "Amazon has offered convenience at a very low price." Has she compared prices of various items at a Walmart store with Amazon (including either A) the shipping costs or B) the amortized Prime subscription)?

Barbara Doran endorsed WMT as "one of the best ones" to fight Amazon. Joe said he's long the name and predicts "well above 100."

Jim Lebenthal said Sears is the "big gorilla" and that its bonds are trading at 29-30% and "eventually Sears is gonna have to liquidate its inventory," which will be a headwind for retailers.

Sounds like nobody believes the first week of January will actually be up

Joe Terranova on Tuesday's Halftime said many money managers were underweight energy and had gotten "burned" by crude; he sees opportunity in energy equities.

Joe said the XLE has been a "fantastic" play. Later in the show, he was asked to retrumpet the XLE, and he also touted Jeffrey Gundlach's commodities call.

Jim Lebenthal said "the rig count really isn't going up that much."

Barbara Doran said the market is "earnings-driven" and will continue to be so.

Kari Firestone said the FIFO provision might've prompted people to sell this year.

Mike Farr said the path of least resistance for stocks is up.

Guest host Sully told Jim, "If you read one newspaper, your taxes are going up. If you read the other newspaper, your taxes are going down. You know what I'm talking about."

Jim said he expects January to be "down modestly" and a great buying opportunity. Joe referenced January 2016.

Sully finds differing views on tax overhaul from different newspapers

Offering a Top 10 for 2018, Mike Farr on Tuesday's Halftime trumpeted BMY, FDX, MSFT and SBUX and said you can hear about all of them on his "Farr-cast." Guest host Sully for some reason said it should be called "Farr-ther."

Kari Firestone said she likes AAPL, FB, GOOGL, CRM, CHTR, TJX, BMY, ZTS, HQY.

Barbara Doran touted AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, NVDA, FB (Zzzzzzzzzzzzz). Sully suggested that could be a "Yogi Berra Market" about nobody going there anymore because it's too crowded. Doran was unfazed. She added HD, FDX, V, MA, DAL, SBUX.

Pete Najarian, via satellite, said April 135 PEP calls were getting bought. Pete also hung a 20 on FCX.

Jim Lebenthal said to "be a little bit suspicious" about the MNK purchase, noting how big the goodwill is relative to the market cap.

Mike Farr said he likes ACN.

Barbara Doran said this is the right time for HD and its a best-in-class retailer.

Kari Firestone said PYPL is the "preferred payment platform for millennials," and she thinks stock gains can continue. (This writer is long PYPL.)

Scott Nations said oil's in a trend channel and he'd expect it to fall back a bit. Jim Iuorio thinks it can get to 61 before turning around.

Joe Terranova issued a late reminder for financials, suggesting GS if there's a little rise in volatility. Joe said to prepay real estate taxes in New York and New Jersey.

Jim Lebenthal touted MET late and made NKE his final trade.

Barbara Doran, apparently of Penn State, made CRM her final trade.

[Friday, Dec. 22, 2017]

If Judge offered $100,000 in bitcoin or $100,000 in GE — and the recipient had to hold it at least 1 year — which would Brian Kelly and Karen Finerman take?

On Friday's Halftime Report, Josh Brown offered an unconventional definition of the role of a financial advisor.

"The whole job is expectations management," Brown said, calling 2017 an "amazing year."

Brown suggested commodities could be the "sleeper" of 2018 and pointed to the XLE.

Taking a break from filming commercials to sit in with the gang, JJ Kinahan said anyone who thinks 2017 is the "norm" is "fooling themselves."

"I'm actually a little nervous for the first 6 months of the year," JJ said, because he thinks people "anxious to sell" are pushing capital gains into 2018.

Josh Brown reiterated his point about the "somewhat traumatic" awful start to 2016. (See, that's fine, but you know what, when everybody knows about something that happened in the stock market, it's basically not going to happen again; in this case, it would be everyone realizing "hey the rest of the year is still going to be great, so I'm buying on the slightest dip.")

Jon Najarian pointed to "November home sales, best in a decade."

Mel, in chic green jacket, spent the first 15 minutes of Friday's 5 p.m. Fast Money on Cabbage Patch Kids. Steve Grasso actually said you have to trade it "like a stock."

Judge should summon Howard Marks, see what Howard thinks of Jim’s latest commentary

Jim Lebenthal on Friday's Halftime Report declared, "Asset allocations are out of whack, right, in a good way."

Well, OK, whatever. But what really caught our ear is when Jim said, "I've got stocks that right now are above their sell targets. ... As soon as they start to roll over in the new year, I'm out."

Uh-oh.

"Sell targets."

See, over the summer, Judge invited Howard Marks to join the panel, and Marks did, Aug. 10, and Marks complained about those who grumbled about his call for caution (for lack of a better word).

"One guy said, 'The market is expensive, but I'm holding, until there are a couple bad days.' I haven't figured out what that means yet," Marks said. "And he also said, 'I have some- I have stocks that have exceeded my sell point, but I'm not selling.' And I haven't figured out what that means. What is it. What is a 'sell point.'"

Basically, we have good reason to think Jim was the panelist Howard was referring to, and that Jim had said either "sell target" or "sell point" (Howard might not have remembered the term correctly, but it sounds like the same thing.) (We actually didn't write about the "sell point" comment the day of that show because it didn't occur to us that it was worth writing about.)

We've never figured out why Howard was so perplexed. Sounds to us like a "sell point" means that Jim intended to sell the stock at a certain price (um, basically any limit order that ever existed) but let the stock ride for whatever reason, perhaps because of momentum or the duration of time it took to reach the "sell point."

But, gotta admit, Howard's got a lot more money than we've got (but he likely can't carry our jock when it comes to "Road House"), so we're probably missing something.

Anyway, on Friday, Jim said, "If you're 50% cash, you are taking career risk, and frankly, that's dumb, OK. That's- You're trying to be a hero."

Oh joy, let’s load up on stock on not 1 but 2 sneaker companies (talk about asset allocation out of whack)

Pete Najarian on Friday's Halftime said the NKE selloff was an "absolutely ridiculous reaction" and predicted "much more upside" in the name.

Judge asked Jon Najarian, who sparred with Pete over NKE earlier in the week and took the bear side, how he could be buying NKE Friday when it was just a dollar below his negative call of earlier in the week. Doc pointed out that he was buying it under 60.50 on Friday morning when it opened much lower.

The only person seemingly not impressed was Jim Lebenthal. "The margins were not good, and the guidance was 'meh,'" Jim said, questioning why not buy adidas, which he said is cheaper with better growth.

Pete actually said, "Why not both?"

No mention of the really important Nomura bear call on NVDA with a $90 target early in the year

Judge on Friday's Halftime brought in Hans Mosesmann to talk about Mosesmann's NVDA initiation in February.

"The No. 1 issue is that we're in a transitional period," Mosesmann said, pointing to the transition to AI over 10 years. (Seems hard to believe some of that transition is not priced in, but whatever.)

Judge asked how much runway is left. Mosesmann said it's the best name in semis for 10 years and he's got a 250 target, so there's "substantial upside." Josh Brown and Mosesmann agreed NVDA's really far ahead of competitors in a lot of ways.

$175K is middle class

Josh Brown on Friday's Halftime took up SHAK, which makes decent-but-not-spectacular burgers and fries for astronomical prices, and stated it has "absolutely exploded" in the last 3 weeks.

Brown said there are a hundred locations in the U.S. "that even the bearish analysts concede could be 400 stores within a reasonable amount of time," a good argument actually, because store openings tend to drive a lot of these stocks.

Jon Najarian said EBAY 39 calls were popular. He said he loves the stock. Pete Najarian said NUE January 70 calls were popular.

Jim Lebenthal said he "seriously" has a "sell target" thinks the CTAS selloff is just profit-taking. He said it will bounce back.

Josh Brown said the PZZA chart "looks like a mess" and that he doubts the lows are in.

Doc offered "kudos" to Joe Terranova for touting PXD this week. (We already flagged that here; Joe's on fire.) Doc said if it breaks out, "there's nothing stoppin' it" to get to 200.

JJ Kinahan said gold has momentum.

Pete said he loves CELG, but it seems management needs a "shake-up."

Judge said the FIFO rule was "universally panned." JJ offered Judge "kudos" because he "led the way" against the rule.

Jim's final trade was AAPL, knocking the slowdown lawsuit. He predicted another 20% in 2018. Josh Brown said GOOGL and made a long speech. Doc said Chinese social media name Momo. JJ said the VIX.

JJ Kinahan gets pestered about bitcoin by cab driver

On Friday's Halftime Report, CNBC superfox Seema Mody reported the problems with Coinbase and Mike Novogratz's latest news.

Josh Brown contended, "Competing coins are not good for higher prices in the asset class."

Jon Najarian said there are "6 different, uh, ETFs launching at the CBOE" for bitcoin. Good thing they've got 6; how would we possibly make do with only 5?

Honestly, nobody has even explained how this contraption has anything to do with business or the stock market. "Oh, the blockchain is soooo great and soooo cool and sooooo permanent," the backers say, but they've never explained how bitcoin is any different than a Cabbage Patch Kid.

JJ Kinahan, sitting in with the panel, said the "average person" doesn't understand the OTC risk; "I knew that this was gonna be an issue a week ago when I got into a cab and that's all my cab driver wanted to talk about." The question is, does his barber want to talk about it even more.

Judge wished Pete Najarian (via satellite) a happy birthday, which of course was flagged on this site all week.

It's a "Whoop! ... Whoop!" day at the NYSE.

More from Friday's Halftime later.

[Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017]

Joe on fire

On Thursday's Halftime Report, Joe Terranova noted that FANG (the energy stock, not the tech group) has "surged" since Monday.

On Tuesday's show, in fact, Joe (picture above not from Thursday or Tuesday) trumpeted PXD, FANG, EOG and CXO, which have all enjoyed a spectacular week.

The only quibbling about Joe's call is that he said they should come out big in January, when in fact it looks like the rally is well under way.

Doc says $175K is middle-class income; Judge takes him on but fails to demand names

Jon Najarian on Thursday's Halftime rehashed a point he made a day earlier, affirming he thinks people have "been lied to" about the tax cut. ("Lying" in this sense referring to sounding worse than it actually is.)

Presumably that means the liars are the media of some kind, because it's not likely the people in charge, because they're the ones who put together the tax cut.

Moments later, Judge asked Doc if the "biggest part" of the tax overhaul was geared to corporates or people. "Because it was geared towards corporates," Judge asserted, answering the question for Doc.

So, "I don't know what the 'lying to you' nonsensical comment was," Judge said.

Doc (image above not from Thursday) responded, "The lying to you part is that they say, 'The middle class is gonna suffer with this,' that they don't have anything in this. That's a lie. There's a lot for the middle class. We've sat down with a whole bunch of regular middle-class customers. Not the guys that are making 300-plus Judge. The folks that are making 125, 175, in that general vicinity, which I will call middle class."

Hmmmm. $175,000 is middle class. Probably in San Francisco. Probably not so much in Beckley.

Furthermore, A) we still don't know who "they" are, and B) we don't recall any articles from the mainstream media stating the middle class will "suffer" this legislation. Rather, the stuff we've seen is typical of this analysis by the Associated Press that says, "Average people are not the prime beneficiaries of the tax cuts. Aside from businesses, rich people get the most." But, "The tax cuts are not nearly as lopsided as many Democrats are portraying them. Almost all of the middle class would initially pay less in taxes. For the next eight years, the vast majority of middle-class taxpayers — those earning between $49,000 and $86,000 — will receive a tax cut."

So if Doc thinks Chuck Schumer is the only one being heard by "half the country" on this subject, it sounds like the Republican communications office (that's Scaramucci's old department) needs an overhaul.

But Judge noted, "The president himself sitting around the table yesterday with his Cabinet said that the corporate tax cut was really the focus."

"Absolutely it was!" Doc said, not pointing out that Judge was failing to bolster his own point.

Kari Firestone said, "The point I think Jon's making," and we went "uh-oh, remember when Stephanie Link tried that months ago," but Firestone said if there's a corporate tax cut, there's a "trickle effect" for consumers.

Doc didn't protest.

Mike Santoli backed Judge's contention that the corporate cut is "the centerpiece." Santoli suggested "rational recklessness" on the part of corporations, but honestly, we didn't really follow his point.

Kevin O'Leary insisted that companies with 100% of their revenue domestically will benefit most from the tax overhaul.

It’s like ‘The Price is Right’: Top Tony’s number, get called up to the stage by Judge

Judge opened Thursday's Halftime stating guest Tony Dwyer is the "top dog" for setting a 3,100 S&P target for 2018.

Tony said "that's marketing b.s." and that it's about the "methodology" of getting there. (Then why put out a number.)

Dwyer predicted a "choppy period" in 2018 before the market rips.

Dwyer actually claimed the "genius" of the tax overhaul is that AT&T is putting real money in people's pockets "that makes a difference," and "it's not like an accounting gimmick." Why not double the tax cut and tack on $3 trillion to the debt?

Jon Najarian said the "only risk" to Tony's number is that "he's still too low."

Joe Terranova said the "problem" he has is "everyone" is talking about reducing exposure to technology.

Happy birthday, Pete

Tony Dwyer on Thursday's Halftime said his 2018 bull call is like 1996, "increased equities with increased volatility," and predicted "nastier corrections going forward" because "the Fed policy is more unclear." (And boy, isn't everybody so sure that volatility is going to surge.)

Tony stressed that "credit is on fire."

A couple times, Tony said his opinion is "not relevant" and even cited Portuguese debt in 2011. (Zzzzzzzzzz)

Joe Terranova contended that "you need to be more selective going into '18 than you needed to be going into '17."

Judge said the Call of the Day was Citi raising CAT to 160 (snicker). Joe said he thinks that's "the right call." Jon Najarian said there could be a headwind from a rising dollar, though "I'm not anticipating that."

Kevin O'Leary said he likes the CAT call for a couple of reasons, one of them being that it's a call "on the infrastructure bill" (groan) of 2018 (#biggovernmentconservatives). O'Leary also noted CAT was not too long ago a popular short.

Jon Najarian said FDC January calls were hopping. Doc said DISCK made "a lovely pop" after he touted it.

Pete Najarian said there was "huge call buying" in XLE, the January 71.50s. Joe said he's in those and noted FANG has "surged" since Monday.

Joe suggested AGU or DAR instead of CAG.

Doc said FINL offered "significant upside guidance."

Kari Firestone said she first thought the report about WMT seeking higher-end customers was a "typo." But she thinks the stock is a "reasonably good idea."

Pete said the KMX is "creating an opportunity."

Kevin O'Leary said MAT is a sell, "avoid with extreme prejudice." He doesn't think HAS will buy it.

Judge brought in Josh Sullivan of Seaport Capital to take a deserved victory lap on initiating BA as a buy one year ago. Judge asked, "How much runway is left." Sullivan said you could still argue it's undervalued and added that it sets up for a good 2018.

Kevin O'Leary said he remembers the BA call and that Sullivan "got me into this stock," in part because of BA's growing services revenue.

Scott Nations said Futures Now has been "all over" copper. Anthony Grisanti said demand looks like it goes "straight up," and he sees copper going "much higher."

Joe said DNKN is breaking out. Doc's final trade was ADSK. Kari said CME. Tony said buying "any dip" on tax legislation, and he's going to "overweight my consumption of food at the Canaccord holiday party tonight."

Someone in the Halftime/Fast Money sphere is celebrating a birthday Friday. If you're wondering about age, it has something to do with the photo above (which is not a photo of the birthday individual).

[Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017]

And we thought, based on CNBC reporting, the only thing in the bill was the FIFO provision

With Wednesday's Halftime partly preempted by remarks from Donald Trump about tax legislation (which meant Judge hardly took a commercial break #lostrevenue), Judge entertained a lot of the usual comments we've heard for days/weeks. But things got interesting when Jon Najarian seemed to blame the media (that would include CNBC) for public perception of the tax legislation.

"They've been fed crap about what this really- in this bill. When they feel it, for real, they will not- half the country will not hate it," Doc said, telling Josh Brown, "I'll put that one on the board with you too."

Well, couple thoughts about that ... first of all, "half the country" is always going to hate legislation passed strictly by one party. (That's why we're still talking about Obamacare during Wednesday's show.)

Second, what does it say when the people authoring this legislation wouldn't even come on Judge's show to discuss it, a fact Judge has noted multiple times.

Third, Doc never mentioned the real problem with this legislation — it's on borrowed money. What if they spent as much time reducing government as they spent hashing out this bill. Wouldn't that be the best possible outcome for taxpayers. Oh yeah, the "big-government conservatives" (sic) (snicker) are only interested in picking up the rate of government expansion where George W. Bush left off.

Doc made a fine point, "If we put a carrot in front instead of a stick, as far as how they are treated in this country, perhaps not as many jobs go overseas as have gone overseas."

Possibly the most admirable political goal of Donald Trump indeed is that he wants jobs to stay in America. However, that goal has far more to do with the "border tax" (remember that?) than a deficit-ballooning tax cut that is mere candy for this economy.

Globalization is really a subject, addressed very impressively by Zachary Karabell among others, that runs much deeper than political soundbites. It may or may not be good, and it may or may not be stoppable.

Had Trump or other leading Republicans articulated an argument as to how this legislation will keep jobs in the United States, we might be inclined to agree with Doc's suggestion. But that hasn't happened.

We do agree with Doc that the previous administration's empty-suit approach to knocking big business was the wrong way to go. But that guy's biggest corporate backer is also really chummy with the current president (and has been out of a job at GE for about 6 months). #somuchfordraintheswamp

Is it even possible for Josh Brown to let another human being finish a sentence?

Judge on Wednesday's Halftime Report claimed the "most profound comments" on tax legislation are from Fred Smith.

Josh Brown said FDX has been going up all year and insisted "it has nothing to do with it."

Judge carped that Smith is raising his guidance based on tax legislation, "whether you wanna believe it or not."

"It's not about believing it," Brown sighed.

"Yeah, it is in some respects," Judge said.

Kari Firestone offered, "I would think Fred Smith would feel a little differently if the price of oil went up 35%."

Judge asked, "Is that realistic?"

Jon Najarian said "No." Josh Brown said, "It's a commodity; why isn't it realistic." Doc said, "Uh, because of the fracking."

"Excuse me, was it realistic for oil to drop from a hundred to 20, um, inside of 1 year," Brown said.

"Exactly the same reason. Because of fracking," Doc said.

"Was that a consensus call that oil could go down by 4/5 inside of a year?" Brown asked.

"Possibility is what you were arguing," Doc said.

Brown eventually told Judge, "For the 2nd year in a row, we are underweight large-cap U.S. stocks. We are overweight equities around the rest of the world."

"We're just the opposite," Rich Saperstein said.

Saperstein tried to explain differences between global multiples, but Brown kept cutting him off after each half-sentence. Eventually Judge told Brown, "Let him finish," but that still proved difficult for Brown.

Evidently Scott Wren hasn’t boosted his 2018 S&P target yet

In remarks aired during Wednesday's Halftime, President Donald Trump said he wants the legislation to be called "tax cuts" and not "reform" even though he says it is "reform."

Rich Saperstein said there's opportunity in small caps, but "the biggest concern that I have is, where is the bond market in all this?" He conceded he sees a higher stock market in 12 months.

Judge said Tobias Levkovich boosted his 2018 S&P target to 2,800 (snicker) from 2,675 (double snicker) and noted the "highest targets on the Street are about 3,000."

Kari Firestone chuckled that we've gotten "I think a little ahead of ourselves." Firestone contended this is "Phase 3" in which there's not a "level playing field" as to which businesses will keep their tax benefit.

That was kind of a clumsy way of saying it, but we think we know what Kari's driving at. We doubt if the overnight crew at Denny's will be getting raises, nor do we expect a Grand Slam to get notably cheaper.

Jim Lebenthal said he finds the debate about year-end 2018 S&P levels "slightly amusing." Jim said at some point in 2018, the market will be lower than what it closes on Dec. 31.

But he admitted that's not a really profound observation.

Judge asked Jim for "the one sector" that will outperform the others next year. Jim grimaced and said "serious" 4 times and touted value over growth, stating the magnitude of 2017's growth outperformance is "crazy." (And, like Pete Najarian saying options protection is cheap, this page is totally done with ever reporting again that Jim Lebenthal thinks value will outperform.)

Judge defined "you" as "the general person out there."

Everyone loves the banks, right along with Mike Mayo.

Doc said CBS at-the-money calls expiring Friday were getting bought. He said FCX February 19 calls were popular, as were THC May 20s.

Josh Brown touted REITs as an inflation hedge. Doc suggested infrastructure stocks for 2017. Kari Firestone said industrials. Rich Saperstein said banks as well as "smaller-sized defense companies."

Jim's final trade was QRVO. Josh Brown cautioned against a big selloff in early January like in 2016. Doc said TROX. Kari said TMO. Rich Saperstein said MAS.

Brown: ‘Gary Cohn is speaking out of both sides of his mouth’

Gary Cohn's comments about tax legislation being underappreciated was getting plenty of attention Wednesday, but Josh Brown on the Halftime Report was not having it.

Brown said, "Actually Gary Cohn is speaking out of both sides of his mouth," stating Cohn said 6 weeks ago "that the market is already expecting this tax reform" and suggested if it doesn't happen, "it could be a negative market event. Now, he's saying it's not priced in."

Much of the early part of the show was pre-empted by remarks from President Donald Trump. We'll have more about Wednesday's Halftime later, including Judge and Josh's dust-up over believing Fred Smith's comments.

[Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017]

Scott Wren was booked to talk about a low S&P target that Wren says will actually be higher

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime Report brought in Scott Wren to talk about Wren's 2,700 S&P call for 2018, but that quickly proved to be a bungle.

But Wren said the 2,700 was based on 50% expensing of business investment and a 23% corporate rate, and that given the greater "magnitude" of the tax legislation, "we'll be out with a new number here in the next few days probably."

Judge said Wren may be "hours away perhaps" from raising his S&P target (Wren eventually said "next couple of days") and proceeded to bemoan that next year is being talked up as a layup, "Everybody's saying it's a layup."

Wren said, "The market is never a layup ... I hope that not a lot of people think that."

Dubravko Lakos, who has a 3,000-but-watch-out-for-tech (snicker) call, said market positioning is why he's concerned about tech stocks in 2018. Lakos actually claimed value will outperform (snicker), relatively.

Lakos said "there's too many positive catalysts" for a big January pullback.

Jon Najarian questioned if tax overhaul is being priced in enough.

Ylan said Mitch McConnell expects a Senate tax vote by Tuesday evening.

It doesn’t sound as ‘credible’ as it sounds like having it both ways

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime claimed MoffettNathanson "raised some serious issues" about FB despite being positive and having a buy/205 price target, "which is why I think it's even more credible perhaps."

Jon Najarian said of FB, "I think there is a lot left."

"They haven't even monetized Oculus (snicker) or WhatsApp (borderline snicker)," said Stephanie Link, who calls the stock a "secular winner."

Kourtney Gibson was the most blunt of the bunch, stating, "There is absolutely no way I would ever sell this out of my portfolio right now."

Link called FB the "least-owned FANG name."

Regarding another tech giant, Pete Najarian claimed, "The phone is not the entire story any longer in Apple," even though it is.

Doc trumpeted paying $10 a month more for an Apple Watch data plan.

Oh joy, NKE

Tepidly endorsing the Citi upgrade, Pete Najarian on Tuesday's Halftime said this is "probably an opportunity" to buy DKS.

But Stephanie Link said 2018 earnings will be down 20%, and as for margins, "quite frankly, I think they go lower."

Joe Terranova said, "This is a trading call" and suggested some retail laggards tend to move in December for not very fundamental reasons.

Pete hailed that TGT is doing better than WMT recently and said 60% of WMT's revenue comes from grocery, the lowest-margin segment.

Judge said maybe KR has been bid up "because they think a deal is gonna happen somewhere." Stephanie Link gushed about COST.

Jon Najarian said he likes NKE, but because it's moved so much since the recent low, he thinks it trades back down. Pete said he's "not as nervous about the upside," singling out international growth.

Kourtney Gibson said she can't buy NKE short term. Stephanie Link said NKE is up 28% since the analyst day, after a "miserable quarter," and she thinks it's "a little ahead of itself."

Joe grumbled that Doc was a no-show for dinner the previous night, but Pete showed up. Perhaps Joe had a table at Rao's.

Joe expects burst in energy space in January

Kourtney Gibson on Tuesday's Halftime Report said downtown Chicago has no Olive Garden; she backed DRI. Judge later said someone tweeted that Gibson could get to Olive Garden in 15 minutes on the Blue Line.

Stephanie Link likes CMI over NAV.

Pete Najarian said he likes KORS and that the valuation is reasonable.

Jon Najarian said he likes F better than GM.

Joe Terranova said he likes PXD, FANG, EOG and CXO "to come out very strong" in January. Stephanie Link suggested APC and APA.

Doc said weekly 53.50 calls in AMAT that expire Friday (Pete's birthday, we telegraphed that in the previous day's report, see below) were getting bought. Pete said January 17 WEN calls were popular.

Stephanie Link said she added INTC to the TIAA-CREF portfolio; Judge kept cutting her off. Link said "the free cash flow is what got me excited." (This writer is long INTC.) Link said she unloaded GD.

Jim Iuorio said bitcoin below 18,000 in the CBOE contract chart "looks weak to me."

Joe's final trade was AKAM. Stephanie Link said PF. Doc said JD; he said he bought it during the show. Pete said MDLZ and Kourtney said DIS.

[Monday, Dec. 18, 2017]

Joe: Markets poised for
parabolic move

Hardly anything got accomplished on Monday's Halftime Report, but at least the panelists — with Jim Cramer and Mike Francesa — enjoyed a Laffalympics.

The most provocative point came from Joe Terranova, who said, "The markets right now, are the greatest potential to go parabolic. And I think that's the beginning of what's about to happen."

Joe touted financials and the Russell.

Joe told Francesa he laughs when people make analogies to 2007; "the leverage in 2007 is nowhere near the leverage in 2017."

Judge asked, if Nasdaq 7,000 isn't euphoria, then what would be.

Josh Brown offered, "Euphoria's happening in San Francisco, when Uber is worth $70 billion." (Then again, Steve Weiss said Nov. 1, "The best days in technology, I think, I think everybody here would think, are behind you. They're not in front of you.")

Judge told Francesa, "You're really into stocks."

Jim Cramer conveyed that he doesn't think earnings estimates are high enough given the tax overhaul.

Pete Najarian again mocked those who supposedly claimed tax overhaul is all "priced in."

Josh Brown stressed an interesting observation, "There is a shortage of stocks."

Pete advised Francesa that volatility is so low that options protection is very cheap; we're sick of writing that, and this will be the last time. "I don't do options," Francesa refreshingly said.

Pete Najarian revealed that "if I have an option that doubles, I take a half off." Apparently options go up or down based on Pete's cost basis and not because of demand to buy or sell the underlying stock.

Mike Francesa asked several questions about whether it's "too late" to "jump in" to the rally. That's just another way of asking, which stock(s) is going to go up now. Pete trumpeted opportunity in HD "2 quarters ago." Didn't know you could go back 6 months and buy stocks.

Joe asked Francesa, "Do you wanna be a long-term investor, or do you wanna be a trader." Francesa responded, "I just think you don't wanna get in at the top, that's what you're really afraid of."

Francesa asserted, "Cable is dead," probably not the greatest comment from a guest on a cable channel.

Joe said he bought TWTR because it went from being not a quant name to a quant name. Pete said, "There's at least 30% or more fake accounts on Twitter."

Francesa said he likes CRM and MTN as well as his core tech names of AAPL and AMZN and NVDA.

Judge takes 2 calls from viewers, only addresses 1

Judge on Monday's Halftime, in honor of the presence of Mike Francesa, promised to take a few calls that sounded like they were recorded a week ago. (What Twitter handles had to do with this feature, we have no clue.) Pete said he'd own just-out-of-the-money calls in MU. Judge couldn't get Cramer or anyone else to opine on VZ.

Mike Francesa called Roger Goodell a "pit bull" who's done a "terrible job," but worst of all, Francesa says "he is a humorless guy."

Joe Terranova's final trade was MAR. Josh Brown said TWTR. Pete Najarian said he plans on getting back in to FCX (though he just got out). Jim Cramer said AKAM. Mike Francesa predicted a "great next 6 months" for AAPL.

Pete said AEO May 20 calls were getting bought. (Yep, there was a chart with a tall yellow bar at the right end.)

Happy birthday, Guy Adami

We were hoping for a cake and candles on Monday's Fast Money.

For whatever reason, that didn't happen.

Anyway, Guy Adami marked another year Monday. We're hoping it's a year of prosperity and good health.

Another panelist marks a big day Friday; we'll bring that up later in the week.

[Friday, Dec. 15, 2017]

Is it possible to have
negative unemployment?

We got yet another newfound bull case for tax legislation on Friday's Halftime Report, this time from Jon Najarian.

"We do need it. Absolutely do need it," Doc insisted. "We needed this 8 years ago," Doc said, but the then-president "refused" to lower the corporate rate.

That's interesting, because in the last 8 years of chronicling these programs, we can hardly remember Doc at all talking about how disadvantaged the economy was because the corporate tax rate is 35% instead of 21%.

"It'll be great for people who need jobs," Doc added.

Hopefully that's the case … but isn't unemployment at a historic low?

Like Larry Kudlow and all the other advocates of these machinations, Doc ignores the cost of it all, which suddenly no longer matters to the "limited government" party.

This legislation is like giving yourself an extra $2,000 in salary this year in exchange for $5,000 additional debt on your credit card, under the theory that with your extra $2,000, you'll get a better job or more money from your existing job that will quickly pay off the $5,000.

Doc actually said that increasing the child tax credit for Marco Rubio was "really near and dear to his heart."

If it’s such a great idea, why not 10% corporate rate, 20% max individual rate?

JJ Kinahan on Friday's Halftime thanked Judge for "leading the way on your show" about the FIFO provision but cautioned that while it appears to be out, they're going to shake the couch cushions for every dollar they can find. (Late Friday afternoon, Ylan reported that FIFO indeed is out. Unclear what bit of revenue is replacing it; maybe the cash repatriation taxing being 15.5% rather than 15%.) (CNBC had little to add to the official GOP release and aired a regular edition of Cramer at 6 p.m. Eastern.)

Judge said of FIFO, "If it is out, the individual investor gets a W."

Ylan said "it's hard to deny" that the corporate tax cut "is much bigger" than anything the middle class is getting.

Josh Brown said he appreciates JJ's lobbying against FIFO and also Sen. Ron Johnson's concern about pass-throughs but said it makes him think this legislation is not "tax reform" as much as it's "corporate welfare."

Despite this supposedly awesome legislation that prompted Kevin O'Leary to declare, "I'm glad just to be alive for this" (seriously, he actually said that), O'Leary added that "This next year, uh, I'm not anticipating we're going to enjoy 18% upside in any markets you go to."

Really. No market will return 18% next year. Interesting.

Judge tried to get O'Leary to admit this tax legislation is good for big caps. O'Leary kept insisting small caps are the big winners.

Judge said corporate balance sheets have never been more flush, but capex has been minuscule, so maybe tax legislation will change that.

"This is the right time for capex," said Erin Browne.

Kate Moore has a "little nagging doubt in the back of my mind" that everyone will drop their focus on business "metrics."

Josh Brown cut her off to say there's no risk to raising the dividend but there's "a lot of risk" in planning massive upgrades to facilities, which we think was the point Moore was attempting to make.

Kevin O’Leary wants to cut spending but can’t name a single thing he’d cut

Friday's Halftime Report served as something of a tax-overhaul duel between Josh Brown and Kevin O'Leary. (Unless you count Jon Najarian, although he had a quiet show.)

Brown shrugged that tax legislation will bring a "massive fiscal stimulus, which we could've used 7 years ago," and it's "squarely aimed at probably the one area of the economy that needs it the least: corporate, uh, profits."

O'Leary ignored that and said the Russell 2000 will be the "mainor- (sic) major beneficiary."

Brown told O'Leary, "Small caps are not exactly cheap," and he predicted inflation. O'Leary called Brown "Debbie Downer" and asserted, "I don't see any downside here." (Then why not do a $5 trillion package and tack that onto the debt?)

Judge told O'Leary that some on Wall Street are questioning whether tax legislation will create the growth its backers predict. O'Leary, like Larry Kudlow a day ago (see below), didn't answer the question and scoffed, "OK, let's go the other way. Let's increase taxes … Why don't we tax ourselves at 66% and give all the money to the government?"

Brown told O'Leary, "We are going to be adding north of $1.4 trillion to the deficit. And if you don't care, that's fine too. Um, but it seems to me that the biggest proponents of doing this tax reform right this minute right now um just 2 or 3 years ago were looking to hold the government for ransom unless we cut the deficit."

"How about we cut spending," O'Leary suggested.

"That's fine with me, but where," Brown said.

Once again, Kevin had no answer. "Go through every single program- " O'Leary said.

After this tax business is done, what’s the president going to do with his spare time?

Unlike Kevin O'Leary, Kate Moore on Friday's Halftime Report was more positive on big caps than small caps.

Judge said nobody's talking about what Lee Cooperman sees as the tax legislation's risk to inflation and that the Fed could be "forced to be more engaged than it wants to be" (snicker). O'Leary said "most people" fear wage inflation, "and I don't fear wage inflation."

Erin Browne said, in a very provocative point that went unnoticed by everyone else, "I don't think that you're gonna see massive wage inflation on the back of this because there's nothing that's forcing the companies to spend it and deploy it back to the consumers." (But other than that, it's really important for this to happen.)

See, going back to Larry Kudlow's non-answer to Joe's question of a day ago, this tax legislation is like when you've got a fine car but go out and buy a Lexus SUV for $40,000, under the theory that the Lexus makers will give you a higher-paying job to pay it off.

Judge cut to clips of Kevin Brady taking questions and insisting middle-class Americans will benefit from this legislation.

Josh Brown said VMC might be an interesting play "for what's coming next," in other words, if there's an infrastructure bill.

Judge hasn’t asked Ackman for thoughts on tax legislation

Judge on Friday's Halftime reported Dubravko Lakos' 2018 outlook, "the most interesting part" being the underweight (snicker) technology call.

As to whether UA's 10.55 was the bottom (it's a confusing stock situation; the other ticker is UAA and trades only a couple dollars higher), Jon Najarian said, "I hope so," but "I haven't seen the turn."

Josh Brown called UA "one of the most hated stocks in one of the most hated categories … nobody wants to own this thing." But Brown shrugged off the ludicrous P.E., insisting "it's the past" (even though it's the forward P.E.).

Doc said March 22.50 calls in DISCK were popular. Doc said AAL 50.50 calls were getting bought. (Zzzzzzzzz.) (How come Doc didn't say the options market predicted MU's 20% drop.)

Doc said it's a "great day to be a Costco shareholder."

Josh Brown said ORCL's results suggest being in the cloud doesn't mean someone's winning. He said he wouldn't be "afraid" of being in the stock.

Judge seemed to question the notion of "Value Factor" investing even though Kate Moore endorsed it. "If you say so," Judge said.

Kevin O'Leary endorsed PFE; "I'm eating pills like candy." Judge said "A little TMI there" and waited for O'Leary to respond, but O'Leary didn't. "He doesn't even get it," Judge chuckled as the dead air continued.

Judge promised Mike ("Albemarle at 125") Francesa on Monday's show. (This writer is long ALB.) Judge promised to take live calls.

Doc's final trade was JBLU. Erin Browne said EEM. Kate Moore said financials and didn't answer Judge's question about whether EM will best the S&P 500 next year. Judge asked, "Are the banks too obvious? … Now everybody's on the bandwagon." Of course, nobody seemed to think so.

Is FIFO really out?

While we were taking stock of Friday's Halftime Report, it was crystal clear that much of today's tax-legislation excitement would be happening during or shortly after the 5 p.m. Fast Money.

Who knows, maybe CNBC will even do a special edition during the Cramer and 7 p.m. hour. (Those are always cool.)

In any case, we're going to hold off on the Halftime review until Friday evening, when a lot of tax-overhaul issues are likely to come into focus.

[Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017]

Larry unable to answer Joe’s outstanding question (a/k/a
the GOP seems like the
Big-Government Party)

Sully got the guest-hosting gig, but Joe owned the day.

In one of the best moments of the Halftime Report in months, Joe Terranova on Thursday — after someone somehow managed to get Larry Kudlow to stop talking for 2 seconds — asked Larry a tremendous question:

"Why do we need this tax bill right now?"

(Note: Joe said others are asking it, not necessarily himself, so we'll deduct a point for watering down excellence.)

Here's the answer, or the process of delivering an answer: Larry called it a "good question" and first said "there's a difference between supply side and demand side" (whatever, doesn't answer the question, if that's the best you've got …) and then said "this whole bill … is about the business side" (OK, but then why have FIFO and SALT been a part of it?) and then said "the corporate tax rate is the single-most powerful growth propeller in any policy" (Hmmmmm, first we've heard that one, and we've seen a LOT of CNBC, and by the way, Joe's question still hasn't been answered) and then said "second is business-expensing immediately" (still didn't answer Joe's question) and then said "third, this is unusual for America, is the repatriation" (still not answering Joe's question) and finally, "we're gonna see a big wage increase" (Hmmmm, wonder if that will pan out).

Sadly, because Larry (and we do like Larry here, always have) was allowed to monopolize the time, Joe, who stood tall in this moment, didn't get a chance to follow up.

Of course, the question for Larry's response is, if the corporate tax rate is really the most important growth factor in our economy, 1) why weren't Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan dealing with this Jan. 20, and 2) why weren't Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan talking about this (instead of health care) for the last 8 years.

The truth is that this is just another big-government program.

It's no different than Obamacare.

It's a non-solution in search of a problem being cooked up because the majority in Congress wants something to do.

It's being pushed by a fellow who no longer gets official CEO advice (unless you count Gary Cohn) because of what he said … about Confederacy protests.

It's about to pass with basically zero bipartisan support (and good Republican leaders get at least a few Democrats to do the right thing) after taking enough money here and there from hard-working Joes and Janes to better support Cisco's buyback without blowing the deficit beyond the amount that it takes different rules to pass it.

Basically — and this is very disappointing — Larry (and all the people touting this travesty including the guy in the Oval Office) sounds no different than George W. Bush, who was more than happy to tack on some new venture to the nation's grotesque credit card balance.

They tried to call him a "big-government conservative."

OK.

"Big." "Government." "Conservative."

Yeah. Right.

Jim’s unhappy with return on N.Y. taxes; Sully’s unhappy that people call AMZN an ‘online retailer’

The purported reason for Larry Kudlow's appearance on Thursday's Halftime was that Larry has learned (he said he reported Wednesday night to the "producers group") that FIFO is out, then he rattled off his sources without naming names.

So what alternative will offset the omission of this feature from the great tax overhaul that is going to give us a "big wage increase"?

No word on that. (Also no word on who introduced FIFO in the first place.)

Larry said he and Steve Moore "went on the warpath" to get FIFO out.

Larry said relieving capital gains of this provision "helps re-oxygenate the economy."

Larry kept insisting this bill will trigger 4% growth as opposed to 2%. But Rob Sechan, struggling like everyone else to get a word in, said the tax overhaul will prompt wealthy folks in New York and California to move to Florida. (Remember a few years ago when that was Meredith Whitney's thing, that the U.S. economy would reconfigure away from the coasts to the heartland where all the new high-paying jobs were going to be.)

Hilariously, Larry actually claimed that the "SALT thing" could put "pressure" on governors "to stop taxing and spending in Connecticut, in New Jersey, in New York and so forth." (See, if tax legislation were a stock, this is like those $800 price targets on YHOO in 1999.)

Jim Lebenthal suggested that could be an "unintended consequence" of tax overhaul but a "benevolent" one. "I live in New York state. I don't exactly feel like I'm getting my money's worth for the taxes I pay. I mean, I- that's an understatement, right?"

Ylan said on the 5 p.m. Fast Money that Marco Rubio is threatening to be a no on tax legislation.

Karen Finerman, striking in blue/white combo, said (again), "I think it gets done … I think they will do whatever they have to do to get this across the finish line." Karen added, "I think there's a lot to be happy about for Corporate America."

Jim doesn’t think selling now is smart, unless it’s BA

Jim Lebenthal on Thursday's Halftime said he "sometimes" thinks a stock-market correction "can be healthy." (Perhaps that means a year without a correction is "unhealthy.")

With 2 weeks left in the year, "Who's gonna wanna sell right now," Jim said.

But later in the show, guest-host Sully said Jim "recently" sold BA, a curious timing call. Jim said it was a "great investment." But if we're so close to year-end, why is he taking big gains right now?

Actually, there is a decent reason to sell: If everyone's going to take gains the first couple weeks of January, you might want to have dry powder ready for that.

But Rob Sechan said it's "almost irresponsible" for advisors to take gains at this time of year.

Sully asked a good question of Rob, what if someone with a couple kids in college has had a couple good years and wonders if he should sell. Sechan of course (you KNEW this answer was coming) said it depends on the "client's profile." (Which means it's theoretically possible that Sechan could be telling a 30-year-old with a newborn to buy IBM while telling a 59-year-old with 2 kids in college to sell IBM.)

Kari Firestone said she doesn't think it "unreasonable" for those who've had a "phenomenal" year to take profits.

FIFO is out; not sure about the idea of rolling student loan debt into mortgages

On Thursday's Halftime Report, Joe Terranova hailed WMT's investment in Jet.com.

Guest host Sully asked a question nearly as good as the one Joe asked Larry Kudlow: "How is 3 billion for a money-losing company a good deal?"

Joe said it gave the stock market phony hope it gives WMT the "logistical network to build out and, and advance the online platform." (Translation: More ability to sell things online for smaller margin than what they get in the stores.)

Kari Firestone dismissed NKE, calling retail a "tough road" and doubting the rally is "sustainable."

Jim Lebenthal said he owns NKE, "but if it goes much higher, I'm out of it." (Hopefully that doesn't happen before January, because no one should sell before then; in fact, Rob Sechan calls it downright irresponsible.)

Rob Sechan struggled to explain "what's missed" in Kari and Jim's points about retail, bringing up driving through New York City with the "Uberification" and "Amazonification" but not arriving at a point.

Joe said if you're going to invest in airlines, DAL, JBLU and LUV are the 3 you want to look at.

Jim stressed he's not calling LUV a short but it's now trading "kind of as good as it usually gets."

Phil LeBeau, who joined the gang, said DAL just ordered a bunch of planes from Airbus and that it's "hard to get to New York" without flying, presumably in Phil's case from Chicago (which, believe it or not, is drivable to New York). He insisted "this is a big loss for Boeing."

Jon Najarian, who had a quiet show, said MO June 75 calls and January 240 STZ calls and WMT calls of some kind were getting scooped up.

Joe said you don't buy TEVA just yet. "This is a sad story," Joe said (about 3 or 4 times), referring to Teva's job cuts. (But with Larry's corporate tax cut, those wages will climb.)

Jim isn't interested in DIS and FOXA but does like the industry consolidation prospects and thus is interested in VIAB, CBS, AMCX and DISCA.

Doc said he's long KO and likes the Deutsche Bank initiation of the name.

Rob Sechan thinks MLPs are a "trade" and said there could be a "big rotation" into the space down the road. (But he's been promoting them throughout 2017.)

Jeff Kilburg said people at the CME are "really excited" about bitcoin futures because the futures carry substantially less risk than the actual commodity. Jim Iuorio said if the spot price traded 17,580 (snicker) (#winklevi), a new high, that would tell him "another push higher" is ahead.

Joe's final trade was V, offering a 115-120 target. Jim said EEQ, an "MLP without the K-1." Doc said SWKS because 98 calls were being bought; he said he bought it Thursday. Rob Sechan said XLF.

Karen Finerman on the 5 p.m. Fast Money said VRX is "much higher" than where she got out of her position, and she was happy to see it down Thursday while admitting that's "mean."

"I am nice," Karen asserted.

That call is 100% correct.

[Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017]

President Donald Trump
as a commodity

Allotted the entire hour of Wednesday's Halftime Report, Jeffrey Gundlach told Judge (on location in L.A.) that overhauling the tax code is "kind of a strange thing" to do now.

"Why would you be stimulating the economy?" Gundlach asked, pointing to various growth factors.

After complaining that his own taxes appear to be going up, he added, "I think if there is a net tax cut, it has to be bond unfriendly."

He said the tax legislation will "probably harm some companies, some sectors," pointing to possible defaults in the junk-bond market.

Gundlach grumbled that Donald Trump complained all the time on the campaign trail about the carried-interest deduction, but it survives. "To me it doesn't sound like draining the swamp. It sounds like maintaining the swamp," Gundlach explained.

"I voted for him over Hillary for sure, but I didn't support him," Gundlach added.

That brings us to another angle that's worth tying together here.

Gundlach said his best idea for 2018 is to add commodities, citing the relationship between the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index and the S&P 500 and stating the cycle is once again favorable for commodities; "the repetition of this is almost eerie."

Asking a question from Englewood Cliffs, Joe Terranova said he agrees with Gundlach on gold and silver but wondered about mortgage-backed securities and munis. Gundlach didn't care much about the former but he did say "munis look overvalued" and cautioned that deductions could get "capped" given that Congress seems to like that now.

Josh Brown also backed the idea of commodities and asked Gundlach a good question, how to best invest in them, given that "the products are terrible," pointing to the 3 and 30 on managed futures and K-1s for the ETNs, which also have contango problems. Gundlach should've given a more detailed answer but said thanks for the "incredibly fat pitch" and recommended "The Doubleline Strategic Commodity Fund."

What Judge didn't ask Gundlach — nor anyone else recently — is what the purpose of tax overhaul really is.

Reducing the corporate tax rate is a noble goal.

It seems that everything else being thrown into this mess is borderline buffoonery, given that 1) just about everyone on this program including Steve Schwarzman (whose type of business got a break) is carping about some angle to it and 2) they can't get a single Democrat to support it and 3) Larry Kudlow called one prominent idea the "dumbest" thing he's ever heard.

Karen Finerman has bluntly stated that they're just desperate to pass anything, so that's why it will get done.

The person who's about to sign this legislation decided Roy Moore actually was the right choice for the U.S. Senate.

It may be that reducing or eliminating deductions and hiking capital gains is really important in 2017 and something the Republican establishment will be proud of years from now.

It's also possible that those Republicans (that would be more like Bob Corker and Richard Shelby and less like Mitch McConnell) resisting the buffoonery of the last 12 months might, like silver according to Jeffrey Gundlach, be out of favor now, but richly regarded in years to come.

Notice that Jeffrey Gundlach told Judge that even though he voted for Donald Trump, "I didn't support him."

Ylan delivered several updates on the state of tax legislation, including that "the corporate AMT is out."

‘I don’t think cryptocurrencies are legit’

Jeffrey Gundlach, who refers to CNBC hosts by first name, asserted on Wednesday's Halftime that the "message of 2017" is that "this is the year the Fed won."

"Now the Fed is quantitative tightening," Gundlach explained, stating "the real worry" about central banks is "forward about a year," pointing to Draghi.

Gundlach called Jerome Powell a "slight upgrade" to Janet Yellen and predicted Yellen's legacy (snicker) is "gonna be strong" because "nothing fell apart."

Gundlach called the flattening of the yield curve "the real deal." He also made a "big rock" analogy about junk-bond prices. (This one was different than Death Valley being next to a mountain illustrating how market volatility will rise.)

Gundlach said he thinks the 10-year will head to 3.0%, where there's "substantial support," but it will put a "drag" on stocks.

"TIPS are strangely attractive to me," Gundlach said.

Pointing to consensus calls of a rising dollar in 2017, Gundlach — who enjoys trumpeting his previous correct calls including the 10-year yield dropping between 2.25% and 2.0% — stated, "Short-term Fed moves are not what drives the dollar."

Gundlach said he likes INDA, the India ETF.

On the Topic of the Month, Gundlach mocked "cryptokitties." He said, "I think if you short bitcoin today, you'll make money," though he cautioned it can go higher, pointing to the Nasdaq from September 1999.

Telling a story that Jon Najarian had already seen, Gundlach said his 86-year-old mother sent him a link from "her cousin's daughter" about … you guessed it … buying bitcoin. Doc said he read that story when bitcoin was "under 4,000, roughly 3,800 or something like that," but Jeffrey said it was $4,500. So maybe Mom should've bought. But Gundlach said he informed that her that those types of emails more often occur at the top of the market than the bottom.

"I don't think cryptocurrencies are legit," Gundlach asserted.

On the Futures Now clip, which is just a couple people reading a chart (doesn't matter what the commodity/bond is), Brian Stutland suggested maybe 3.20 is possible for copper. Jim Iuorio said "if it gets over 3.10, then I think 3.30."

[Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017]

CNBC’s D.C. crew still hasn’t identified who put the FIFO provision in tax reform

In a rare moment, perhaps taking a cue from Judge in the last couple weeks, Pete Najarian on Tuesday's Halftime attempted the mock voice: "I don't know how many times I sat here and listened to people come on and say, 'Well you know, this whole tax reform thing, this is completely priced in.'" He didn't do it with quite enough oomph, but it wasn't bad.

Judge aired the morning clip of Senator Pat Toomey complaining of FIFO. Sensationally gorgeous Ylan Mui (who will now just be known as "Ylan" on this page) said Kevin Brady said that "Nothing is final until everything is final."

Ron Insana said he thinks removing state and local tax deductions is dumber than the FIFO rule. Insana said the FIFO rule still seems "patently unfair."

Kayla Tausche admitted that "lobbyists on K Street" are asking, "Who wants that in there and what's in it for them?"

Ylan added an "X factor," that "it's still unclear which provisions inside the tax bill will actually take effect on January 1st." Judge immediately switched to CNBC HOFer Jane Wells, at the edge of Montecito wildfires with … an inmate crew. "California depends heavily on inmate crews," Jane said.

Does anyone follow the CNBC IQ 100 (which includes MAT but is really an intellectual-property play)?

Opening a program without a topic, Judge and his crew stumbled through the opening minutes of Tuesday's Halftime randomly grabbing at various tickers.

Jon Najarian said he's not aboard NKE, explaining it's "not exciting to me" before botching the "burn (fool) me once" slogan.

Stephanie Link talked up CAT and URI and CMI and GS. Judge called GS "a veritable Dog of the Dow."

Josh Brown said to stay with MA, which he's long. He said "it's an embarrassment of riches for the whole banking sector." Brown also mocked Dick Bove for coming on the air to "shame us" this year. "The multiple has expanded way faster" than the growth, Brown stated.

"I would not touch GE," said Stephanie Link, citing her "problem with power gen."

Doc said among laggards, he would pick IBM, citing blockchain.

Josh Brown mocked Judge's intraday Dow high, explaining he forgot his "24,534 hat."

Pete says the video-game community is ‘true blues’

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime said the Call of the Day is Goldman Sachs upgrading ATVI.

Stephanie Link said ATVI is up 79% this year but "flat since August," but "the most important thing" (why wasn't that mentioned first?) is that it's got "3 huge products in their pipeline."

Josh Brown, who a while back promised Judge that the next time they talked about these names, he'd have a position (but didn't Tuesday according to the on-screen disclosures), said the video game makers have got a "Salesforce-esque recurring-revenue model."

Judge said EA, which was removed from the Conviction Buy list, is down 9% since it was added to the list Sept. 8.

Doc trumpeted TTWO.

Judge at the 50-minute mark promised a 2-minute commercial, then final trades, but the commercial break was really about 7 minutes

Ylan on Tuesday's Halftime reported on Rand Paul's tweet about the deficit that isn't 100% clear (thought the additional TWTR characters were supposed to clarify those things). Josh Brown scoffed that the tax legislation will be offset by a fiscal cliff logjam.

Jon Najarian said January 20 calls in EGOV were getting bought in "pretty big numbers." Pete Najarian said someone rolled up to the January 12.50 calls in F (the screen just said January 12).

Doc said FCX 16 calls were getting bought; he thinks the stock goes higher.

Stephanie Link said of STI, "not sure I would be buying it here."

Josh Brown said if ABT takes out 57, "there really aren't any sellers in here."

Pete said he's not so sure he's listening to the MAT analyst.

Jim Iuorio said he's "flipped a little bit bearish" on crude and sees 55, "perhaps lower."

Pete Najarian's final trade was C. Doc said KGC, because they were selling downside puts. Stephanie Link said EMR. Josh Brown gave a speech about "the 'i' word," meaning inflation.

Instead of ending the program on that actually provocative note, Judge realized he clumsily had some time to fill, bringing up defense stocks (Stephanie Link likes NOC over GD).

Judge promised to see Jeff Gundlach Wednesday in L.A.

[Monday, Dec. 11, 2017]

Doc, Andrew Left actually argue over how easily the government can unload cocaine (a/k/a who drained $100,000 from Andrew’s Citi account?)

The meal ticket of Monday's Halftime Report was undoubtedly the spirited bitcoin debate between Andrew Left and basically anyone else.

Left's first observation was a good one, the size of the bitcoin float. He said bitcoin futures had traded "around $50 million worth." But the APRN IPO "traded around $400 million." So bitcoin, Left said, is getting outsized media attention that can't be "paralleled with the money going towards it."

Left said someone a couple hours earlier was pointing out on TV that bitcoins are held by few people who can talk about it on TV and get others to buy it. "It's almost like manipulation, low float, let's get it going higher."

That brings up a permanent issue with CNBC and other business media, that guests might simply be trumpeting positions they'd be happy to exit.

But the scorecard is what it is, and with bitcoin legitimately exchanging hands in the 5 digits, CNBC is obligated to put people on TV talking about it.

Jon Najarian, Left's initial adversary who apparently really believes in this bitcoin stuff, countered, "The fact that more people are scrambling into this is why it's going higher."

Doc said the listed exchanges aren't letting people short bitcoin, which is keeping a premium on the price.

Left challenged Doc as to whether Doc has ever tried to buy more than $500,000 in bitcoin. Doc didn't directly answer but said someone in Europe asked him for help unloading $50 million in bitcoin, "and I said, 'I can do it with one phone call,'" and one of the big primary dealers offered a market "$400 wide."

Doc insisted, "There is plenty of liquidity."

Left asked what kind of spread he'd get with $50 million in gold. "Right. I agree with you on this point absolutely," Doc conceded.

Doc contended that the fact bitcoin is going to be listed on 4 U.S. exchanges is the biggest endorsement of it.

Left said he and Doc met last month in Vegas, and "we had a very nice breakfast."

"Great conversation," Doc agreed. (See, some people have great conversations over breakfast in Vegas; others can't even get CNBC hosts to take them to Denny's for a Grand Slam.)

But that aside, Left said Doc's point is like saying people should gamble in casinos, and the fact they're opening new ones in a couple years is what validates that.

Things got a bit loopy when Doc said the U.S. government seized stuff from Silk Road and sold the bitcoins, unlike the cocaine or marijuana, which it burned.

Left chuckled, "Come on, the government would have a very difficult time trying to unload cocaine on someone."

"No they wouldn't! If they could do it like that! They could do it like that, Andrew," Doc insisted.

"The fact that this conversation has gone from bitcoin to a possible cocaine trade within the same 8- uh, 3 minutes, only shows the nature of bitcoin," Left asserted.

In another tangent, Left said $100,000 left his Citibank account; "somebody wired money out of my account." (What the heck??) Left said he called Citibank, "and within a week, they put the money back in my account."

(Translation: If you lose your bitcoin, you're SOL.)

Left said the bulls argue bitcoin is decentralized, and then say it's validated because it's centralized. Doc insisted "it can never be centralized."

Judge asked both if it will "end badly." Doc said, "Judge I think it goes a lot higher," while conceding, "There will be several blow-ups."

"It ends badly because people do not have an understanding," Left said.

Left said his Uber driver in the morning "wanted to know how he was going to retire" on bitcoin.

Judge finally turned to the panel. Josh Brown seemed to side against Left, stating he doesn't understand why it's a "badge of honor" for those who don't understand bitcoin to give a "10-minute monologue" on why it's fake or whatever.

Brown scoffed that all the "anecdotal stuff" about bitcoin coming from "my barber, my taxi driver" is "such a waste of time."

Stephen Weiss offered, "Right now, it's a momentum trade." But Weiss predicted the bitcoin blockchain will be hacked someday.

Joe Terranova stated, "No one has proven yet, OK, that it's not an asset class, and that is a fundamentally strong argument for bitcoin and blockchain. Because it doesn't seem to correlate with anything."

Weiss and Brown agreed "I have no idea" what bitcoin should be priced on.

Joe said, "The futures trading so far is disappointing."

Jim Lebenthal curiously asserted that "none of the prices" that people are arguing about is "relevant" to bitcoin/blockchain.

Left rejoined the conversation and suggested "the blockchain will be the ultimate disruptor of bitcoin." Brown conceded, "OK, you could be right."

Left asked if someone would rather own $40 million in bitcoin on the blockchain or $40 million in AAPL on the blockchain. Brown said, "I don't know. You can't do it. It's a hypothetical."

Hate to say it, but this is one of those debates in which both parties are probably going to be right, which is little help to the (supposed) "Fast Money" viewer. Should you buy this stuff NOW? The gut here is that it'll probably see $25,000 (think about the dudes who sold a week ago in the 4 digits), but there seems to be enough clumsiness to the spreads and nominal cost, etc., that it doesn't seem worth the risk, which probably explains why no one on the program was telling people to buy it.

‘President Mike Pence’
is sooooo 2 weeks ago

Judge opened Monday's Halftime asking if Yellen's "last stand" (snicker) will mark "the beginning of the end of the bull market."

"I don't think so," said Jim Lebenthal, stating it would take "interrupted" profit growth to derail stocks.

Joe Terranova said the Fed is "normalizing," which is "what they should be doing," and he'd be more concerned if the Fed opted to "pause."

Stephen Weiss said "3 hikes are baked in," and it only matters whether they "quicken the pace."

Judge wondered about "unintended consequences" of the tax bill. Josh Brown said tax legislation will boost the stock market, not the economy.

Brown said the rally needs to broaden leadership to carry into 2018, and banks would be a great leader, and he echoed Weiss' point about the pace of rate hikes.

Steve Liesman floated the notion of a "policy mistake," suggesting the tax bill is potentially just that.

Liesman said there's 3 folks on the Fed who don't want to hike.

Jim Lebenthal said, "I know plenty of people who are saying, '1 hike.'"

Liesman said there's people who still believe "the armageddon of the Fed's exit."

Weiss said "the Fed is reactionary to a large extent."

Liesman said he had a "perfect forecast" for the Fed this year but an "abysmal forecast for the long end" of the yield curve.

Jeremy Siegel, one of those 2018-is-guaranteed-to-be-worse guys, said 3 rate hikes would bring the yield on cash to 2%, so, "It's gonna be a little bit more difficult for the stock market." He also cited "political risks next year" from midterm elections, even suggesting both houses could turn Democratic.

As for stocks next year, "I could see 0-10%," Siegel said. Interesting. So stocks will not fall next year.

Siegel reflected on Philadelphia's bittersweet game in L.A. on Sunday.

VRX crosses $20, 52-week high

Sometimes, tracking the legends is very reassuring … because some of their trades can be just as bone-headed as the ones in the typical E-Trade account.

Judge on Monday's Halftime brought up Goldman Sachs' 135 on ADP.

Joe Terranova said having Ackman in the conversation is a "positive for ADP," but "if you take Bill out of this," it's a company that has shown growth and continues to move higher.

Steve Weiss said ADP needed a "wake-up call." Weiss chuckled that ADP doesn't have the "downside" of Ackman getting on the board "and doing what he did to JCPenney or Valeant."

Nobody bothered to mention that Bill unloaded his VRX stake in March around $11, according to CNBC sources; Ackman said he couldn't devote the time to it anymore.

But while he hasn't been devoting any more time to it, it's been nearly doubling.

Had Ackman just kept his VRX stake and ignored ADP, he'd be wealthier now.

Whatever.

Joe Terranova offered praise. "Bill is taking something that's good and making it even better," Joe said.

Jim Lebenthal questioned if all the good stuff is "baked in" to ADP at 27 times next year's earnings. Jim questioned, "How much more employment are they gonna get?"

Judge said, "By the way, it's up 10½% since Ackman took his stake in July." (Translation: Bill wants me to bring up the winners too, and I need to book him for the show.) (Yep. And VRX is nearly a double.)

Yowza! Mel smoldering in
sleeveless red on Fast Money

Not really wanting to cut off the bitcoin chatter on Monday's Halftime, Judge had to abruptly veer to Meg Tirrell with Foundation Medicine CEO Troy Cox.

Judge also had to cross-promote CNBC's Healthy Returns conference.

Josh Brown said Barron's top 10 picks for 2018 is just a "momentum stock list." He said DAL "looks really good to me" and that he likes GOOGL and ALLY.

Stephen Weiss said Enterprise Products is not a momentum name and that the MLP space has been left for dead.

Joe Terranova said he's not sure where PXD "comes from" on the Barron's list; "this isn't the best name in energy."

Jim Lebenthal said he likes AMAT; "it's still pretty cheap." (Judge didn't ask this time if Jim was looking at the same list.)

Joe said there's "a lot of strong momentum" in TWTR. Josh Brown said he doesn't know why it's up but that it's "underowned." Weiss said SNAP has a "similar chart." Weiss offered XBI or CELG for final trade. Jim said PFE.

[Friday, Dec. 8, 2017]

Memorable Moments in Politics: Ross Perot’s ‘giant sucking sound’ (a/k/a Judge didn’t give this topic enough air)

On Friday's Halftime Report, Judge curiously brought up Lee Cooperman's Trump-AMZN reference from a day earlier.

ICYMI, 1) Just PgDn a few times; 2) Trump for some reason asked Lee at a White House dinner (man, we can't get invited to those; we can't even get CNBC hosts to take us out to Denny's for a Grand Slam) if Bill was nuts to take on ADP Amazon is a monopoly.

On Friday, Steve Weiss said "the only reason" Trump asked Cooperman this question "is because Bezos owns the Washington Post."

We gotta agree with that.

Then things got even more interesting. Weiss claimed "Amazon's done nothing but advantaged the consumer by bringing prices down." We would disagree with that. The appeal of AMZN is not price, but the ease and convenience of the format. There are so many things sold on Amazon, many of them semi-unique, it is hard to know whether the price is "brought down." If someone compiles a list of things Amazon sells that are also sold in national chains such as CVS, Target, Kroger, Macy's, Foot Locker, etc., and shows definitively that Amazon is cheaper (don't forget to add in the amortization of the $99 Prime fee), then we'll believe Weiss' point. #Kenshoanyone?

Then things got even more interesting. Josh Brown said the people who might push a monopoly case against Amazon are brick-and-mortar retail CEOs who might complain to their senators or attorneys general about all the jobs lost and how those people who fold sweaters aren't shifting to writing code in Seattle … but no public official wants to be the first to launch a case and potentially look like an idiot.

Sarat Sethi said that if Amazon starts to wipe out "another vertical," regulators might step in.

Unfortunately, they all missed the bigger picture.

1) AMZN is an enormously popular company, one of the most popular in U.S. history (possibly No. 1), which is much different than Microsoft 1999, thus it's unlikely government will touch it.

2) Graybeard viewers of the Halftime Report will recall that during the 1992 presidential campaign, one fellow of questionable credentials briefly catapulted in the polls largely because of his complaint about a specific agreement (we don't think it's a "treaty" … that's an issue with the Iran thing too … and then we've got the Taiwan "country" thing and Puerto Rico "territory" thing … man, do we love government semantics … that'll be a really long post someday) that by itself would create a "giant sucking sound" of American jobs to Mexico that people actually believed.

Except this fellow had become a billionaire by founding a data-processing company that, among other things, computerized Medicare records. That's the real sucking sound, and it's not so much jobs but the nation's wealth, and it's not going to Mexico but the Pacific Northwest. (The company in question was actually in Texas, but you get the point ... where's Dell by the way?)

So basically this fellow was offering a classic bait-and-switch, telling gullible voters that someone else was to blame, when in fact his own industry was at that moment in the process of siphoning away much of the dollars that went into the old way of doing things, to the benefit of the folks at Yale and Harvard and MIT smart enough to be taking computer science and interested in living in Monterey.

As the Cupertino-to-Redmond Beltway wipes out industry after industry, revenues previously distributed around the country are now all vacuumed up basically by 2 locales, which are swimming in so much money that RICH people who work for these companies now have to live 60 miles away because not all can afford the $1 million starter homes within the actual city of the company they work for. (This site posts those kinds of stories on our home page probably once a week.)

Many of these companies are hyper-popular, which helps them avoid scrutiny, but it figures to only be a matter of time before the rest of the country decides it's not OK if the Pacific Northwest is Riyadh.

Smart operators are aware of this and skate to where the puck is going; hence we have Amazon.com (or is it just "Amazon Inc." now?) very publicly shopping around the whole country (especially places not exactly synonymous with Silicon Valley) for a place to build a "second headquarters" (why any company needs more than 1 HQ or what would be accomplished there, we have no idea) that should probably (if our guess is accurate) and artificially redistribute a token of this computer-age wealth from Northern California into a Rust Belt economy.

Someone on the panel could've brought up those 2 angles, but they didn't; that's what we're here for.

Anyway. During the Halftime Report, Steve Weiss and Josh Brown tangled over what percentage of items sold on Amazon.com are actually made by AMZN. After a commercial, Brown cited TechCrunch data from August that it went from 2% to 12% this year through Prime Day.

Nothing about that sounded terribly convincing. And honestly, for some stuff on Amazon, it can be confusing figuring out who the seller really is.

Looks like standing-room-only for Doc’s bitcoin-or-whatever presentation in Europe

On Friday's Halftime, Jon Najarian (via satellite from Chicago) trumpeted his European itinerary to discuss bitcoin, stressing "London, Geneva, Paris, Cannes, Monaco, Lugano, Milan, Paris, Zurich … I was doing 2 conferences a day."

(Yes. And some of them were apparently in "Citizen-Kane"-style airplane hangars with maybe 20 people.)

Doc said in "95% of the cases," he was paid in ethereum. We have no clue how these things are handled, but we're guessing ethereum doesn't come with a W-2, and it may not exactly be defined yet what the actual value of compensation in ethereum actually is.

Doc insisted to Judge that the wild swings in bitcoin have "almost nothing" to do with the launch of futures this weekend.

In an important question, Judge asked Najarian if people were setting up bitcoin rallies this week to short it. Doc didn't answer the question, telling Judge "you get paid to short this thing … if you lend your bitcoins Judge, you can get paid by any of these online exchanges."

OK. We don't really have a clue about anything, but we're not sure how lending out your bitcoin is the same as shorting it. For example, if we think IBM might fall, according to Doc, we're going to buy IBM shares, then lend them, collect interest … and then hope for the shares to take a haircut when someone finally gives them back to us.

Judge pestered Doc over wine on Doc's Twitter feed. Doc said of JPMorgan's CEO, "Jamie is a friend" and is "very positive on blockchain." And … at the end of the day … who DOESN'T like the future of blockchain?

Doc said Jan. 5 expiration INTC 44 calls were getting bought. (This writer is long INTC.)

How come we haven’t seen Peter Schiff for a while talking up $5,000 gold?

Grasping for headlines and apparently out of gloom scenarios for the moment, Judge opened Friday's Halftime with the Oppenheimer call for S&P 3,000 next year by John Stoltzfus.

Josh Brown said there's a "decent probability" it will happen and that the note was "fairly rational."

Stephen Weiss noted the 10-year and global yields, "so where you gonna put money." Judge interrupted, "This is Goldilocks, is it no?" (OK, if that's the way it is, what's the point of having an hourlong program in which Jeremy Siegel and Mike Wilson assure us it's not Goldilocks and things will definitely be worse next year?)

Jim Lebenthal said it's "reasonable" to expect the S&P is up next year, but "15% is too much."

Jim actually claimed that Stoltzfus' 3,000 call is part of the "early stages of euphoria."

Sarat Sethi said articles like the WSJ piece by James Mackintosh about value probably not coming back are "a great contra-indicator."

In what can only be considered hyperbole, Sarat actually claimed that for the individual investor, the FIFO rule is a "death knell."

Jim used 2017 dollar forecasts to illustrate that when everyone thinks something will happen, "usually" everyone's wrong. (OK. So tomorrow, the sun comes up in the West, because everyone thinks …)

Jim said value could come back on fundamental reasons, including "if growth disappoints" (snicker).

Judge, practically incredulous, questioned, "What's the reason to believe that it will?"

Josh Brown suggested investors "delineate" within value (translation: pick the value stocks that are actually going to go up).

Judge said Jim and Sarat are suggesting a possible "renaissance" (snicker) in value stocks despite trends to the contrary. Judge almost employed that good mocking voice he's developing, but it didn't quite carry through this time.

Judge said Stoltzfus would be on the 5 p.m. show. He was, and it wasn't terribly exciting.

Do people in Brazil invest in companies called Appalachia?

Judge on Friday's Halftime said Evercore ISI hung a 106 on MSFT, and he dialed up analyst Kirk Materne to explain the reasoning.

Judge asked Materne how MSFT gets to $1 trillion. Materne said that over 5 years, the business has become much more of a "compounding annuity stream of revenue and cash flow."

Materne said the business is "incredibly durable" and thus able to grow very fast despite its enormous size.

Jim Lebenthal said he owns MSFT competitors that he thinks are cheaper, including INTC. (This writer is long INTC.) Jim also questioned a 3-year target of MSFT $1 trillion when there could be a recession within that time, why not do a 1-year target?

Sarat Sethi pointed out MSFT broke out after the new CEO. Pete Najarian loves to point that out (but somehow, MSFT goes up despite Heather Bellini's wrongness, whereas Katy Huberty is the reason AAPL makes money …). Josh Brown said MSFT is the easiest chart trend to follow; translation, it's a buy with a trailing stop.

Josh Brown said Forbes interviewed Bill Gates, the world's most boring interview (gave away all his money but somehow still the world's richest person), and asked him 3 times to define quantum computing, and he said, "I can't even explain it."

Weiss loads up on WDC

On Friday's Halftime, Judge was trying to speculate what Dow number Bob Shiller recently tossed out. (That's called backhanding your guests that you shouldn't have taken seriously in the first place.)

Sarat Sethi endorsed CELG after some dead air.

Jim Lebenthal said AAPL is the winner in the WDC settlement. Steve Weiss said he bought more WDC Thursday and Friday. "I also added to Micron," Weiss said.

Nobody took up KORS as Judge skipped ahead during his sloppy program of Laffalympics; eventually, Josh Brown said he's not a buyer of KORS because of its "totally off the charts" RSI.

Weiss said he bought GVA while talking about IR. He said he'll buy CAT at some point.

Bob Iaccino said crude's in a "good environment" to go higher next week. Anthony Grisanti expects a test of the lower range before it hits 60.

Judge asked for opinions on the Credit Suisse recommended list. Jim Lebenthal trumpeted KLAC. Judge questioned if he and Jim were looking at the same Credit Suisse list. (See, like we said, it was a sloppy show of Laffalympics.)

Weiss said he thinks PYPL's run continues. (This writer is long PYPL.)

Nobody found JNJ to be a "barnburner."

Sarat's final trade was Delphi and the spinoff. Weiss said JD. Josh Brown said SHAK; he's "not a seller."

[Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017]

Donald Trump says ‘there’s too much anger’ for him to unify the country

Lee Cooperman was asked about the stock market during his visit Thursday with the Halftime Report at the Wells Fargo conference.

But Lee sounded more interested in talking about White House meals.

Lee said he was at a mid-July White House dinner with "10 other people" and the president, and "twice he asked me if I thought Amazon was a monopoly."

Lee said he told the president "No."

Lee said Donald Trump assured him he has a "fabulous reputation" and that Trump asked about the SEC and whether Lee's "open letter to President Obama" (we posted the highlights here) was the cause of Lee's SEC problem.

"So somebody briefed him," Lee pointed out. (Or, he watches the Halftime Report like other people do.)

Lee said he told Donald Trump, "The SEC treated me very unfairly, but I gotta go on with my life." (OK, we've been trying to analyze that for a while. We think that means, "What I did was no big deal, but they had just enough that they could make my life miserable, so I had to settle.")

Lee said while at the White House, he congratulated Donald Trump on his victory and told him, "I think personally if Hillary Clinton had won, we'd be in recession today."

Lee said he told the president that the "best thing" the president could do is "unify the country." Lee said Trump's response was, "I hear ya, not really likely to happen, too much anger."

Cooperman said the president deserves "a lot" of credit for the stock rally; "he's unleashed animal spirits to a degree."

Lee said "the intelligent people" who voted for Trump (translation: some weren't) knew what they would've gotten with Hillary and didn't want it.

As for 2020, "I would vote for Donald Trump ahead of Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders," Lee said, stating the Democratic Party "has become the left-leaning party in this country." (Actually that's kind of been the case for a while.)

"President Obama had a foot on the throat of the economy," Lee added.

Bill’s lunkheaded ADP campaign escapes mention by Lee Cooperman (a/k/a Lee notes Carl’s market calls aren’t always right)

Lee Cooperman on Thursday's Halftime gave the market lukewarm props, calling stocks "reasonably fully valued."

Lee downplayed the tech selling of the past week that Judge is so hyper about.

He said he's finding individual stocks even though the S&P is "not exciting."

Judge brought up Carl Icahn's mention of "euphoria" (but not the Day of Reckoning).

Lee called Carl "absolutely brilliant" and said he has "a world of respect" for Carl. But then Lee said, "I think he closed out his fund at the end of 2008 because he saw limited opportunities and he didn't want the responsibility of running other people's money. … So clearly the conservatism he expressed in '08 was wrong."

Lee said that a year ago, "average expectation" of this year's S&P was 2,350.

Lee said the tax package long term makes sense, but "short term, I think it's dangerous." (He could've said it makes no sense for the government to be crafting a stimulus package now, but whatever.)

In a clumsy dialogue, Jim Lebenthal asked Lee if value "needs to be redefined." Lee mentioned that he's got positions in GOOGL and FB.

Lee touted AMCX, trumpeting the regular buybacks, as well as SHPG and UAL.

Lee downplayed the importance of an inverted yield curve, calling it a "more technical phenomenon." Jim clarified that Lee is saying the underlying factors are more important than whether the curve is inverted or not.

Lee said he listened to the Mike Novogratz interview with Mel and stated that Novogratz predicts bitcoin $40,000 in 2018. But Lee has "no money at all" in bitcoin.

Lee said there's "euphoria" in bitcoin and German bonds at 38 basis points.

Judge told Lee, "It's nice of you to, to, cite, uh, Melissa and, and, and what they've done on- on that show about bitcoin, bringing on Novogratz." (Actually landing Novogratz to talk about how great bitcoin is has not been too hard recently.)

Scott Minerd actually had to ask Ken Rogoff where title of the book comes from

Scott Minerd on Thursday's Halftime said, "I think we probably have another 10-15% ahead of us next year."

But, "I'm becoming much more cautious about things."

Minerd tried to claim that U.S. market valuation, relative to GDP, is in rare air. "We're starting to approach the same levels we were back in 2007. We're beyond now 2007, uh, back in the Internet bubble in 2000," Minerd said. (But nothing about 1929.)

Minerd said higher corporate earnings will support higher stocks even amid higher rates. But Minerd said, "People are chasing the stock market," and we're setting up for a "massive short-volatility trade." (That's the Jeffrey Gundlach thing from August.)

Joe Terranova asked Minerd if liquidity will be there as volatility rises in a passive-investing/ETF climate. Minerd said the ETF folks will try to get out the fastest and said he's concerned that some ETFs are holders of "relatively illiquid assets."

Judge noted that Lee Cooperman brushed off yield curve ramifications. Minerd said he loves Ken Rogoff's book This Time It's (sic Minerd's pronunciation) Different. "The reality is, it's probably not different," Minerd said. But actually, Lee wasn't saying it's different; he was saying that an inverted yield curve isn't as significant as the conditions on the ground.

Minerd felt the need to clarify he was in "South Korea" and not the other Korea.

Mike Mayo goes from intermediating to disintermediating to re-intermediating

Mike Mayo on Thursday's Halftime said there are 1,700 people at the Wells Fargo conference, but he considers Judge "one of the most important at the moment."

Mayo said "complacency is the biggest risk for JPMorgan or any bank when they're doing so well." (Zzzzzzzzz)

Mayo said his 2020 target for JPM is 135.

Jim Lebenthal asked Mayo if he favors big banks over regionals. Mayo explained that big banks' market share has risen. "Goliath should continue to outperform David," Mayo asserted.

But, "Trading businesses are not doing so well," Mayo said.

Jim asked Mayo if C&I matters much to big banks and is disintermediation a problem. Mayo said "it's a good question" and that there's "classic disintermediation," but then there'll be "re-intermediation to traditional bank lending."

Mayo told Judge the concern about persistently low rates is "so, you know, 2016."

Joe Terranova and Jim Lebenthal both expressed concern about possible regulation of AMZN and others. Jim though said it'll "come to roost first" internationally, stating our government is "a little bit more judicious."

Joe's final trade was CTAS. Jim said NKE.

[Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017]

Weiss gets his fingers in a bunch trying to elucidate his 3 reasons

The beginning of Wednesday's Halftime Report was devoted to taped remarks by Donald Trump, largely about tax legislation.

Eamon Javers said Trump was "in a very good mood."

Judge asked panelists why the markets have been rocky in December, at least for the Nasdaq. Steve Weiss, who acted like this subject is more important than the 1943 Tehran Conference, said hedge fund managers are racing to sell with expected changes in carried-interest rules, plus FIFO, plus the expected negative impact on high earners next year.

Jim Lebenthal suggested that some things might come out of the bill, and if so, people who sold on those factors might've "shot themselves in the foot."

As for selloffs, "It hasn't been all that brutal," Pete Najarian said.

"This is just something called money flow," said Joe Terranova, stating it doesn't have anything to do with fundamentals. Joe's right.

So isn’t this a good time to be an advisor who opens bitcoin accounts?

Ross Gerber, whose volume seemed to be amped up, joined Wednesday's Halftime and trumpeted how he's shifted from FB, NVDA and NFLX to HD, DIS and AAPL.

Gerber complained, "We're getting calls every day, people wanna buy bitcoin, it's like ridiculous."

"I'm very worried about interest rates," Gerber added, as well as "the government starting a huge war in the Middle East."

Steve Weiss said those who had a great year are going to "bank it" and not "gamble" on the last few weeks of 2017. (As opposed to a week or two ago, when the panel could find absolutely no reasons to sell.)

Joe Terranova mentioned "corporate AMT" (Zzzzzzz). Weiss claimed it's a big deal in terms of R&D write-offs.

In a new one for us, Tony Dwyer said there's a possibility of a "Sanford & Son correction." (We think that means he thinks investors will think it's bigger than it really is.) (We DON'T think it has anything to do with "We locky at wristy.") (You "Sanford" fans know EXACTLY what we're talking about.)

Dwyer reiterated that the market's a buy when the yield curve gets this flat. (Guy Adami on the 5 p.m. Fast Money warned that the flattening process is a little concerning.)

Dwyer suggested stocks are in "weak hands" at this year's end. He's looking for reasons to get back into technology.

Steve Weiss wondered why Dwyer isn't just buying tech now. "I really stink at trading," Dwyer explained.

Kayla Tausche provided a FIFO update. We doubt if he actually believes it happened, but Joe Terranova said "hopefully" Steve Schwarzman dialed Donald Trump after getting off the air with Wilfred Frost a day ago and complained about FIFO.

"There's plenty of stuff that needs to be straightened out," said Pete Najarian.

Weiss said because of the tax legislation's impact on the deficit, "There's virtually no chance of an infrastructure spending bill unless it's all private."

Mike Wilson is really sure that 2018 won’t be as good as 2017

Jim Lebenthal on Wednesday's Halftime Report said HRB was surging because people will need help with taxes next year.

Joe Terranova explained why WMT is dropping "Stores" from its corporate title. (Remember when it was important for AAPL to drop "Computer," because they don't really specialize in computers anymore.)

Pete Najarian said April 65 WBA calls were getting bought. Pete said T April 37 calls were getting scooped up.

Pete said "any significant pullback," like 10%, is when you buy HD.

Steve Weiss said LULU is "still understored," and he still likes the name.

Pete likes the AMAT overweight by Wells Fargo and thinks the 65 target is no reach. Weiss said this is a "good opportunity" to get into MU.

Jeff Kilburg explained what constitutes an "essential company" (rather than just a momentum-stock index) in Fish's 40 said "I believe we're range-bound" in crude. Anthony Grisanti though said, "I think we're goin' lower from here," predicting a test of the low 50s before 2017 ends.

Pete's final trade was PEP. Weiss said FCEa. Jim said XLE but in the next couple weeks, so it wasn't really a final trade. Joe said he'd "take some profits" in DPZ.

Judge promised Lee Cooperman, Scott Minerd and Mike Mayo on Thursday's show. (Expect to hear something about Bill's loopy battle with ADP.)

Mike Wilson was compelled to join the 5 p.m. Fast Money to state again "we're not as bullish as we were last year for the year forward."

CNBC superfox Karen Finerman was mesmerizing in two-tone beige/gray ensemble.

David Faber on Mel's show actually said Bob Iger has given "serious thought" to running for president.

[Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017]

CNBC’s Capitol Hill team still hasn’t learned which senator added the FIFO provision

On Tuesday's Halftime Report, Steve Schwarzman sat down with Wilf Frost and called tax reform "sort of a game-changer" and a "whopper."

Things got good when Wilf brought up Judge's favorite subject, the FIFO rule.

Schwarzman chuckled and said, "It's buried in that bill; this is actually the first time I've even heard about that."

(The fact it's the first he's heard about it … but he still knows that it's "buried" … indicates he was told in advance that this question would be coming up.)

Moments later, Joe Terranova complained to Judge, "Steve Schwarzman doesn't know what's- the FIFO's … what … you know, not … I mean, do we know what's in the bill?"

"He said it was buried in the, in the bill," Judge said. (And how did he know that if this is the "first time" he's heard about it.)

"Right. And he didn't know," Joe said, adding, "full disclosure," during the presidential campaign, "I wrote the president a check. Let's get that out of the way. Josh."

Joe added, "We are cobbling together something just to get it done … and that's a problem for investors." (Well, that point has been made here several times already. But whatever. #hearditherefirstandnot"buried")

Judge insisted, "We have taken a particular interest on this program in the FIFO provision." (Yes. Except this "particular interest" hasn't determined which legislator is floating this measure.)

Mark Fisher zipped through what he would do if he were Schwarzman — own BX stock, margin against it, borrow out against it, get the deduction, never sell anything — and called Schwarzman's tax rate effectively "zero."

Judge said they've asked "every single member" of the GOP Senate Finance Committee to talk about FIFO on-air, but no one will do it.

Schwarzman also told Wilf that private equity isn't getting a break in keeping the carried interest deduction because it's only for holdings longer than 3 years.

12 of 19 signals activated

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime brought in Savita Subramanian to explain her 2018 year-end S&P target of 2,800 (snicker). But she said it's "more of a question" about where we are in the cycle. "Closer to the end than the beginning, definitely," Subramanian said.

Savita said we're not at the "fever-pitch euphoria on stocks that typically heralds the end of a bull market."

Really. "Typically"? Does anyone remember the great "fever-pitch euphoria" in October 2007?

Savita has a "checklist of 19 signals that you typically need to see triggered before you hit the end." (But what happens if one of the unmentioned signals is unactivated?)

Fish got to talk again about the "Essential 40." He wanted to let Jeff Kilburg (who wasn't on the show) talk about the big plans for this index.

The CNBC graphics gremlins said "The Essnetial (sic) 40 …" (Trust us. We might not be able to get pictures today.)

Josh Brown questioned if CME is an "essential" company.

Judge has heard about advisors getting calls about whether clients should sell

In a tepid, clumsy opening of Tuesday's Halftime Report, Judge asked in scattershot manner whether everyone should sell.

Joe Terranova said, "You want to sell into strength" in tech, but it's only "a very short-lived phenomenon."

Stephanie Link said "rotation" (Zzzzzz) again. (Translation: Any day that FANG doesn't lead the market.)

Judge said advisors are — "I've heard the calls, are- heard of the calls — are getting calls asking whether people should sell."

Josh Brown told Judge, "I gotta be honest with you" (that's a good approach), that Monday was just a "typical market day."

"Yesterday was a normal day within a strange year," Brown asserted.

"Um, I don't know about that," Judge said.

Steve Weiss dialed in, with a bad connection, to say this is something "we hadn't seen before." Weiss said carried interest "goes away for hedge funds," incentivizing selling in 2017. Weiss might've had a good point to make in the rest of the conversation, but we couldn't understand him, so whatever.

"The connection's not all that great," Judge finally admitted and cut the cord.

Mark Fisher said he's seeing more volatility "in all the equity indices" in the last week.

Pete Najarian said November was a "huge month" in options. (Zzzzzzzzz)

Judge and Fish quibbled over what "makes sense."

Bitcoin evidently isn’t part of Fish’s Essential 40

Ultra-gorjus Seema Mody handled CNBC's Futures Now on Tuesday's Halftime. Scott Nations said copper is below 3-month support. Brian Stutland said there's a "ton of support" around the 2.80 level.

Pete Najarian said WFC February 60 calls were zooming. (But how come the options market didn't predict Micron's 20% drop?)

Fish suggested oil is a place to be "trapped" and that upside is limited to 62, 63, and the downside is to the high 40s.

Joe said he too thinks oil is range-bound, then said, "Pete's done a good job talking about this." Joe mentioned FANG (the Diamondback stock).

Fish said, "Bitcoin is what silver was back in the late '70s and '80s. For sure." He said people will trade it because of the volatility. (Evidently Judge somehow couldn't bring in Mike Novogratz, who's giving about 5 interviews a week on how great bitcoin is.)

Joe's final trade was WMT. Stephanie Link said PM. Josh Brown said JPM, SCHW, MA. Pete Najarian said KMX. Fish said ABX.

[Monday, Dec. 4, 2017]

Weiss points out lapse in Judge’s questioning of Keith Parker

Shortly into Monday's Halftime, Judge brought in Keith Parker, who has a 3,300 S&P target for 2018 (but there's some kind of best-case qualifier; the "base case" is more like 2,900).

Judge asked, how do we get there.

"Sure," Parker said, before suggesting growth, tax reform and "valuations that we would argue are still somewhat cheap to the drivers of asset prices, namely rates."

Parker said a tax cut is "20-40% priced" into the market.

Steve Weiss said he would've asked Parker how much of the gains are multiple expansion vs. earnings growth. Weiss questioned to no one in particular if repatriation will really lead to capex, pointing out companies with large balances have been buying back stock.

Weiss also questioned the benefits of tech reform. "There's no tax cut for me in this bill. There's tax increase," Weiss grumbled.

Joe Terranova asserted, "Value is not gonna lead us to 3,300" and called 1-year S&P predictions a "foolish game."

Judge said it's not foolish if you're predicting it'll be lower, an interesting theory.

Kevin O'Leary said Parker's call is "crazy" and is "way too high."

Judge said "let's not go to the, the most hyperbolic level of, of the call," pointing out Parker's base case is 2,900.

#where’sKensho

In a stark intro, Judge in his opening statement for Monday's Halftime questioned if tech "is firmly out of favor."

Josh Brown said "firmly" would be "probably a bridge too far."

Brown said Monday's curious market activity is a "repeat" of "Wednesday of last week (sic last 3 words redundant)." Actually, it's also a repeat of a day or two we remember from last year, huge up day in the Dow/huge down day in the Nasdaq, and tech seemed to recover OK. (You'd think someone on CNBC would look for data points on that.)

"I'm selling the banks because I'm up 50% in many names," Kevin O'Leary said, explaining he bought BA and that he likes the idea of "derisking" into 2018 (Bad Year Ahead Re-Alert). "I think derisking is the theme."

O'Leary predicted a "sell-on-news" situation when tax reform passes.

How come all the options paper didn’t predict that MU was going to fall 20%?

Stephen Weiss on Monday's Halftime said we'd have to see 3 rate hikes next year to keep the momentum in financials.

But Josh Brown quibbled over the notion that the trend in banks hasn't already been happening.

Jim Lebenthal protested that "'tech,' that term, is too broad a term to use."

Jim said there are things rallying now to be suspicious of, specifically retail.

Weiss said M announced hiring more holiday workers.

"They do that every year, Steve. Every year," Jim said.

Weiss admitted he "sold Macy's foolishly" and isn't buying retail now.

Jim said he'd "absolutely" buy MU and others though he's "kinda filled out in that space."

Ylan Mui outlined the differences between the House and Senate tax bills. Mui said Congress and herself will likely have to probably "give up part of their Christmas vacation." Judge promised Mui "comp days."

Joe Terranova told Judge, "It's a rotation. People are ringing the register."

Brown said, "Maybe I'm weird," but he doesn't know anyone with a portfolio of "just banks and no tech." Brown suggested people own varying sectors and it's too hard to pick when each will turn.

That line of conversation set off Weiss, who said he disagrees; "I invest where the fundamentals and where I think they're gonna be."

Weiss then questioned why Brown's been doing this for 19 years or why investors need him when they can "just buy the S&P ETFs." Kevin O'Leary answered for Brown, stating, "Because when vol comes back, they're gonna fall in love with him again."

O'Leary somehow knows that "next year's darling" is "not gonna be tech."

Jim, Pete, Steph all scoffed at Joe’s UPS call that kicked butt

Monday's Halftime panel was unanimous in dismissing the notion of getting long APRN, even though Judge tried to suggest it around a commercial break.

Judge "wanted to make sure" Kevin O'Leary revealed that he invested in Plated.

O'Leary said APRN is a "zero" unless KR buys it.

Pete Najarian said January 36 calls in TRN were being bought.

Jim Lebenthal said "there's all sorts of regulatory hair" on the CVS-AET deal and predicted it would get tied up in the courts "a long time."

Joe Terranova recalled getting grilled for saying weeks ago that he likes UPS as well as FDX (back when Jim was "reporting the facts on the ground"). But now Joe says he likes FDX better because UPS has gotten "a little bit rich."

Josh Brown said CMG needs to hire a marketing expert. Brown said "momentum was actually improving" while the stock made new lows. But he said he wouldn't buy it.

Weiss sounded a little lukewarm on DIS.

Kevin O'Leary touted BA for several reasons.

Pete Najarian called EBAY a "very inexpensive stock," though "I'm not in it right now."

Judge entertained extended dialogue about sports gambling. Kevin O'Leary said, "I don't know about you guys, but the guys I watch football with on Sunday, all have bookies. I al- I tell 'em every Sunday, they're bad bad guys, you shouldn't do this."

Joe said, "Full disclosure, I was a customer of TradeSports."

Everybody had fun with the pronunciation of "Urus."

Kevin O'Leary's final trade was HUM, on a "speculative" theory that WMT buys it. Weiss said UAL. Jim Lebenthal said IBM. Josh Brown said SCHW, in a "major, major breakout."

[Friday, Dec. 1, 2017]

This isn’t any way to do
landmark legislation

So it's apparently going to happen.

Republican tax reform is apparently about to pass the same way Democratic Obamacare passed.

100% partisan. Zero contribution from the other side. Barely pushed across the goal line.

Hopefully no one — despite whatever merits of the bill — thinks this is good for the country.

For people in government to trumpet this process — or the Obamacare process — as a victory is borderline sickening.

Rather, both are a signal of weak leadership that cannot attain broad support.

Any bill that cannot get 60% support in either house likely is not needed and quite possibly is a bad idea.

No one expects the other side to completely agree with a party's legislative initiatives. There should be some outreach. Republicans should've set a goal of 10 Democratic senators and maybe 40 representatives for tax reform.

We get that some Democratic resistance to this bill is bogus, that secretly some of them probably agree with the merits but don't want to be perceived as working with a major Trump issue. They own that, going back to when Barack Obama and Harry Reid tried to block a perfectly good judge for the Supreme Court who thankfully now sits there. That might've been presidential-type leadership … in Russia.

But Mitch McConnell and the president need to give them more chances. This nation needs some Democrats to vote for this bill.

An important part of politics is getting various people to join you in your initiatives. The president claims to be a great dealmaker. He can't get the other party to support anything he does.

A big part of life is getting along with people who may not see the world the same way. Neighbors, co-workers, relatives. If you want to write off everyone who prefers different cable news channels to you, you're making a big mistake.

The 2000s have been a very discouraging century in American politics.

Let's hope it's a blip, not a trend.

John Harwood: ‘This president and members of his family are in deep trouble’

We're not sure what we've heard more often in the last 12 months: increasing volatility, or Donald Trump in big trouble.

Judge on Friday's Halftime impressively glided between Michael Flynn news and Mitch McConnell news, of course, he did have the help of CNBC superfox Ylan Mui, who had a tremendous day in the nation's capital.

Mui reported, "This tax bill is moving faster than folks had thought."

John Harwood started with the White House statement on Michael Flynn's plea, scoffing that it's a "nice try" to shrug off Flynn's plea, "but this president and members of his family are in deep trouble right now (sic last 2 words redundant, needless)."

"The circumstances here are very, very dire for the White House," Harwood added.

On taxes, Harwood said Mitch McConnell might be playing "a bit of a confidence game."

Eamon Javers was mostly pointing out the "media frenzy" (twice) as Mike Flynn walked to a car.

Larry Kudlow dialed in to tell Judge the Senate has 50 votes.

Judge at one point mentioned property "tux" but corrected himself.

Larry Kudlow said that in the Flynn case, "None of it's good."

"He really has to be a damn fool to lie before the FBI," Larry said.

Kudlow questioned what the problem is contacting Russia. "I don't know, and others I've consulted don't know, why is it illegal for the Trump campaign to make contact with, with Russian officials, in this particular case, Ambassador Kislyak. I don't know if that's illegal."

Judge said, "On the face of it, maybe in and of itself (sic 4 words redundant/needless) it is not," Judge said.

But moments later, Josh Brown responded that the Logan Act is why Trump's people can't reach out to Russians.

Larry said he doesn't see "any impact" of Flynn's case on tax legislation.

However, "I don't think the White House has figured out their response" to Flynn, Larry said.

He did grumble about the gain/loss assessment. "The Joint Tax Committee has not scored the repatriation properly," Larry asserted.

Javers reported a tweet from James Comey that seemed a bit over the top. Javers said Comey had previously been using a "ghost account." (See, that's how TWTR boosts those daily active users.)

Javers said there's some "real confusion" about how much access reporters would have to the president Friday.

Another Halftime guest is sure 2018 will be a tough year in stocks, heavy on volatility

Sitting in with Friday's Halftime crew, Grandpa Mike Wilson said markets are always looking for an "excuse" to do something.

But it was this comment that got our attention:

"It's gonna get harder to make money than it was in '17," Wilson asserted.

Really. Isn't it interesting how everyone on the Halftime Report seems to know that.

The curious thing is that Wilson took up the notion of euphoria and said "we're getting there," while Judge noted that Ken Griffin thinks it's the "7th inning."

"Sentiment has changed a lot in the last year," Wilson stated.

So the way we understand it, virtually every guest on the Halftime Report (except the guy who makes the fingerprint lock) knows that the market will be rough in 2018, but everyone else is euphoric and leading the market to trouble.

Judge, who has waved through all these predictions like the Ten Commandments, finally at least offered a half-bent STOP sign, telling Wilson the "harder in '17" comment "piqued" his interest. Wilson said there will be "likely a topping" of earnings growth in 2018, and, "volatility is going to pick up. It's definitely going to pick up next year."

"Definitely." OK. Has he been buying VIX futures through December 2018? #Judgedidn'task

Wilson added, "This is not gonna be a double-digit year probably in '18 from here." Wilson noted other markets are up "even more" than the U.S., though what that has to do with the 2018 market, we have no idea.

Judge said maybe hedge funds will be "excited" about increasing volatility.

"Late cycle can last for years," Wilson acknowledged.

Meanwhile, Wilson suggested a tax deal might be a sell-the-news event.

Josh Brown said the VIX got to 14, but, "Any time you hear somebody quoting a percentage in a percentage, they're a charlatan, don't get riled up about that."

That's an interesting definition of "charlatan," but whatever.

"We really don't have a panic on our hands," Brown assured.

"The markets will get through this," said Jim Lebenthal, then he brought up the 3.9% GDP forecast of the N.Y. Fed.

Jim said (possible) President Pence "might actually unite the Republican Party."

Joe Terranova's advice is that viewers should be "taking a step back and really doing nothing."

Joe, who had a quiet show, said of tech, "I do believe it is the pause that will refresh."

Judge twice said "in and of itself" during the program.

Jeremy Siegel becomes 2nd person on same program to predict ‘tougher’ year ahead for stocks

Lo and behold, on Friday's Halftime, Jeremy Siegel was predicting a "tougher" year for stocks in 2018.

It started when Josh Brown asked Siegel if it's possible that high GDP in 2018 will actually put the brakes on the market.

Siegel said, "Listen, I've been on record saying next year is not gonna be anywhere like this year … Next year's gonna be tougher. There's no question."

Really. On Dec. 1, there is "no question" that the 2018 market will be lower return than the 2017 market.

Good that he knows that. #professorscallingthestockmarket

Siegel observed, "The tax plan is the prime mover of the equity market right now."

Judge kept trying to insist that Trump has driven the market higher; Siegel said it was the election of a Republican. "I think the stock market pre- prefers President Michael, uh, Pence to Donald Trump," Siegel said. "The market never liked the Trump agenda one bit."

Siegel suggested the corporate rate in the negotiations could creep up from 20% to 22% if they have to "buy off" some holdouts.

Mike Wilson said he'd pick Europe and Japan over the U.S. for the full 2018.

Pete Najarian took a long time to say there's a bunch of buying of XLF December 28 calls, most recently Dec. 29 expiration.

Pete acknowledged the VIX, stating, "I don't think it's a panic level at this point in time."

Joe Terranova's final trade was CME, ICE, NDAQ. Jim Lebenthal said QCOM, "a great time to buy the stock." Josh Brown said TWTR; "this thing has its place in society" (snicker). He predicted it will play a "very big role" with the day's Flynn developments. (Ohhhh. Boy.)

Judge said December is "historically the best month for stocks."

Judge finally went to commercial at the 42-minute mark. #wornout

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