CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Fast Money Review Archive — July 2014]
[Thursday, July 31, 2014]

Paul Meeks’ story
has changed over time

Grandpa Scott Wapner, who seems determined to produce a stock-market bubble this week, brought in a onetime Internet-stock champ with a curious backstory on Thursday's Halftime Report. (Our Fast Money roundup is below.)

Paul Meeks told Judge that in the '90s, he co-hosted a show with "your" (sic) Maria Bartiromo, and so when he took his kid to the Starbucks in Princeton (been there, done that, although there's probably more than 1), "Saturday mornings (sic plural), people (sic plural) would ask me for autographs (sic plural)."

"A couple years later I said something on the air," Meeks continued, and a day trader in L.A. who wasn't even a Merrill Lynch client was upset about the comment "and, uh, threatened to kill me."

"Wow," said Judge.

Wow, indeed. Turn back the clock to this 2003 profile of Meeks in the WSJ for the original version of this anecdote:

"I was a co-host on a [CNBC] show called Market Week with Maria Bartiromo every Friday night for about two years. Also, several times a day I was asked to go down to the TV studio at Merrill and do all kinds of spots for CNN, CNNfn, CNN Moneyline, Bloomberg TV, everyone. One morning during the euphoria, I was taking my son Drew to his little league game. I stopped at a Starbuck's (sic) and while I was in line someone asked me for an autograph. When people start asking Paul Meeks for an autograph, that's the top."

"Several months later, about six months into the crash, Merrill nearly had to tap my phone because a disgruntled day trader, not a Merrill client, who acted on my advice [dispensed on television] was calling repeatedly for weeks. He was saying he was going to kill me."

So, it looks like it was really only 1 autograph, which can be chalked up to television exposure (it happens to Judge and Gasparino and probably even Andrew Ross Sorkin all the time) and not a stock bubble, and the apparent death threat happened only months later, not 2 years later, and didn't actually prompt Merrill to tap the phone or any police involvement.

Meanwhile, Alex Gauna gushed about GPRO and called MU a "very volatile stock" and one that will capsize on a day like Thursday. Gauna thinks the selloff is an opportunity but not until the market stabilizes.

Hopefully, JMP won't have to tap his phones, and folks will leave him alone at Starbucks.

Congressional leadership evidently isn’t the specialty of Ritholtz Wealth Management

Stephen Weiss on Thursday's Halftime shrugged off the market shellacking that was just getting started, saying that the current bull rush has been the "3rd longest win streak" in 25 years without a 10% correction.

Anthony Grisanti said we could be in a situation where the "good news is actually bad news for the markets." Rich Ilczyszyn, long time no see, said the VIX points to lower stock prices.

In the show's "under the radar" feature, Doc pointed out that LLL crashed over a misconduct investigation. Josh Brown said his own under-the-radar shellacking was the XLP, while Mike Murphy pointed to steel names as having strength.

Judge quoted Ackman as opining on the VRX selloff; "at this price it's a gift for investors."

Mike Murphy said he bought more MU on Thursday and hung the $4 EPS on it again.

Doc said he took profits in MPEL calls and bought calls in ED (that's Consolidated Edison, not the condition that prompts the bathtub commercials that Melissa and Karen like to giggle about).

Josh Brown admitted he doesn't know whether Eric Cantor is in the U.S. Senate or House.

Mike Murphy's Final Trade was WFM. Stephen Weiss said the Floyd Trade, HK. Jon Najarian said CCL while Josh Brown said to sell TGT.

Nathan: 1,860 is ‘the next level’

If we had to read between the lines, we'd have to say that Thursday's Fast Money crew was itching to buy the dip.

Steve Grasso said "there was no panic" at the NYSE on Thursday, but he didn't see much of the "buy the dip" mentality from other selloffs.

Guy Adami admitted he thought Thursday's action would happen at the end of June (it didn't) and pointed to an outside month in the Russell, then questioned whether the Russell or the transports would tumble first.

Grandpa Dennis Gartman went out of his way to say LOCO is a great company but that its price action reminds him of the 1990s.

Grandpa Dan Nathan dubbed the Nasdaq 100 "the single most dangerous asset ... in public equities right now" and hung an 1,860 target on the S&P.

Yet, despite the gloomy words, the tone of the show was fairly upbeat, and most significantly, nobody could really explain (on either Halftime or Fast Money) why the market sold off so much in one day, which is always curious.

Not only was Mel's new red top hyper-cute, but viewers got a spectacular double treat when Seema Mody was enlisted to handle the GPRO call.

Guy: AVP actually buyable

Designated Fast Money Tesla expert Ben Kallo said on Thursday that his shop would be "aggressive buyers" in TSLA on Friday's open.

Steve Grasso said to use the "3-day rule" before jumping into EXPE.

Grasso said he's long KBH, which he said is trading below tangible book.

Guy Adami said he thinks LNKD has more momentum after its afterhours strength.

Michael Pachter described ATVI as a "misunderstood stock" that has 3 "pretty big" franchises and "plenty of catalysts" coming up.

Pachter also said he was on the show "about exactly a year ago," or "literally (sic) July 27th," talking about GME.

CNBC's Bertha Coombs, who's on record as not appreciating this site (that's OK; it's not for everyone), reported the 72-hour cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and did a perfectly fine job.

Steve Grasso said you're "OK" buying TMUS, but be careful.

Guy Adami said the AVP quarter was good enough that you can buy it, with a $12.75 stop.

Dan Nathan, who was moved by Ackman's recent presentation, asserted "the story stinks here" in HLF, and "I would not be picking bottoms."

Guy Adami said "please, save the emails" about his AAPL ambivalence, but he thinks it becomes a buy at 101. Steve Grasso said he agrees and he's waiting to fill out that half-position.

Brian Kelly again touted VLO and the refiners while Steve Grasso again touted LNG.

Dan Nathan's Final Trade was QQQ puts. Brian Kelly said RSX and Guy Adami said BBRY. Steve Grasso offered a trade that doesn't yet exist, MBLY.

[Wednesday, July 30, 2014]

Pete Najarian 5 for 6 this week in Halftime/Fast Money appearances

Wednesday's Fast Money began with some chasing, as Brian Kelly said he "almost pulled the trigger" on TWTR Wednesday but thinks he'll get it in the lower 40s.

Guy Adami called YELP "sort of interesting" with a 72½-73 stop because he's not sure all the shorts have covered.

An interesting debate threatened to take place when Guy Adami predicted WFM shorts would "lean into" (©Sheryl Sandberg) the stock on Thursday.

But Pete Najarian said he was scooping up the shares in the afterhours (when he was able to take a break from his television commitments), which actually could've made for an excellent impromptu bull-bear face-off (but they only do those ahead of the earnings report when Stephanie Link can say "This isn't a trade on this quarter").

Tim Seymour said WFM's delivery service sounds promising.

Mike Farr Pete Najarian, who between his shows and commercials is on the air more than Melissa and Judge combined, said he's "not hearing any chatter or anything" in RFMD, but the September 13 calls were active.

Pete said he likes HES but advised waiting for a lower price to buy.

Guy Adami didn't like the reversal in GRMN and said to avoid for a few days.

Tim Seymour said "you fade this move" in BCS and that the worst is over for SFLY.

Brian Kelly said the 2.38% gain in NFLX is "not really huge" and said he'd fade the name.

Melissa not sure what to make of the manservants

Driverless cars are going to be an interesting topic for years. On Wednesday's Fast Money, Brian Kelly threw in a wrinkle, questioning the liability of driverless cars and saying he wouldn't buy Mobileye for that reason.

Pete Najarian pointed out how Goldman Sachs seems to be behind all these IPOs, and he likes GS.

Invensense chief Behrooz Abdi told Mel he'd have to give her the "standard answer" as to whether his parts are in the new iPhone: He can't say.

Mel pushed through a backdoor question, whether Abdi's guidance included at least one big contract, and he said something about everything's in the guidance.

Guy Adami called INVN "worth owning" even though a lot of people (who aren't capable of looking up a P.E. ratio online) would think it's a 50 multiple.

Paul Hickey said RSG and WFC are 2 stocks he likes with a strengthening dollar, and BA and EL are 2 he doesn't. Pete Najarian suggested WYNN might be hurt also, which Hickey called a "good point."

Guy Adami endorsed RSG, but Brian Kelly said he'd like to sell WFC.

Guy predicted mid-teens for GLW before it sees $20 again.

Mike Khouw suggested selling the November 45 put in TWTR for $4.25.

Wasting no time, Mel actually flirted with air quotes around "technology" during her intro with Kelly Evans.

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was C. Pete Najarian said YHOO, Brian Kelly said TBT and Guy Adami said LNKD while giving a shout-out to an off-camera intern.

Speaking of going public, how come we haven’t heard any progress reports on the DELL turnaround that was enabled by Michael Dell taking it private?

Jon Najarian on Wednesday's Halftime Report initially protested that he wasn't smart about buying TWTR around 30, just lucky to be doubling down, but right now, "I don't have a lot of reasons to want to jump in here."

After a frustrating go-round in which a couple people argued that TWTR shouldn't be considered in binary competition with FB while others insisted they weren't saying that, Doc was unable to answer Josh Brown's question about what Facebook's revenues were when it went public, shrugging, "I don't look back and see stuff like that."

Stephen Weiss called TWTR "still very overvalued."

Steve Liesman didn't talk about Kocherlakota this time but did say "at the end of the day" (Drink) during his Fed remarks.

Paul Richards said he thinks the dollar "is getting overvalued here." Dr. New Land, who was unusually quiet during an extraordinarily sleepy show, said to look at CAT and other multinationals if the dollar is indeed overvalued.

Mr. New World made a stronger case for CMG than designated bull Pete Najarian did; both Joe and Steve Weiss suggested YUM is nothing to write home about.

Joe also said he'd get back into KORS only in the mid-70s.

Mike Murphy, with a phone connection that sounded like a Radio Shack walkie-talkie, said he was heartened by Wednesday's move in WFM and sees "a little reason for uh some optimism."

Judge's star guest of the day was 1999s Internet star Stephan Paternot, who said the day TheGlobe.com went public was "completely surreal."

Paternot eloquently described the frenzy of the time but warned that once you go public, you get the pressure of everyone demanding results from your business model.

Judge, delivering a corporate shout-out on behalf of 2 of his panelists, was heard to add an "s" to "OptionsMonster" (sic).

Stephen Weiss' Final Trade was a pair, TBF and AAL. Pete Najarian said RFMD and Jon Najarian said AKAM. Mr. New Land said NMBL calls.

[Tuesday, July 29, 2014]

Nathan on TWTR: ‘You do not want to fade this move’

Dan Nathan on Tuesday's Fast Money pointed out — without a Brag Trade actually — that he bought TWTR heading into earnings, and then proceeded to paint a rosy forecast despite the fact it's one of the "Web 2.0" stocks he typically has mocked.

"You do not want to fade this move," bellowed Nathan, citing how Facebook took off last year on that first great quarter.

Steve Grasso said all the sellers in Twitter, save for maybe the "incremental" variety, are long gone.

Guy Adami admitted that his point a day ago about TWTR not doing great after FB's earnings being a cause for concern was "misguided."

Mel impressively forced Josh Brown to admit "at the end of the day" (Drink) that he thinks analysts will have to start evaluating Twitter by how often people talk about it on TV, which Brown said is "appropriate because Twitter's a very unique proposition."

Nathan was doing fine, until he attempted a cockamamie theory about 3 downturns in AMZN's stock price over 15 years occurring after Jeff Bezos gives an interview to someone.

Missy, in neat blue frock, admitted, "Prior to joining Twitter ... I was a Twitter creeper."

Please, Carl, consider
taking a position in DWA

Guy Adami said on Tuesday's Fast Money that PNRA is worth owning against a 140 stop.

Dan Nathan said to wait a few days before plunging into BWLD.

Guy said X "smoked this quarter" but advised viewers to "be really careful here" around the $30 level.

Ben Baldanza discussed SAVE's quarter and reminded Mel that it's "options," not "fees." Guy Adami pointed to the stock's outside day lower and suggested it "might be in for a pause."

Steve Grasso made it sound like DWA has a massive hill to climb to bring its costs under control. (This writer is long DWA.)

Guest Paul Sankey said "the Brent picture looks strong" but he thinks WTI has "peaked."

Steve Grasso endorsed LNG but said he expects pressure on refiners.

Brian Kelly said to "stay away" from GLW.

Guy Adami said to trade WYNN once it climbs 220.

Dan Nathan said a seller of September 67.50 HLF puts was making a "pretty negative bet."

Dan Nathan's Final Trade was to buy TWTR on pullbacks in the mid-40s, which isn't much of a Final Trade. Steve Grasso said AMZN, Brian Kelly said LNG and Guy Adami said FB.

Josh talks up an IPO he doesn’t want you to get too excited about

After scorching Seema Mody listed on Tuesday's Halftime Report the hot IPOs coming out this week, Josh Brown said the one he's most intrigued about is Mobileye because of the sensors it's developing for Tesla.

But Brown said he's reluctant to mention Mobileye because he doesn't want viewers to plow into it on the 1st day, prompting Ron Insana — an all-time great TV/stock market presenter/observer — to say that type of disclaimer is totally different than the go-go mania of the late '90s, which is why this isn't the same type of bubble.

Insana and Herb Greenberg — after viewers were shown the 1990s footage about 17 times — said late in the program what every observer says, that today's Nasdaq isn't in a 1999-like bubble.

Insana also quipped, "That hairpiece was never my choice."

Meanwhile, Pete Najarian invoked a Patty Edwards staple, "at this point in time (sic last 2 words redundant)," in saying that Goldman Sachs "feels like they're late" in putting COST on the famous Conviction Buy list. Pete said he likes COST but likes TGT more than COST or WMT.

Mike Murphy said that if TGT gets the right CEO, that's a catalyst to the upside.

(No one bothered to explain why COST is always touted as a buy when gas prices are going up because of all those people signing up as members to get to the Costco gas pumps and how that squares with Jeff Kilburg saying a day ago that gasoline inventories are high.)

Jeff Kilburg on Tuesday told Jackie DeAngelis that the dollar seems poised to go higher.

Judge actually waits 10 minutes to cross-reference Cramer

Judge put together an unfortunately humdrum opening to Tuesday's Halftime on whether Twitter is equal, better or worse than Facebook, summarized after about 8-9 minutes by Zach Seward, who opined, "If these results disappoint this afternoon, I, you know, there, I would imagine investors flee."

The star guest was Robert Reffkin, who said Urban Compass is "a real estate platform that is powering a brokerage."

It's worth noting that Reffkin did say his company has created a "lead algorithm" (listen up, HFT folks) so that when a visitor is interested in a certain apartment, he/she is connected to "the agent that has the most relevant experience, highest customer satisfaction scores" (translation: if you're an agent, you'd be wise to hire a techie).

Josh Brown said the prices of homes are climbing faster than incomes, which was a problem last time.

But Keith Banks predicted housing would strengthen as unemployment gets to 5.5% a year from now.

Keith Banks said "front and center is geopolitical risk."

Judge quoted Cramer on pharma earnings; Pete Najarian had the audacity to say he disagrees with Cramer's negative reaction and that PFE really was an impressive report.

Mike Murphy said FTR and WIN "got a little bit ahead of themselves," and Tuesday morning was a good time to sell.

Pete said GLW revenues "weren't so bad" and the stock is an "opportunity under $20 a share."

Josh Brown called the WMT news "bullish" for PLUG.

Pete Najarian said someone was making bullish bets on DD September 67.50 calls. Pete said "I own only the options" in this name, which was his Final Trade.

Seema Mody was actually mentioned in the first item, but we already had photos with that one, so Seema's photo runs above this item.

Stephanie Link, who had a super-quiet show and looked bored during the Ron Insana-Herb Greenberg appearance, made PVH her Final Trade. Mike Murphy said BK and Josh Brown said VWO.

[Monday, July 28, 2014]

Analyst: AAPL has to buy smart people for continued success

Most observers of AAPL would likely agree that the company has a lot of smart people.

Apparently, it doesn't have enough of them, according to analyst Brian Marshall.

Marshall tackled the issue of Apple's cash hoard on Monday's Fast Money.

"I think the company is only gonna be successful as the company- as the, as the employees that work for it. In particular, the design talent, uh, the engineers. Uh, and so, I would be looking for assets to buy, uh, that have phenomenal teams," Marshall said.

He pointed out, "At the end of the day (Drink) they bought Beats," but then explained, "I was a little bit disappointed, uh, to see, uh, Nest go to Google."

So if we understand this correctly, Marshall is stating that other entities will be developing more exciting/important/successful products than AAPL's people can develop, so Apple needs to buy those other companies.

It's kind of like saying that the Seattle Seahawks need to sign some free agents.

Marshall again proclaimed "the motherlode of all Apple upgrade cycles" as the iPhone 6 — the greatest product since the light bulb — prepares to be made available to consumers.

Tim Seymour thought he'd sound cool saying "vis-à-vis."

Guy Adami puts together
monster show

He was nearly all business, barely making a face for the camera.

Whatever the cause, Guy Adami brought his A game to Monday's Fast Money with a superbly crisp smorgasbord of stock picks.

Guy suggested the bounce in DRI is not over and that the stock perhaps will reach $50.

Guy said the way to play the Zillow deal is to get long MOVE, but wait until the quarter and hope for a dip.

Guy said TGT is "sort of interesting" if it holds around 60 and that it might face pressure to make a deal like DLTR did.

Guy said TWTR's lack of a spike after the FB report is cause for concern.

Guy predicted BBRY falls to $9.

Guy said that in the case of a promising biotech such as ARWR, "it becomes pretty binary," and the stock "sets up pretty good on the long side."

Guy said Alcoa plays into the hands of a "re-acceleration" in China. Dennis Gartman congratulated Guy for saying so.

We're not the experts, but the only one of those we'd view with a bit of skepticism is TGT.

Question Mel never asks: Exactly how many people are working on this Hepatitis B breakthrough?

Dennis Gartman joined Monday's Fast Money (that's what happens when "DAD" is on speed dial) to caution against the "furor ... frenzy ... excitement" he sees regarding the meteoric rise in LOCO.

"Let's give them congratulations," Dennis allowed, before complaining that this type of reaction is "reminiscent of the heyday of the early part of the century."

For his part, Tim Seymour warned viewers against becoming too "euphoric" about the Dollar Tree buyout of Family Dollar.

Josh Brown said with a remarkable degree of assurance that TWTR is going higher, pointing to several factors including how it's now into its 3rd quarter of sluggishness while Facebook had to slog through 5 before things turned around (which seemed as much a sell case as a buy case). Tim Seymour said the World Cup is over and that the key metric is in decline.

Pete Najarian said "I'd certainly be interested" in the Virgin America IPO. Guy Adami said JBLU is the play. Tim Seymour made conflicting points (Drink) about DAL within a single soundbite.

Josh Brown said he thinks FSLR is the solar name that will reach 100 first.

Pete Najarian said RFMD January 12 calls were hot.

Pete Najarian thinks TSN rises, and Josh Brown likes CMI.

Chris Anzalone, CEO of Arrowhead Research, apparently the star guest of the program, said his company's short-lived treatment in a monkey showed "clear and deep knockdown" of the protein problem that is produced by Hepatitis B, and actually explained very articulately what Hepatitis B does to the body, though it's a bit too complicated to post here.

Mike Khouw said WYNN September 220 calls were active.

Tim Seymour felt the need to tell viewers that the song they just heard was "China Grove."

Tim Seymour went to great lengths to assure viewers that EJ, his Final Trade, is not a high-flying momentum stock. Pete Najarian said RFMD, Josh Brown said FSLR and Guy Adami said EMN.

Here’s a question: How come Judge never asks Henry Blodget about the purpose of Business Insider?

Henry Blodget is obviously an intelligent, affable chap.

This page has pointed out his business savvy as well as professional setbacks.

We wish him the best.

But we couldn't help but wonder on Monday, when Judge brought him in for another opinion as to the valuation of the stock market, how Blodget has risen to this level of market commentary.

Or put another way, what exactly is the goal of Blodget's (somewhat) celebrated Web site, Business Insider.

Because, to be honest, it doesn't seem like it's much about "inside business."

Rather, it looks like a glorified Buzzfeed pegged toward the Wall Street/investor/wealthy types whom Blodget associates with.

That's partly OK; this site too strives to post material that its core audience (snicker) would presumably care about even if it has nothing to do with CNBC, Wall Street or business media.

The problem with Business Insider is the "glorified Buzzfeed" notion.

See, if you go to the bottom of businessinsider.com and click on "disclaimer," which is dated Oct. 2, 2007, you find interesting nuggets such as this:

"You should be skeptical of any information on Business Insider, because it may be wrong."

And,

"The Site and any information therein is provided without warranty of any kind, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for use of a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement."

Ah. See, that's where we differ.

This site gets a fraction (if that) of the page views of Business Insider.

But unlike Business Insider, you don't have to be skeptical.

This is 100% real.

As in, voluntary effort. 100% independent.

Perhaps Judge could ask Blodget as to the purpose of posting an article titled "17 Mindblowing (sic spelling) Facts About North Korea that involves clicking through an 18-page photo gallery and enjoying reader comments along the way, for those too strapped to find better ways to waste their time.

Which gets to the larger point: We're glad you're here. We treasure every click. We're here because you are. No visitor to this page or site is going to 1) have to register or login or whatever the heck it is or 2) get bombarded by dancing ads that block the screen or 3) play page-view games.

We're here because the information on CNBC — regardless of the present state of the channel — is newsworthy, watched by an astoundingly informed audience, and worthy of commentary, and will be addressed on this site dedicated to the highest standards of journalism established by America's daily newspapers and news publications long ago.

And, we luvvvvvv talking about stocks.

It's totally fine to disagree or roll your eyes. You might not even laugh. What readers of this page don't have to do is question the "fitness" of this material.

Evidently, Blodget is considered by CNBC to be an expert on the stock market, despite the fact his occupation appears to be running a clickbait Web site financed by oceans-deep venture capitalist dollars.

Fair enough. But consider: If Blodget were interviewing Judge for an article/podcast on Business Insider, wouldn't it be totally obligatory to ask Judge what the goal/mission of CNBC is?

Blodget on Monday told Judge, "I'm very concerned about the level of valuation" in the stock market.

Yes, that is Seema Mody
in new outfit

Monday's Halftime Report, a certifiable bust as soon as Marc Faber came aboard, produced almost nothing to write home about after the famous headline-creating "doom monger" left in a huff over Judge's (correct) characterization that Faber is generally wrong. (But all you have to do is buy gold and Treasurys and see, you still come out way ahead.)

Judge invoked the cliche "literally wrote the book" when introducing Roger Lowenstein and John Cassidy for a bizarre tech-bubble series that doesn't seem grounded in reality of a struggling Nasdaq Composite (it trails the S&P 500) in 2014.

Pete Najarian made a bull case for CSCO, but Stephanie Link shrugged that there's "nothing really special there."

Pete cited materials as an under-the-radar play that's been working.

Dr. New World reached back into his bag of tricks for LPX (Drink) but said he won't buy the "falling knife" because the XHB has been struggling "on a teckell (sic) basis."

Jeff Kilburg said refiners are filling up with gasoline, which is great for the consumer, and then reached back into his bag of tricks for "Lake Okoboji," a subject (Drink) we've tackled before (see the archive, but honestly we can't remember which year/month) and consider it a public service to remind readers that there is no such thing as the University of Okoboji.

Kate Kelly, who is very pretty and natural, said Carl Icahn came up big in the Family Dollar buyout, but "This was not the deal that Carl Icahn had specifically sought out."

Why should Judge put Marc Faber on the air this time?

We knew right from the opening moments that Monday's Halftime Report was sunk, given that Marc Faber was billed as the star guest.

Judge should be embarrassed for allowing this manufactured media creation onto his program as a legitimate opinion. (Doesn't mean Faber's a bad guy, only that professionally, this is "The Poseidon Adventure.")

Faber declared this time that "we'll make a peak sometimes (sic) within the next uh 30 to 60 days and then go down meaningfully."

Judge protested that Faber has made a number of calls over the years on CNBC, "the majority of which have not come to fruition ... so why should we listen to Marc Faber this time?" (We answer that question with the headline of this item.)

Elsewhere, Dr. New Land said, "The Jeffrey Gundlach Thesis right now is working," pointing out Gundlach's XHB short is working (but not prompting Pete Najarian to thunder "THE XHB DOESN'T EVEN MEASURE THE HOUSING SECTOR!!!!!!").

We'll have more from Halftime and Fast Money later.

[Thursday-Friday, July 24-25, 2014]

Herb makes Ackman’s
presentation sound like
‘Citizen Kane’

We're not actually out of order here; we managed to churn out some recaps from Friday's Halftime Report and Fast Money (see below).

But after a day's lag we also caught up with Thursday's Halftime, which provided several howlers.

Herb Greenberg praised Bill Ackman's HLF presentation as a "blockbuster" ... "pretty interesting stuff" ... "methodically" ... "laboriously" ... "a heckuvan investigation" ... an extremely thorough and convincing case that would've been viewed differently had it come from a poor journalist who isn't wagering tens of millions on the outcome ... but Herb admitted "it was boring."

Judge asserted, before waffling slightly, that even Ackman would admit a "PR blunder" in overselling the presentation.

To which Herb, citing "anticipointment" (sic), admitted, "You're absolutely right; I think what he did was ridiculous."

The last thing we wanted to hear was another conversation about how PEP might want to buy SODA; Stephen Weiss at least admitted "I moved on" from the latter.

Catching up with Thursday:
Dan Niles mocks Joe’s choice for King of Tech

We were almost planning to let coverage of Thursday's Halftime/Fast Money slide, given that Fast Money was turned over to clips of Steve Liesman's interview with Barack Obama (gotta love the preparation that the president gets for interviews like that ... "When he asks about inversions, don't say they're illegal, just say they're not in the country's best interests or something like that ... If he asks about Dodd-Frank or bank bonuses or too big to fail, say that Wall Street can't go running roughshod over Main Street and needs to be held accountable ... If he brings up the debt-ceiling or shutdowns, just blame House Republicans ... if he asks about the dollar, make sure you say we're committed to a strong dollar ...").

Yet, Judge's opening Halftime question about who's the "King of Tech" was such a train wreck, we need a few sentences at least.

Dr. New World said he points to the "institutional ownership" of AAPL as to why Tim Cook and not Zuck or Jeff Bezos is the King of Tech.

Yet, Stephen Weiss scoffed that Tim Cook is "not an idea guy."

Dan Niles, who bragged that he didn't like FB at the IPO but did like it once the turnaround occurred, said he's surprised that Larry Page wasn't one of Judge's candidates for King of Tech.

In a dis, Niles scoffed, "Tim Cook, that's just a non-starter."

Steve Weiss defended Jeff Bezos vs. Zuck, pointing out how far AMZN has grown since its IPO whereas FB has not yet doubled from its IPO.

"That's not relevant," given the time frame, scoffed Niles.

Maybe next time, they can tackle whether Batman or Spider-Man is more powerful.

Niles even chipped in an "at the end of the day."

Josh brings A game

Of course it came as no surprise Friday that Josh Brown (or Pete Najarian, who leads the league in at-bats), after already appearing on the Halftime Report, was able to sit in for Fast Money as well.

But Brown in fact owned the day (see below) and virtually made the rest of the Halftime/Fast Money panelists irrelevant.

Brown on the 5 p.m. show scoffed at the notion of U.S. sanctions on Russia, declaring our government has "absolutely no follow-through on anything" and believing that "Russian stocks are buyable here," specifically Sberbank and Gazprom.

Tim Seymour, though, cautioned that the sanctions might actually hurt Russian companies if they are "sectoral" (sic).

Elsewhere, Pete Najarian modestly tried to avoid a backpedal on his AMZN concerns, stressing "this is a 1-day reaction."

There again, Brown stood tall as the only panelist with a useful call, stating AMZN can be "bought safely around 280."

Tim Seymour, referring to TSLA, actually said "the multiples do matter" (snicker).

Pete Najarian said August 80 calls in EL were hot, but that he couldn't get them at the price he saw others getting them.

We're not sure exactly what it was, but Mel was cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute in black outfit Friday.

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was AMX. Josh Brown said VWO, Brian Kelly said SWC and Pete Najarian said DOW.

Stacey Gilbert:
Fast Money original

Judge on Friday's Halftime called for a chart of Uber, then conceded, "I keep forgetting. Hello. Knock-knock. Anybody there today? Hello."

Josh Brown followed with the line of the day, stating, "Uber's up $5 right now on the fantasy stock exchange."

Judge lamented that he was likely to hear from the Twittersphere for the bungle. And perhaps even some blogs. No. An easy mistake with real-time news. Judge has more than held his own at rattling off tickers, and this page is happy to give him a pass.

Meanwhile, Josh Brown had not only the best line but most intriguing call, pointing out that P has missed 6 of 7 quarters but always bounces back (that's not actually true), and for the capper, "Everyone knows how this ends, with a takeover." (This writer is long P.)

Stephen Weiss was bearish on P while conceding, "I would not be short the stock," but asserted that "royalties are gonna go up" and that user hours are in decline.

Pete Najarian thinks P is going lower.

Brown endorsed LOCO, stating it's cheaper than CMG and sends "all the right signals with millennials."

Doc cited his cousin David Najarian as competing in California against LOCO as proof Doc knows how good LOCO is.

Pete Najarian cautioned against plowing into WCG or other Medicaid names; "there's a lot more room to the downside ... wait at least a few days."

Joe Greco said he's surprised the VIX is as low as it is.

Pete Najarian said September 48 calls in MSFT were hot. Jon Najarian predicted "60 through sometime in 2015."

Josh Brown said he sold TAN and bought FSLR for his Playbook Playoffs portfolio.

Brown's only mistake on the day (uncorrected by Judge), probably Gekko-influenced, was claiming that Ace Greenberg's favorite employees were those "PHD" (sic) types who are "Poor, hungry (sic) and determined."

Finally, Friday's Halftime brought a rare treat — Stacey Gilbert, who we think was Dylan Ratigan's original Fast Money options expert (unless Pete got in just ahead of her). Gilbert told Judge at Post 9, "Money clearly is going into emerging markets these days."

Mary Thompson,
draped in golden hair

Friday's Halftime Report started off a bit wobby, as Doc clumsily tried to explain why AMZN stock isn't for everyone.

"You are like a vegetarian walking into a steakhouse if you decide to jump on these stocks as a normal investor. You're just wrong. You're not gonna find what you want there," Najarian said.

While we immediately sensed a link to Rick Santelli's demand for the Fed to perform more "steak and potatoes" banking, we think Doc was really stating that you trade AMZN on technicals, not fundamentals.

To that end, Doc crowed that he got long AMZN by selling August 310 puts; "I'm moving the odds in my favor."

Josh Brown and Stephen Weiss got tangled up early as to whether people that want Amazon to invest in the future can also demand they get it right every quarter; Weiss said you should be able to have it both ways.

Pete Najarian said UA, his favorite stock (until it isn't), is at $70 "living up to what they said they could potentially do."

Mary Thompson delivered breaking news on the death of Ace Greenberg as Judge proceeded to read the N.Y. Times to viewers, although Judge impressively did raise the specter of Ace's role in the collapse of Bear.

Jon Najarian's Final Trade was DAL. Stephen Weiss said AAL, Pete Najarian said MSFT and Josh Brown said FSLR.

[Wednesday, July 23, 2014]

Mel stood up by VMWare CEO, fights back with air quotes

The fireworks (that's overstating it a bit) on Wednesday's Fast Money were saved for nearly the end, when Melissa Lee explained that VMWare's CEO Pat Gelsinger just canceled his scheduled Fast Money interview a couple hours earlier.

"VMWare saying it is, quote, sensitive about Elliott Management," Lee said.

Brian Kelly questioned why management wouldn't want to get out there on television. Tim Seymour said it would be difficult for Gelsinger to take questions in this environment, but Mel wasn't sympathetic.

"He could say 'no comment' to me 5 times in a row," Lee said.

"I get why he wouldn't want to be on here saying no comment," Seymour insisted.

Doc tried to come across as aghast that Gelsinger would cancel (he actually said EMC not VMW) and, in referencing $50 billion, $45 billion and $1 billion, made utterly no sense to anyone who didn't know what he was talking about.

Meanwhile, much of Wednesday's show included Facebook-gushing.

"I think the stock continues to go higher," said Jon Najarian, as even Tim Seymour indicated he was OK with the multiple.

Bob Peck said the "Buy" button represents "billions of dollars of opportunity."

Dan Nathan, in the only lunk-headed comment, said that if your cost basis in FB is low, just keep riding it, but "if you bought it up here ... it's a different story."

Which of course makes zero sense, as the stock does not trade on what your cost basis is. (Perhaps we'll curry some favor with Karen for that.)

Jon Najarian said ARIA was hot in part because of fake Twitter posts, but regardless, some serious buyers were in the options while the company had a "whole buncha rumors swirling around it," so, "I bought it today."

Doc insisted Meg Whitman is going to jump aboard the 3-D printing train. "She will be in this space with Hewlett Packard," Doc promised.

Dan Nathan said there's "really no support" in XLNX until 35.

Nathan said August 92.50 calls in PEP were hot, but he finds the PEP/KO trade rich.

Ingrid Pierce said the London real estate market is on fire. Tim Seymour said he hears that real estate has "reasonably poor liquidity" but quickly allowed, "that doesn't make it a bad investment."

Mel noted that Pierce was on Fast Money in Vegas in May ... which doesn't seem likely next year given that the Mooch evidently is bailing for Gasparino's channel and it's hard to see CNBC continuing to be the SALT broadcast partner. (Tip for Vegas restaurants when Gasparino's crew arrives: Make sure they know which meals are off-limits to the press.)

Missy unfortunately still thinks it's cool to say "InterWeb."

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was to sell TUR. Dan Nathan said to buy CSCO. Brian Kelly said to sell BA, and Jon Najarian said buy ATI.

Tip: AAPL has a big launch ahead

Ben Lerer's bullish (that's putting it mildly) take on FB on Wednesday's Halftime Report proved richly rewarded after the earnings call. (This review was posted after the market close.)

"They are the Internet," Lerer asserted, calling the stock as interesting as anything else in the "universe."

Mike Murphy agreed, but Grandpa Josh Brown suggested "everyone else has already perceived" that Facebook has got the future down pat. (This writer had a position in FB but no longer as of this writing.)

Meanwhile, Pete Najarian told Judge "I was absolutely impressed" by AAPL's earnings report. Josh Brown claimed that "stocks breaking 90 tend to go through a hundred" (Drink).

Jim Suva said the next iPhone will be the "biggest launch ever" for Apple, with or without Sapphire, and he has a $110 price target.

But Suva utterly punted on Pete Najarian's question on whether Beats is a good buy, stating, "the answer is, we don't know yet."

Mike Murphy twice referred to Microsoft's CEO as "Nardella" (sic).

Phil LeBeau admitted that the efficiency of the airlines is unexpected. "I'm surprised they've shown as much discipline as they have," LeBeau said.

Mike Murphy and LeBeau tangled over whether airlines are wisely converting more space for 1st-class international flights.

Josh Brown said JBLU is experiencing a "breakout in progress."

Judge somehow got disconnected around the midway point, so Jackie DeAngelis had to shepherd through the Futures Now conversation in which Jim Iuorio said that low European yields should continue to drive demand for U.S. Treasurys.

Jon Najarian said some lucky trader happened to buy 1,000 of the PBYI 75 calls just before the big news yesterday. Pete Najarian reported "monstrous buying" in TLM August 11 calls.

Kate Kelly reported that John Paulson made $1.3 billion in 10 days on M&A deals.

Josh Brown's Final Trade was KWEB. Mike Murphy said BAC, Pete Najarian said ATML and Jon Najarian said CAG.

Doc revealed that "Pete and I are in and out of stocks maybe 20 times a day."

[Tuesday, July 22, 2014]

Dan Nathan ‘touched’
by Ackman’s tears

In case you thought the whole world decided to blow off Bill Ackman on Tuesday, know that at least one person on Fast Money was moved.

"I believe he's right, and I actually was touched," said Dan Nathan, adding, "This is a scuzzy company."

Guy Adami opined on Ackman's strategy. "He's begging for Herbalife to sue him; that's the game plan. I think the stock goes down," Adami said.

Dan Nathan gets honeymoon
advice from ... Melissa

Dan Nathan cracked up the crowd on Tuesday's Fast Money when he grumbled about the benefit of the doubt that Satya Nadella has been getting; "I wish my honeymoon was as exciting as his was."

That prompted the rest of the gang, especially Missy, to egg on Dan, who would add, "We had a very nice honeymoon. It wasn't 20% nice."

Mel declared, "I am going to save your hide, and go to break," advising Nathan, "Don't talk anymore."

All well and good ... except when is Mel going to report her own honeymoon?

The truth is that Mel is too wedded to the office and isn't socializing enough.

(Not even when wearing chic white tops, such as Tuesday.)

It's fine to be a workaholic, but there's also more to life.

Now, whether Mel is too selective/finicky, we can't say. She does run a tight ship on television, probably too tight.

Way too much of her repertoire is scripted. "Let's bring in ..." "Gotta leave it there ..." "At the end of the day (Drink)" ...

This is not a champion of winging it.

On this particular front, the only thing standing in the way of Melissa's success is Melissa. We have no advice to give.

Guy invokes more material for his everything-the-Fed-does-is-bad thesis

Much of Tuesday's Fast Money was devoted to the (Zzzzzzz) AAPL earnings, which hardly moved the stock.

Gene Munster said iPhone's percentage of AAPL revenue fell from 57% to 52% but it looks like "clear sailing" for Apple until we get the "substance" of the new product announcements.

Steve Grasso, who reported owning a "half-position," figures the stock will either go to 85 or par, but he thinks it will be "drawn to par first."

No. 386 further added an old standby, "2/3 of the overall market trades with the index, right" (Drink), but that people get "white-knuckle" about hanging onto AAPL.

Guy Adami was more optimistic. "I think it rallies from here," Adami said.

Grasso insisted the iWatch is "not gonna cannibalize anything."

Josh Lipton was heard to say "bifurcation" (Drink).

Dan Ives called the cloud a "pillar of strength" for MSFT and has a $49 target.

Dan Nathan said he wouldn't chase BRCM at 40.

Guy Adami recommended being long VMW.

Melissa said the afterhours pop in PBYI demonstrates the "binary nature" of biotech.

Steve Grasso issued a Brag Trade on QCOM, stating, "I made about 35% in the name."

Dan Nathan said he'd buy HOG at 60. Steve Grasso predicted a recovery in KBH "sooner rather than later," and made it his final trade. Guy Adami said HUM is his favorite in the HMO space.

Mike Khouw was intrigued by September 105 call activity in MCD.

Steve Grasso told Mel and Guy to "get a room already" after Mel complimented Guy's call on JACK.

Guy Adami said Janet Yellen's reference to biotech valuations was "totally inappropriate for a space that is not stretched on valuation, at all."

Dan Nathan's Final Trade was MSFT, at 42. Brian Kelly said to sell GLD, and Guy Adami said JACK.

Until someone besides Ackman claims pyramid, HLF isn’t going anywhere

HLF aficionado Robert Chapman, who reaffirmed his comparison of Ackman to P.T. Barnum but demonstrated his own flair for the dramatic, said on Tuesday's Halftime Report he was scooping up HLF shares like there's no tomorrow, and "I can't any bigger" in the position.

Chapman said it's "paramount" that viewers "listen very closely to what I'm about to say," but then went on to clumsily quote a couple of Ackman comments from a day ago and during the presentation about understanding or not understanding the nutrition clubs that didn't really resonate despite the "paramount" nature of these revelations.

Once again, this page will credit Herb Greenberg for pointing out Monday — not predicting a bust, just making a point — that this is just another of Ackman's HLF presentations with hype.

But here's an analogy Herb didn't make that seems valid.

For-profit schools — a favorite subject of Herb — have been under congressional scrutiny for many years because a lot of students — American, not from Third World countries — have ended up with 5-figure debt and degrees that, in some cases, are worthless.

And they're still in business.

‘I would actually call this good inflation right now’

Rebecca Patterson caught our attention on Tuesday's Halftime not for her general stellar appearance but because she said, "I would actually call this good inflation right now."

But regarding the day's 2nd-most-watched stock move, superstar analyst Rich Greenfield contended that NFLX's selloff was "more about domestic margins" and said he had been getting "less excited" about the stock the more it climbed.

Dr. New World wondered why no company has bought NFLX yet. Greenfield suggested it's because Netflix isn't quite there yet in the content creation business, though it's getting better and better, which is fueling the gains.

Greenfield suggested there's no limits on Netflix expansion, "They certainly didn't say no to China."

Joe, meanwhile, uncorking another "Chipulte" (sic), questioned Judge's notion, based on CMG's results, of the consumer choosing burritos over burgers; "I don't know if that's necessarily true."

Jon Najarian asserted that MCD's has been flat while fast-food outlets have been strong because the consumer wants a "custom, if you will Judge, sort of burger."

Doc was heard to say both "Chipotle" and "Chipulte" (sic) in pointing out that MCD unloaded CMG way too early.

Stephanie Link reported that Cramer sold M and bought SBUX but said viewers shouldn't read much into selling M.

Mr. New Land told viewers, "Stay with Apache here; I think it goes higher."

Pete Najarian said that when ag turns around, DD will zoom higher; "I think it's too cheap down here."

Jim Iuorio said 3½ could be support for natural gas and he'd put in a buy there. Jeff Kilburg suggested buying at 3.59.

Josh Brown's Final Trade was to "sell the pop" in HLF. But Jon Najarian said "Long Chapman and Devon Energy, DVN." Pete Najarian said GS and Dr. New Land said ICE.

[Monday, July 21, 2014]

Guy, if Ackman’s always right, how come JCP hasn’t delivered a 15-fold return?

For whatever reason psst ... they tend to cross-promote things on CNBC, Monday's Fast Money decided to remind viewers what they heard from Bill Ackman on the Halftime Report when he told Judge he had no idea what Judge was talking about regarding criticism of his last HLF speech.

Unfortunately, Mel didn't air the best line, which came from Herb Greenberg, who earned his free-lance salary this time by pointing out that Ackman has been delivering speeches on HLF for more than a year and "now he says he's REALLY got the goods," as if the game plan in December 2012 was to get burned mightily with the idea of waiting to deliver the hard stuff in 18 months.

Nevertheless, Guy Adami continues to buy Ackman's sales pitch, reaffirming his loopy notion that Carl will be right short-term while Ackman will ultimately be right.

Tim Seymour stood tall in by far the best comment of the show, pressing Adami as to whether Herbalife is an "Enron-like structure."

"All I'm saying- I know nothing about Herbalife," sputtered Adami, but "I know a lot about Bill, I think he's done the work, I think he could prove to be right."

Mike Khouw said he was intrigued by the weekly 45 puts in HLF.

Meanwhile, Missy led the chorus in denouncing senators' apparent irritation with hedge funds finding a way to tax gains as long-term when it's something that really should be taxed as operating income, as reported by Eamon Javers.

Mel wondered why they'd "investigate something where they didn't break the law."

Karen Finerman even suggested, "How about if the hedge funds had a hearing with senators and said, 'We don't like that you guys, you know, aren't doing any good. And you can't get anything done in your, in your, in your business."

Well, it's actually called a ballot box.

Tim Seymour, who said he wanted to buy AMZN at 250, claims ‘ultimately I default to valuation’

Monday's Fast Money brought in Michael Pachter to discuss his (ridiculously low) NFLX target.

You've seen this movie before.

Pachter said Comcast and other cable giants are going to squeeze Reed Hastings dry Amazon Prime is going to wipe out the competition he maintains a 215 because "red is the new black," and Netflix has "generated negative cash flow over the last 9 quarters."

Guy Adami asserted that the stock has a "huge Reed Hastings premium," because, "but for one misstep ... he's done absolutely everything right."

Pachter agreed but insisted, "Over the long run, investors are gonna get burned on this stock."

Karen Finerman, who has long been skeptical of this page's ability to provide content, admitted she has underrated the programming success of Netflix. "I was very, very skeptical of him being able to make the shift to a content provider, I thought, 'No way does that work,' and I- he's done a great job with that too."

Tim Seymour said he can't buy NFLX because, "Ultimately I default to valuation."

Guy: At 50, buy HAS
‘with both hands’

In a bust of an interview that felt like Missy was given a strict time limit, Hasbro chief Brian Goldner on Monday's Fast Money shrugged off his weaker results as "really a matter of timing."

Guy Adami, however, had a provocative take on HAS, stating that if it gets down to 50, "You buy the stock with both hands."

Karen Finerman, who once again looked dynamite in another new dress and necklace, said "Sadly I don't own any" CMG. Tim Seymour called the multiple "crazy" and said "no way" would he touch it.

Steve Grasso said you can "squeeze a little more juice" out of CMG if it holds 623.

Dennis Gartman said that in a strengthening bond market such as this, you want to be long the 30-year and short the 10-year.

Fast Money clichés we haven’t heard in a while: FCX ‘stole’ Phelps Dodge

Guy Adami said on Monday's Fast Money that KING had some technical short-covering, and "I think it will continue higher."

Steve Grasso said that if you want BBT, "Wait a couple of days for the smoke to clear."

Karen Finerman said she sold URI a bit early, but "it's not cheap anymore."

Tim Seymour, in a rather lukewarm endorsement, said of KO, "I think you can own it; it's not runaway."

Guy Adami said FCX has flirted forever with breakouts, and "this might be the quarter." Tim Seymour said he's long the name.

Steve Grasso mumbled that he'd pick DIS as his top media stock.

Colin Gillis grumbled that for Apple, "Unit shipments are growing materially slower than the market," and the stock has been rising on "pure multiple expansion."

Karen Finerman bluntly stated, "I'm long" AAPL. Tim Seymour chipped in, "At the end of the day" (Drink).

Mel intrigued with a new fetching blue top featuring center design.

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was to sell BIDU. Steve Grasso said buy TWTR. Karen Finerman said buy CMLS, and Guy Adami said SLB.

Sara Eisen tells Guy Adami
he’s been ‘completely wrong’

Sara Eisen told Guy Adami on Kelly Evans' Closing Bell Monday that he's been "completely wrong" on deflation.

Guy insisted, "It's not completely wrong" because "we're not getting inflation where they want it to be."

Ackman tells Judge: ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’

Now we know why Ackman made up with Carl.

He's got some CNBC appearances in the pipeline, and he wants to avoid the distractions.

(To that end, he wasn't asked on Monday's Halftime Report about 1) Rick Santelli's need for a more "steak and potatoes" Fed, 2) what Janet Yellen meant when Steve Grasso's computer "lit up" with questions from analysts and portfolio managers or 3) the 1978 Boston Massacre.)

Ackman insisted on Monday that "the market believes that the probability of Valeant acquiring Allergan has gone up" and dismissed, with telltale terminology, Judge's question of whether a higher bid is coming, stating "I don't think so." (Translation: If boosting it a little bit will seal the deal, we'll do it.)

Ackman suggested that someone's new AGN price target of 180-200 is probably a 12-month forecast, and, "I think that's, you know, within the range, that might be a reasonable way to think about the business," but "today's value" of AGN is 175.

He said the notion that AGN doesn't need VRX is "not credible at all" and that AGN's purported interest in buying companies is a "train wreck."

Furthermore, Ackman said he volunteered to speak with Jim Chanos about "roll-ups," but twice told Judge that unlike Carl recently, "He never returned my call," and even partly dismissed Chanos' motives; "he's really in the spread business."

Eventually Judge got to HLF and allowed Bill to promote his presentation. "This is the largest fraud, public fraud uh, in terms of scale, of countries involved, harm to people," Ackman claimed, which Judge dubiously did not challenge, and vowed to "show you with particularity (sic)" what's happening.

Even Herb Greenberg seemed skeptical of such a promise, pointing out that Ackman has given a couple of presentations, and "now he says he's REALLY got the goods."

Judge briefly pressed Ackman on his assertions a few months ago about Herbalife's China business that hurt the stock but whose "veracity" is now being questioned by some.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ackman said, but he stands behind his statements.

"We have not paid anyone to spread bad information about, uh, Herbalife," Ackman said.

Judge announced that HLF CFO John DeSimone was going to be on Squawk with Judge on Tuesday. Ackman scoffed, "I think there's a high probability he cancels."

Guest: IBM superior to FB

Prior to Bill Ackman's interview, the star guest of Monday's Halftime Report was FB/GOOG-hater Charlie Bobrinskoy.

Bobrinskoy actually touted IBM, based on the size of profit, as a much more appealing investment than FB, though he said GOOG isn't as bad as FB. (This writer is long FB.)

Stephanie Link tried to argue with Bobrinskoy that GOOG is worth paying up for because its revenues are growing whereas IBM's and ORCL's aren't. Bobrinskoy conceded a "lull" in Oracle's growth but said it's successfully transitioning to the "new model" of paying fees over time and moving to the (Drink) cloud.

Josh Brown said Bobrinskoy is making a valid mean-reversion point except that he's talking about tech names, in which someone could've made similar IBM arguments years ago about Xerox or Kodak and that in tech, you want companies that are inventing new industries rather than going obsolete. Bobrinskoy responded that people dismissed IBM 10 years but that it's "becoming a service company." (Really.)

On another front, Mike Murphy said AAPL will have to provide "really good numbers" and "very good insight" to keep the stock moving.

Stephanie Link said Cramer is "taking some profits" in AAPL.

But guest Alex Gauna explained that he's finally upgrading AAPL, to 135, because "we're coming into a very powerful upgrade cycle."

Josh Brown contended, "I think the new belle of the ball is Microsoft."

Dr. New Land, who apparently got the trim this page suggested but otherwise had a quiet show, conceded, "I myself (sic redundant) do not have enough technology. I'll try and correct that over the course of (sic last 4 words redundant) this week."

Mike Murphy backed NFLX because "they more than doubled their EPS." Stephanie Link argued, "It's a great company, but not at this price." Mr. New World said he's sworn off NFLX for months because he was wrong (background: predicted a "miss" over the winter) a couple times but thinks there's an M&A premium in the name so "I give it to Mike, um, if I need to pick a winner."

Mike Murphy said he likes CMG and that the traffic in the stores "just blows my mind" every time he's in there.

But Joe said Murphy's view is distorted because he goes to "probably the busiest Chipulte (sic)" in the country.

Joe Terranova's Final Trade was NMBL. Mike Murphy said IR. Stephanie Link said NWL and Josh Brown said HAL.

Judge on 3 occasions, with Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Phil LeBeau and Meg Tirrell, invoked Maria Bartiromo's (remember her?) favorite line after correspondent reports, so-and-so with "the latest there."

Within a few days, Russia admits rebels shot down the plane, insists it will take care of the perpetrators

Around here, we always like to ask, What's the end game?

(Note: This page isn't exactly a typical forum for geopolitical affairs ... but who's gonna stop us?)

The evidence is highly convincing; the longer Russia stalls as to the cause of this disgraceful air monstrosity, the more it becomes an international pariah.

Ukraine is a complicated situation, and as Tim Seymour has pointed out, is subject to media biases. It's one thing to make a point and assert interests, and another to defend thugs and buffoons. Undoubtedly since Thursday, the smartest and coolest heads at the Kremlin have been quietly raging at the knuckleheads who let this happen. Soon, they'll tire of protecting them, declare the incident a likely mistake, and 10 years from now, when everyone's smiling, somebody will be handed over to the Hague.

[Friday, July 18, 2014]

Mel’s definition of ‘synergy’
is a bit of a reach

In the category of "tough crowd," Friday's Fast Money crew practically scoffed at a very robust day for the stock market.

Tim Seymour, who just assured a day earlier that Friday would be "worse" than Thursday, told Mel there was "not a whole lot of volume."

Steve Grasso said "guys were covering," which, Grasso explained, "inspires other people to start buying."

Guy Adami maintained that the IWM "is potentially broken."

Mel might've looked good in purple, but in the Abbvie/Shire discussion, she actually said, "The synergy is that they're diversifying their portfolio away from Humira."

Following a theme from a day earlier, Guy Adami said, "I think you get long AMD right here."

Tim Seymour said, "At the end of the day" (Drink), BX is in the "sweet spot" of the market.

Brian Kelly said YPF is a way to play the recovery in Argentina.

Guy Adami likes SLB on the pullback, and later, Steve Grasso called SLB "buyable on this dip."

Patty Edwards surfaced on Friday's Closing Bell (not Kelly Evans this time, but Michelle Caruso-Cabrera) and hung a 2,030 (by year-end) on the S&P 500 and also came up with a "that being said" (Drink).

Tim Seymour wished his beautiful wife happy birthday and made EJ his Final Trade. Brian Kelly said to sell HYG. Steve Grasso said to buy TWTR and Guy Adami said BX.

Something cracked up Dr. Schoenebaum just before his interview

Friday's Halftime Report, partially preempted by a presidential statement/Q&A, eventually got to the good stuff, which was another woulda/coulda/should options trade courtesy of Doc that he made and you didn't because you don't have HeatSeeker®.

Najarian said the VIX on Thursday "gave you a fantastic trade" when it was at 15, which he said is the time to sell volatility.

Dr. Mark Schoenebaum, who smirked and grinned and smiled and laughed the whole time, said that unlike the Fed he has a "moderate" view of biotech valuations and told Judge, "I don't think the data suggests that we're in for a giant crash."

Judge referred to "Miss (sic) Yellen."

Joe Greco told Judge, "I don't like this market here." Josh Brown called Europe "the elephant in the room."

Doc said somebody bought weekly calls in MPEL and also bought August 32s.

Mike Murphy's Final Trade was DAL. Josh Brown said DNKN and Jon Najarian said NI.

[Thursday, July 17, 2014]

Guy: Look for AMD around $3.50

Thursday's Halftime crew was practically silenced by the breaking news of the Malaysian Airlines tragedy, but by 5 p.m. Eastern, the Fast Money gang was able to articulate some trading strategies in the wake of the disaster — and Tim Seymour even uncorked an MBT reference.

Seymour, who was not a panelist but actually the star guest, predicted "Tomorrow is going to be worse than today."

Steve Grasso pointed to 1,952 as the key S&P level.

Brian Kelly, who just the other day said biotech stocks are "kinda your lead indicator" of the market, contended that "bonds are the buy here," and Guy Adami predicted a rising TLT.

Anthony Grisanti said he could see gold "maybe 5, $10 higher," but no more, shrugging off the importance of Israel's move into Gaza; "we've done this dance before."

Grisanti pushed back against Brian Kelly's contention that on a day such as Thursday, gold should've been up $50 or more, stating that new buying is just not happening.

Tim Seymour, who referred to "periphual" (sic) plays on Russia, said Mobile Telesystems (overdue Drink) has been up 10% since the Ukraine invasion and thus has been a "somewhat defensive" play in the space, for what that's worth.

Seymour also said it's a "good time to be selling the DAX," and contended, "I think oil can go significantly higher."

Guy Adami said that if SLB gets around the $110 level, "I think it gets really interesting really quick."

Steve Grasso, whose computer this time evidently didn't get "lit up" by analysts and portfolio managers asking him what's going on with Malaysia Airlines, said he's a seller of the oil space and a buyer of WFT.

Grasso credited Melissa Lee, who looked great in white and expertly handled the show's breaking news reports, for enticing him to buy GOOG, saying "I would be embarrassed" if he waited this long to get back in and didn't take advantage of a pullback.

However, Grasso added, "I won't add to it until it goes through 600."

(Karen Finerman wasn't on the show, which is apparently why no one tweeted a question asking whether GOOG or GOOGA or GOOGL or whatever the heck they are is the better stock to own.)

Guy Adami suggested AMD is buyable on a washout. "I think the trade's gonna be, AMD around 3½ bucks," he said, and INTC around 31.

Joe Foresi said "the fundamentals aren't there" for IBM.

Jon Najarian's Final Trade was SRPT. Steve Grasso said GOOG (for the 3rd time in the show), Brian Kelly said to sell MSFT and Guy Adami said SLW.

At Halftime, Dr. New Land, who's getting a little shaggy on top and before his next appearance will need a little complimentary trim from the CNBC makeup/hair crew, didn't bring up the Boston Massacre this time nor even the Miracle at/of Coogan's Bluff but said the yield curve is "clearly problematic" and that energy stocks clearly weren't working on a day like this as one would think.

Mike Murphy said that on this type of day, you'd expect a 2% selloff, which was "exactly what you're not getting here."

Jon Najarian scoffed that there was only a "$12 move out of gold," and oil wasn't surging either.

Michelle Caruso-Cabrera mentioned "the Graza (sic) Strip."

[Wednesday, July 16, 2014]

Carl and Ackman probably put on the T-shirts after the conference

Delivering Alpha — to the best of our knowledge — is a fine conference with a lot of brilliant minds and a credit to CNBC.

However, every important soundbite is played about 2 dozen times a day on CNBC, and there's not a whole lot this page can add about people sitting in easy chairs and saying we need better fiscal policy and better corporate governance and lower/simpler corporate tax rates.

We did learn that HeatSeeker® once again paid off for Doc, who revealed on the Halftime Report, "Luckily I was in Time Warner" before Andrew Ross Sorkin spilled the beans.

Actually the stunner came in the afternoon, when CNBC contributor Anthony Scaramucci, who intends to launch a new version of "Wall $treet Week," turned up not on CNBC ... but Gasparino's channel. (Thankfully, it wasn't to talk about security guards in Sun Valley who have served admirably in NYC and were probably just doing their job when Charlie stood his ground at a restaurant.)

Anyway, Mike Novogratz told the Halftime crew that the bond market is pricing in "almost no risk" that the Fed's plan is wrong, but if inflation does come back, "then we're in for a world of hurt."

Novogratz also said the U.S. is creating jobs, but they're "crappy jobs."

Andrew Ross Sorkin called the Fox/Time Warner courtship "far, far from done."

Jon Najarian made a bull case for YHOO, but Stephanie Link countered that the stock's run is unsustainable by the fundamentals and that Marissa Mayer needs to make an acquisition (but Oculus is taken).

Josh Brown said the key takeaway from the IBM-AAPL thing is that "This is very un-Steve Jobs-like."

Jon Najarian's Final Trade was COP, and Dr. New Land said RRC.

Fast Money was mostly devoted to Karen Finerman's sizzling new dress Judge's sit-down with Carl and Ackman (which involved a possible shark-jump in Judge's distribution of T-shirts) while Mel was left holding the bag for about 2 minutes of commentary between that and Barack Obama's statement on Russia sanctions.

Ackman did repeat his excellent line for defusing a standoff, explaining he called Icahn's office and told someone, "Tell Carl I'm calling to forgive him."

Karen Finerman said that perhaps Carl will line up with his newly rediscovered friend in the Valeant deal and agitate a stake in AGN, "that would be nice."

Honestly — and we never made any predictions about this — while the rhetoric in the famous Max Meyers-engineered Icahn-Ackman call was fierce, it didn't sound particularly deep and seemed far more about one particular grudge than any general dislike, so we almost could've predicted this was going to happen. (But we didn't).

[Tuesday, July 15, 2014]

People turn to Steve Grasso for interpretation of Fed-speak

In refreshingly candid commentary, Colin Gillis declared at the top of Tuesday's Fast Money that Marissa Mayer just delivered "quite frankly a dismal core earnings report."

But viewers had to wait until the end of the program for Steve Grasso to reaffirm that 20% position he's still got.

Toni Sacconaghi said the AAPL-IBM deal is significant because of the "complimentarity" (sic), and also referred to Apple's CEO as "Tim," which is a tad informal but probably better than Judge's "Hastings and McAdam" from last week.

Sacconaghi told conspiracy-theorist Melissa Lee that IBM is not using AAPL as cover for a bad report; "I don't think it has anything to do with their quarter." But Guy Adami opined, "I think it does provide them cover."

Karen Finerman, who tore up the room in black dress, gushed about M (Drink), stating, "On the heels of the KORS massacre, Macy's has come in a lot, and I think that is way overdone," and making it her Final Trade.

Dan Nathan said "You'd have to be nuts" to buy INTC at the Tuesday afterhours level. But Karen Finerman defended the valuation; "I don't think they're stretched at all."

Chris Rolland likes AMD, "I do think they can go to 6."

Steve Grasso said that when Janet Yellen opined about valuations, "My computer lit up with analysts and portfolio managers saying, 'What is she talking about?'"

Dan Nathan's Final Trade was to sell INTC. Steve Grasso said FB (this writer is long FB) and Guy Adami said LGF.

Judge thinks Bucky Dent’s homer was in regular season; Joe fails to note series was called ‘The Boston Massacre’

Even Gemma Godfrey couldn't spice up a sleepy Halftime Report on Tuesday.

But Dr. New Land got our attention late with an incomplete 1978 history lesson about the greatest pennant race in baseball history — incomplete largely because none of his ill-informed colleagues seemed to know what he was talking about.

"The Yankees went up to Boston and beat the Red Sox at one point. The people forget about this-" Joe said.

"(Unintelligible) Bucky Dent?" said Judge, revealing hopelessness on the topic.

"No that's way before it. There was a series that the Yankees took 'em," Joe continued, before feebly extrapolating such a monumental moment into the INTC earnings report late Tuesday.

Aside from the poor analogy, Joe's absolutely right. From Sept. 7-Sept. 10, the 2nd-place Yankees visited 1st-place Boston and utterly blew out the Red Sox in 4 straight games.

While the season is often viewed as a Boston collapse, given the Yankees were 14 games behind in July, in fact the Red Sox rallied mightily from late-season injuries, regained a tie for 1st, and still won 99 games.

Momentum can be very fickle, whether it's baseball, or social media, or GoPro.

Meanwhile, a day after Rick Santelli called for more "steak and potatoes" (that was just the beginning of the not-making-sense portion of the program) from Janet Yellen, Mr. New World said at the top of the program he had questions about the Fed's definition of "financial stability." Judge quoted Jon Najarian as stating, "This is Janet Yellen initiating coverage of social media and biotechs with a sell." Josh Brown lauded the apparent increase in number of Bloomberg terminals at the Fed, while Gemma Godfrey (in the house) declared, "There is this risk of a rate rise."

Judge leaves it to Joe to deliver the Cramer cross-promotion

GoPro watcher Alex Gauna asserted on Tuesday's Halftime Report that "most importantly right now, momentum is at the back of GoPro," which is why he has a $60 target.

Josh Brown made a good point actually, that whenever there's a hot new Nasdaq/tech stock, the skeptics always carp about inevitable competition that often doesn't materialize.

Joe Terranova said he wouldn't sell GPRO, "I do think someone's gonna buy 'em at some point."

Anton Schutz said many of the big banks look good (Drink), but he's not buying MS right now, but he did have a Brag Trade on that one, stating he owned it at $10, and like Arnold in "The Running Man" told Judge, "I'll be back."

Mr. New World asked Schutz if banks can thrive with a contracting yield curve. Schutz started to explain what banks needed but told Joe, "You're absolutely right."

Josh Brown wasn't high on banks; "these stocks are acting terribly." Joe chipped in, "You need to see the yield curve steepen." But Brown said they're being hurt by "some of the bank trashing going on in Europe."

Steve Weiss, who had a quiet show, said JNJ is in the "early innings" of its new CEO's tenure.

Joe Terranova said, "I like CVS to go to 80."

Regarding energy names, Joe surely made Judge happy in revealing, "I watched Jim Cramer last night talk about Kodiak, talk about Whiting, he's 100% right."

Dennis Stattman told the panel, "We don't like the bond market," and he thinks U.S. stocks are becoming increasingly fully valued, but he likes Japan, though he had to fend off a pesky question about cash yields from Gemma Godfrey.

Josh Brown's Final Trade was KORS. Jon Najarian said UUP, Joe Terranova said CRUS and Stephen Weiss said OCN.

[Monday, July 14, 2014]

Transcript: Rick Santelli unable to explain to Steve Liesman how higher rates benefit economy, suggests Fed policy prevents millennials from being educated

Rick Santelli's commentary with the Halftime Report crew on Monday, July 14, 2014:

Rick Santelli: "I think we need to get back to a more steak and potatoes, uh, mundane, uh, less volatile form of central banking. We are not in a crisis, and Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke still treating the economy as though it's in crisis. Equity traders don't seem to be too bugged because they know in the end, what's in the New Yorker that I've read, easy money will outlive any types of tailwinds — excuse me, headwinds to the economy. And I think that's what stock traders are looking at."

Scott Wapner: "You're suggesting that the longer the Fed waits to raise rates, the harder time the market is going to be able to digest that. And also the dangers of inflation coming into the picture down the road. Is that what you're putting forth?"

Santelli: "I think you've just listed 2 unintended consequences. I think that the litany of unintended consequences is much larger. The list is much longer. And the ultimate questions about how it turns out are much more vague. In the end, uh, this isn't what the central bank of the United States was created for 100 years ago. It was supposed to be a nudger. Now it's embedded in a political, social type of financial engineering, not the least of which you would never go to an accountant on a personal level that treated your money in this kind of group feel-good setting."

Wapner: "Steve, the drumbeat appears to be getting louder. At least people are talking about it more than they have in the past several months as to whether the fed is truly gotten itself behind the curve and now how it rights the ship."

Steve Liesman: "Drumbeats can be loud as you want them to be, but whether or not there's any actual action on that drumbeat, I don't see it. I've been very careful to watch markets and see how there's some expression over this concern over inflation. It's very hard to find. It's just not out there. Uh, you asked the question is the Federal Reserve behind the curve? It's well to remember that it is the Federal Reserve's policy to be behind the curve. Janet Yellen said it in the New York magazine, uh New Yorker magazine article today. Uh, it's part of Fed policy statement. And the statement goes as follows, Scott. That interest rates will remain lower than normal when markets return to normal. So the question about whether or not that engenders higher inflation or not, what we do know if there's been a certain wing of economic — the economic profession that's been talking about, uh, the concern about inflation for many, many years and it has not materialized. And that remains their uh, driver for what they think the Federal Reserve should do that they should end their QE policy earlier."

Wapner: "Some of the Fed's own members have suggested that. Plosser has brought that up as well."

Santelli: "Hey, Steve, you're talking about feedback loops, OK? Come on, Steve, be objective on this one. You don't think the feedback loop- loops of a free market have been sufficiently pushed back, that it's very hard — you say, well, I don't see any signs of it. Well, why would you? We're in a managed setting. We're in a managed setting. If- if- if a baseball league puts in their crummiest players, what's the feedback loop for the talent?"

Liesman: "Rick, I think there are many ways that the market can express its concern over inflation. You can sell equities. The market has the ability to set an outlying uh Fed funds futures rate."

Santelli: "Why would anybody sell equities? Wha- we're giving Company XYZ super low rates to buy back their shares and artificially make P.E. ratios look handsome when they're still a pig."

Liesman: "Anybody- well, first of all, it strikes me that the P.E. ratios, as our traders here on the right have told us quite a bit, uh, they're not particularly out of line. There is some bubblelike uh, uh, stocks that are out there, but overall-"

Santelli: "Because of all the stock buybacks. Yes, we know overall, that's the driving force."

Liesman: "Yeah but, right. So, so however you get there..."

Santelli: "And the Fed's directly affected that feedback loop."

Liesman: "Earnings per share is what anybody ever cares about, I mean, if you want me to trade on earnings and not per share, then, you know, I've got a bridge to sell you."

Santelli: "Listen Steve when (unintelligible) didn't go, the stock market had a hissy fit. We've deprived the markets of hissy fits."

Liesman: "Right. But now they're going, and they're going in a measured way."

Santelli: "Oh yeah. That's it. It's going. Just like Mr. Prince said, we're just gonna play the music. Do you wanna hear a social policy from the head of the biggest central bank who controls 4.5 trillion of America's money?"

Liesman: "I want the Fed to do what it's supposed to do, which is to bring about an economy with low unemployment and low inflation."

Santelli: "Clinical. They're supposed to be clinical. They're bankers! They're not psychologists!"

Liesman: "Rick, it's not clinical."

Santelli: "It is."

Wapner: "You know what I want to do? Rick sort of alluded to it. Why wouldn't you buy stocks in this environment, Mike Murphy? That's clearly what people have been doing. You guys don't seem to be overly concerned about this question we enter at the top of the show, though it is getting louder in the market."

Mike Murphy: "It is getting louder, but I think right now equities are the main game in town. I won't say the only game, but .... my take on the Fed is they're trying to keep the market inflated because think back to where we were, Rick, in 2008. This is still a reflection of where we were. the financial crisis. So I think they're going to err on the side of caution which I'm fine with. And that's given us this nice long rally in the equities market. And I think it continues."

Santelli: "Do you think there was easy money in front of the crisis? Do you think that was one of the contributing factors? Yes or no?"

Murphy: "In hindsight, it was, yes."

Santelli: "OK. Well, why don't we get some hindsight early now?"

Josh Brown: "Hey, Rick, this is one of the biggest non sequitur discussions I think I've ever heard because if you think about 79 million baby boomers who are entering retirement and you understand the fact that a quarter of them are gonna make it to 93 years old, if we think that there is inflation coming down the pike, why would they want to buy bonds? They have 3 decades, they're guaranteed to lose money at face value in a 10-year treasury. They should be adding to stocks, not adding to bonds."

Santelli: "You don't have to worry. Those young demographics don't have money. They don't have jobs. They're living in their parents' basement. And less than half of Americans own stock portfolios, so who exactly are we helping here?"

Brown: "We have an unemployment rate that is now growing at a rate commensurate with the late '90s."

Santelli: "Right. And you think easy money's gonna make them better educated to get a job? It's gonna make it worse and isn't addressing the problem."

Brown: "How does monetary policy again address the problem of millennials that don't have skills for the job marketplace? Explain to me."

Santelli: "If it can't, they should say so."

Brown: "Should they work for the Fed?"

Santelli: "Here's what a Fed chairman needs to stand up and do. Congress, we've done the most we can do. We've nudged the market. It's now your job. Now the feedback loops happen and there's a big ruckus in November. Problem solved."

Brown: "I want the Federal Reserve to dictate to Congress what they should do?"

Liesman: "If I concede every point Rick makes, he still cannot explain to me how higher interest rates brings about better economic outcomes."

Santelli: "Because if I'm a bank, why would I lend to some person in a subrisk/reward rate just because the government subsidizes it so they can do it."

Wapner: "Presumably higher interest rates would follow the better economic outcome."

Liesman: "They'd follow better economic (sic), but they wouldn't lead better economic income (sic). If the issue Rick is capital investment, if the issue is capital investment, what you don't want to do is raise the hurdle rate. You just complained about the idea of, of CEOs-"

Santelli: "The capital will come out if it can get a decent return."

Liesman: "But this decent return has very little to do with the cost of money, just a little bit, it has more to do with demand on the other side, and the question you have to ask-"

Santelli: "No. Janet Yellen's personal feelings about social banking policy do?"

Liesman: "The question you want to ask yourself, Rick, is whether or not —"

Santelli: "That's the question I'm asking. That's the one I want answered!"

Liesman: "Precisely, Rick. that is what the Fed is, under Bernanke and almost under every Fed chair. what should it do, Rick?"

Santelli: "They weren't created to be a feel-good institution."

Liesman: "Rick, should it run policy for you and the traders down there in Chicago, is that the correct purpose of policy? Or is it the purpose of policy for Main Street."

Santelli: "The traders in Chicago never contributed one penny to the credit crisis! Not one penny! Not ONE penny!"

Liesman: "I'm not sure how that has anything to do with what I just said, but it sounds good, everybody applauded you."

Santelli: "This is the model. Janet Yellen, this is the model."

Stephanie Link: "I would say from an investing point of view, just to bring it back to what we actually do, I think it's interesting that the late cycle sectors are doing well. And I think that's because people do expect inflation to come from all of this easy policy that we have seen over the last several years, that it's going to eventually work and that I think we are seeing some interesting signs now that we're getting better in jobs certainly. But if we look at manufacturing, if we look at auto sales, there are pockets of the economy that are getting better. And if this policy stays somewhat on the easy track, which I think it will for a little while longer, we're gonna continue to see the economy improve and again pain that leads to some inflation, but then you want to rotate into energy and materials."

Wapner: "That's part of the risk, is that the economy is improving better than the Fed is giving it credit for, right Steve."

Link: "But wage inflation is nowhere to be found. It's 2% on an annualized basis."

Liesman: "There's a big debate, and there's an important debate as to how much slack is in the economy. Um, and there are people on both sides who say that there's less slack than the Federal Reserve believes. It's well to remember-"

Santelli: "Why do we debate it? Why don't we let the market tell us? OK? You tweak rates, you get bad feedback, you tweak 'em the other way. what is wrong with some mental flexibility? That's the highest form of intelligence."

Liesman: "Rick, I'm sorry, but the general consensus of the economic community right now."

Santelli: "I don't care about general consensus. I don't care that Europe offers entitlement. We're America! We don't believe in consensus. We set the consensus."

Liesman: "They also reject talking over people, but that's another story. The general idea, Rick, is that if you put this on autopilot, the market will not take care of it."

Santelli: "I don't want a general idea. I want the Fed to be a banker. A banker. Tweak rates a little up and down. Crisis over. The Congress shouldn't allow them to keep going with crisis management."

Wapner: "We got your point Rick. Let's bring in Paul Richards of UBS, uh, for a look at what he thinks, he's the head of foreign exchange distribution. Paul, you've heard the argument from both sides. I think you would a- agree that certainly more people seem to be entertaining this question today and its relationship to where the market will go from here. What's your take? Is the Fed behind the curve? Are they in danger of getting behind if they're not already there?"

Paul Richards: "Who cares? I mean, a year ago the Fed tried to message something very different, and look what happened to that summer market. There's no way they're making that mistake again. And now we've got Janet Yellen there who worked with Bernanke. They put something together 5 years ago. And look, Rick can argue that the Fed shouldn't be doing these kinds of things Scott, but if they hadn't have done it, where would we be now 5 years on?"

Santelli: "Oh, counterfactual. We'd be healing 3 years into a recovery. That's what I say. Disprove it!"

Richards: "Rick, you trying to get another round of applause here? Because at the end of the day, without the Fed-"

Santelli: "I don't need a round of applause!"

Richards: "... we would be in bad shape right now."

Santelli: "I have history on my side here!"

Richards: "And the way I look at it, Rick, is this. Let the job get done. Tapering is almost done. Then let the market get 6 months-"

Santelli: "It's not Janet Yellen's job, and somebody needs to say that!"

Richards: "And it's all about 1 thing: it is about patience. And patience is going to get this job done, so."

Santelli: "Oh patience. It's been 5 1/2 years."

Richards: "I'm a big fan of what she's doing, and the job is gonna get done."

Santelli: "Japan's got patience. Whoop de doo."

Wapner: "The big point Rick that Paul is making here is that the, the jury's still out as to whether the Fed is gonna maneuver itself out of."

Santelli: "The jury isn't still out."

Wapner: "Yes it is."

Santelli: "No no no. there is no jury out. Who's the jury? Who you talking about specifically?"

Wapner: "I'm the judge. I'm talking to the jury that's here."

Santelli: "Academia? professors? Anyone you let valet park your car?"

Brown: "Hey Rick, you already decided this wasn't gonna work 5 years ago. Is some of your anger-"

Santelli: "And I was right! I was right!"

Brown: "Is some of your anger about confirmation bias?"

Santelli: "End of conversation. Let's end it there. Hasta la vista!" (trader cheers)

Liesman: "You were right, Rick? What were you right on? It's impossible, Rick, it's impossible for you to have been more wrong, Rick. Your call for inflation, the destruction of the dollar, the failure of the U.S. economy to rebound ..."

Santelli: "You know, what, I'll tell you what. I wasn't wrong on inflation."

Liesman: "Rick it's impossible for you to have been more wrong."

Santelli: "I didn't think they could have policies so bad that we would get no velocity after 5 1/2 years."

Liesman: "Every single bit of advice you gave would've lost people money Rick."

Santelli: "I thought the world would say huh-uh."

Liesman: "Lost people money Rick. Every single bit of advice."

Santelli: "It's taken too long. New strategy."

Liesman: "There is no piece of advice that you've given that's worked Rick."

Santelli: "They need a better strategy than the Cubs. Wait till next year isn't the way to go."

Liesman: "There is no piece of advice that you've given that's worked Rick. Not a single one."

Santelli: "Oh, yeah, there is. Get another Fed chairman."

Liesman: "Not a single one, Rick."

Santelli: "That can do her job or his job based on the-"

Liesman: "Not a single one. The higher interest rates never came."

Santelli: "... based on what they were written to do."

Liesman: "The inability of the U.S. to sell bonds never happened. The dollar never crashed, Rick. There isn't a single one that's worked for you."

Santelli: "Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah."

Wapner: Paul Richards, I'll give you the last word."

Richards: "The last word is patience. You let the Fed continue to do their job and all is gonna be fine. Be long equities going into tomorrow, Scott."

Karen questions producers’ title of opening AAPL segment

Guy Adami said on Monday's Fast Money that delays in AAPL products only make customers more eager to buy.

For the company, such a delay "works to their benefit in a weird way," Adami said.

Karen Finerman quibbled over the notion of AAPL being at an "inflection point," asking Mel, "Let me just make sure I get the story clearly ... hasn't it already inflected already (sic 2 alreadys) quite a bit."

Guest Brian Blair said he went to Taiwan and is expecting "90 and 100 million of just the iPhone 6," the 4.7-inch variety.

Tim Seymour said PayPal alone is worth $45 a share, and the stock would go higher if EBAY changed its name.

Seymour said TSLA has "extreme valuation metrics."

Violins for C

Moshe Orenbuch told Monday's Fast Money that Citigroup "definitely got treated worse than JPMorgan did," and even "proportionally worse than Bank America" (sic), in terms of Justice Department penalties.

But, he said if you're C, you've got to just settle and put it behind you.

Karen Finerman said the news of a BID-EBAY team-up is a bit of a surprise; "I actually thought Sotheby's users could already do that, bid on art online."

Finerman said she's not long BID or EBAY.

Regarding ABT and MYL, Finerman, who wore aqua top with jeans, questioned, "How do we have this corporate tax policy that is- is so punitive, more than almost any other country in the world" (sic last 3 words redundant), suggesting that U.S. corporate tax policy is a "crisis already."

Guy Adami said MYL looks "very interesting" on the long side.

Steve Grasso said the refiner trade is over and it's time to get into BHI or SLB (but he didn't explain why you shouldn't just short the refiners).

Tim Seymour said if VLO holds 49.18, "I actually would take a nibble."

Guy Adami pretends to believe YHOO is poised for an Alibaba spike

Eric Jackson visited with Monday's Fast Money to declare the YHOO trade anything but over.

"We're just about to get in- into high gear" on the Alibaba road show, said Jackson, who predicted that once the IPO occurs, there will be people "demanding" to get in, and YHOO could see a bump, though "not a GoPro type of bump."

Guy Adami said, with the least amount of enthusiasm of all time, that "there's gotta be some value here" in YHOO and we could "maybe actually see a rally post this Alibaba IPO."

Dennis Gartman, apparently meeting an appearance quota, said that at 1,300, gold is "probably gonna find some support."

Steve Grasso recommended the GDX for playing gold long.

Karen Finerman said she can hardly take GLUU seriously for a Pops & Drops item, pointing out that the Kim Kardashian whatever did well.

Guy Adami said you either want to buy TRIP in the low 90s or above 110.

Steve Grasso said to be very careful shorting GTAT because of high short interest.

Mike Khouw said weekly IBM calls in the 190s were hot.

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was sell INTC. Steve Grasso said buy AAPL and watch it get to par. Karen Finerman said CMLS and Guy Adami said WWW.

Steel mill investing time frame is latest (curious) explanation for AMZN bullishness

In the anticlimactic remainder of Monday's Halftime Report (after Rick Santelli exited for good), Bill Nygren actually called AMZN underpriced, citing ... this is actually what he said ... the notion that when steel companies invest, it takes 30 years to pay off.

Whereas, with Amazon, investment "goes through the income statement immediately."

Nygren said the stock deserves a "premium" above 400.

Josh Brown called Nygren "Rick," then corrected himself.

Nygren went on to declare that "Financials are by far the most attractive industry," then specifically touted C, "It's got book value of about 67."

Anthony Grisanti said inflation is "on the back burner," which isn't good for precious metals, while Jim Iuorio said gold settling below $1,305 would be enough to chase him from his long positions; Jackie DeAngelis, stunning in black top, was caught doing a hair flip.

Nili Gilbert said she likes E&P oil companies, in stable parts of the world, and not so much refiners. Her top pick is MRO, and she likes BAS.

Stephanie Link admitted a colossal bust in COH. "I was wrong. I was early," Link told Judge.

Judge impressively fired back, "Wrong or early?"

Link protested, "Their stuff doesn't get into stores until September."

[Friday, July 11, 2014]

Star stock-picker says short calls based on insider selling — except when he also doesn’t like the fundamentals

David Miller, who just claimed the WSJ's Winners Circle prize, told Judge on Friday's Halftime Report about his winning strategy: "I buy stocks where they have heavy insider buying."

But Miller said it's not so simple as total shares bought by executives. He's looking for "many of them, all buying in a big way, with their own money, above and beyond their stock-option plan, and, where they've had a great track record of doing that previously."

Sounds simple and straightforward.

Except when Judge asked Miller about his top short — TWTR — Miller stated as part of his rationale "over 20 times revenue ... no meaningful earnings ... very expensive multiple."

Mike Murphy astutely seized on this fundamental call and asked Miller if his short picks, unlike apparently his longs, do indeed involve fundamental analysis.

Miller said, "What I'm looking to (sic) is just the buying or just the selling, but that also includes the fundamentals in it."

OK. There you go.

On the long side, Miller likes GE, OPK and DKS.

Judge takes less than 10 minutes to do the Cramer cross-promotion (note emphatic finger-pointing on paper)

Brian Stutland told Jackie DeAngelis on Friday's Halftime Report that gold could break out over 1,360; "I think there's some momentum."

Scott Nations chipped in, "It's always good for gold when traders have to start looking at the map."

Jon Najarian, who apparently doesn't know that the San Antonio Spurs just won their 5th title, said LeBron James' return to Cleveland is "almost as good a (sic) news" as the ouster of Donald Sterling because the league is "sorely lacking" a great small-market team.

Judge made sure that in the opening segment of the program he touted Cramer's advice on WFC, reporting that Cramer thinks if you sold it based on that report, "You don't deserve to own the stock."

Divya Narendra, who has easily proved a quality Halftime Report guest but still doesn't get good questions from Judge, introduced contest winner Mike Wood, who likes Samsung because of the "excellent risk/return" and because he thinks the bad news is priced in.

Judge referred to "Hastings and McAdam," which reminds us of the time Bill Cowher "was upset by a quote in the Akron Beacon Journal yesterday in which (Cleveland coach Butch) Davis referred to him by using only his last name."

Doc told NFLX longs, "I would be nervous."

[Wednesday, July 9, 2014]

Brian Kelly: Biotech
leading the market

In a very quiet episode of Fast Money on Wednesday, the most provocative comment came from someone who wasn't even there, as Dan Nathan reported that Karen Finerman thinks COH will have a "2 handle on it very soon."

Brian Kelly was the only one who claimed that the falling price of oil is reflective of the economy.

But later, Kelly suggested that biotech stocks are "kinda your lead indicator of what's going on in the broader market."

Perhaps the show's highlight was the visit by bona fide fox Sara Eisen, who says insiders are suggesting BNNY as a food stock ripe for a takeover; Eisen also threw in WWAV.

Pete Najarian, referring to himself as The Pit Boss in a very rare venture into joke territory, said he's long DKS calls after major interest in the July 47s.

Jon Najarian said CL "could be getting into play again."

Melissa Lee said the battle in the cloud is getting "torrential" (sic). Ken Sena said AMZN has a strong position that will be hard to squeeze, and he has a $440 price target.

Pete Najarian, who found time in his day to do 2 shows, said there are "better names in the space" than MRVL.

Jon Najarian said the rumor Wednesday was that British American Tobacco would go for Reynolds American instead of Lorillard.

Niccolo De Masi could only chuckle when Missy asked him if he's in talks with AAPL; De Masi said they constantly talk with all their partners.

Pete Najarian referred to Judge's Halftime Report stock-picking contest as the "Player (sic) Playoffs."

Mel, who referred to the "Najarii," told Dan Nathan, "I weigh half of what you weigh."

Nathan said a big buyer was into AAPL July 93 puts.

Pete Najarian's Final Trade was UA. Brian Kelly said GLD, Dan Nathan said short TLT and Jon Najarian said ETE was active.

Judge blames 2-week vacation for lack of knowledge of Mike Mayo’s position on JPM

Count Mike Mayo among those scratching their heads at how the government calculates financial penalties for mortgage transgressions.

Mayo observed on Wednesday's Halftime Report that Citigroup (the bank with all that emerging market exposure/restructuring/low-hanging fruit in the pipeline) is apparently going to have to pay $7 billion to settle with the Justice Department given that JPMorgan had to pay $10 billion despite "5 times" the mortgage securitization.

"I don't understand the transparency," said Mayo, adding that such a punishment won't prevent the next crisis or "punish the right people." (Translation: Chuck Prince in the clear.)

Mayo reaffirmed his "buy" rating on C, however "painful."

Mayo reaffirmed that MS is his "1st, 2nd and 3rd favorite" stock. Slightly invoking Dalton (above), Mayo said MS "took out a lot of trash early."

Judge said Mayo had an "outperform" on JPM, but Mayo said he actually has an "underperform."

Judge also was unaware if Mayo had made any pronouncements on JPM since Jamie Dimon's cancer disclosure.

Meanwhile, Paul Pagnato told Judge, "We're finding some of the very best values in emerging markets," which brought grumbling from Stephen Weiss, who complained of a lot of "crappy companies" in Europe.

Melissa Otto is "hoping that we see a few compelling catalysts on the horizon" for her bullish Japan trade.

Otto also said Nintendo has lost about 90% of its market value since its peak, and there really wasn't a better short out there.

Josh thinks scoring 1 point in a soccer match is equivalent to scoring 200 points in a Super Bowl

At the top of Wednesday's Halftime Report, Steve Weiss declared himself a hardened bull.

"5%, even 10% doesn't scare me," Weiss told Judge, in case the markets go as south as Carter Worth seems to think they will.

Jeff Kilburg said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict figures to "unfortunately" maintain a tailwind for gold. Scott Nations said that from the Fed minutes, "dovish would be good for gold."

Pete Najarian said FB is down 8% since July 1 and on Wednesday was finding a lot of bottom pickers; Pete thinks it's going higher because "their mobile growth is absolutely staggering." (This writer is long FB.)

Doc lamented only selling half of his WFM July 40 calls at the peak. Pete Najarian told Judge "I just got in" to the suddenly hot Encana trade.

Stephen Weiss said he "stupidly" removed GILD from his 2014 Playbook Playoffs portfolio.

Weiss said TCS is "egregiously overvalued" and called it a short.

Josh Brown (photo above was from a previous episode) said there are "5,000 other stocks trading at a cheaper pultiple (sic)" than BBBY.

Brown said Detroit and Newark are "clearly not first-tier cities" in terms of economics.

[Tuesday, July 8, 2014]

Jane Wells lists ‘best LA movies’

Nothing gets this page going like a film conversation, and as a matter of fact, CNBC's Jane Wells got such a dialogue going on Twitter last weekend about the "best LA movies."

This particular list is bound to be unsatisfying, given that so many movies are set in a Southern California-like area without regard to boundaries (would "Fast Times" count ... or "The Candidate" ... or "Jackie Brown" ... or even "The Brady Bunch"?).

Wells offered "Chinatown" as No. 1, undeniably so, and then proceeded to miss some greats while actually suggesting some crime schlock.

"Sunset Blvd." is a must as No. 2, an explosive combination of Hollywood's wealth and the pain of irrelevancy.

"The Player," despite some flaws, cannot be lower than 3; a Wall Street equivalent has not yet been done (but attempted recently in Kate Kelly's Secret Club, which probably won't get made into a movie), but here we have an industry in enormous demand that rains money and is blessed with an endless supply of ideas and applicants and able to obscenely reward the select few gatekeepers for adding little to no value.

"Shampoo" is disappointing on some level but boasts a decided L.A. richness. The '70s opines on the '60s.

"The Bling Ring," a recent film largely overlooked, intriguingly mixes celebrity culture with boredom and identifies a troubling result.

If nothing else, this exercise gives us a chance to rerun that image of Wells at the brewery from last week in the top that oozes fox.

(Sigh) We’ll ask yet again: Would WhatsApp be considered a great deal at $5 billion?

Bob Peck, doing yeoman work these days on Fast Money tech-stock reports, was almost forced on Wednesday's program to tackle the Obvious Facebook Question That Fast Money Won't Address. (This writer is long FB.)

Peck noted that Facebook paid up to $19 billion in cash and stock for WhatsApp and curiously grumbled, "You know, what does that tell you."

Exactly Bob — what does that tell you?

Either WhatsApp is worth owning ... or it's not worth owning.

No one on Fast Money has had the brass to take a stand on this.

Either way, it doesn't really matter if FB paid $19 billion or $3 billion.

Peck said Wednesday that we won't know "for probably a couple years or so" what the ROI will be on WhatsApp, which is the business punditry equivalent of a punt.

Peck listed 3 stocks to buy on the week's selloff, starting with No. 1 AMZN, because it's "rolling out the new phone" (snicker). He also likes FB, and GOOG.

In an apparent case of wishful thinking, Steve Grasso predicted the TWTR selloff would be "short-lived."

Peck said a 3rd-party report issued Monday night predicted that Twitter's level of monthly active users was going to be unimpressive. Karen Finerman asserted that most TWTR holders don't really know much about the company's stats and wondered what metric should really matter to them.

Still wondering what happened to Carter’s 3,800 in the Nasdaq

Robyn Karnauskas, who looked dynamite on Tuesday's Fast Money, declared without hesitation, "Buy Biogen Idec."

Robyn said she could see BIIB moving up $30-$100 on good news from its M.S. treatment, but without that much downside if the results go the other way.

Karnauskas also likes TSRO, and then suggested ARWR in the way the Options Action guys usually talk, "upside 100-200%, downside only 20%."

Steve Grasso refreshingly admitted that he's still getting killed on CLVS.

Grasso claimed that MGM is the winner of whatever is going on in the Massachusetts gambling scene.

Karen Finerman said she's short "a little" TCS. Mel said "the store's overwhelming for me."

Dan Nathan put TGT in his "Triangle of Death."

Carter Worth, who pushes a bear case on Fast Money whenever there's a 100-point Dow selloff, argued that the Nasdaq Composite is now "trapped" under its range, and the Russell 2000 is entering a "fairly major topping-out formation."

Dan Nathan agreed, calling the Russell chart a "textbook double-top."

Karen Finerman said SDRL suffered from an "overreaction."

Steve Grasso said he'd be a buyer on weakness in MU.

Dan Nathan's Final Trade was to short QQQ. Steve Grasso said long JWN, Karen Finerman said long AGN and Brian Kelly said long CTRL.

We could be in 4th phase of bull market, except for last 2 days

Ed Yardeni visited with Tuesday's Halftime Report to list the 4 phases of a bull market (we can only handle lists of 3 or less) and said "euphoria" is the last.

Yardeni said that we might well have been seeing that phase, but with the handy qualifier, "until the past couple of days," regardless, "we may very well be in the 4th phase."

Dr. New Land praised CNBC for a tweet about the Obama administration (that's multimedia cross-selling that Judge likes) and said that while the government has stayed out of the markets for a while, "it seems as though they're back in it," but we're not really sure we buy that.

Addressing another selloff of "momo names," Pete Najarian said he'd be interested in LNKD because of its China presence, and he also likes TWTR on the pullback. But Dr. New World claimed "it feels exactly like the environment in March once again now." Josh Brown parsed like Bill Clinton, citing "total Greater Fool" but allowing that these stocks can work on earnings.

Stephanie Link uncorked a Brag Trade on behalf of Cramer; "we actually sold Celgene today because we were up 22% from the lows."

Jim Iuorio told Jackie DeAngelis that he doesn't see "much room on the downside" for corn and wheat. Scott Nations said that "Things are gonna be great if all you eat are Corn Flakes."

Pete: GoPro reaching verb status

Stephanie Link contended on Tuesday's Halftime Report that GoPro needs more than what it's got for the "way extended valuation" to keep the stock going.

But Pete Najarian countered that "GoPro" is reaching verb status just like "Google," and "this is the name" and the "go-to" in the space.

Kathleen Smith said GPRO isn't large enough to get into her portfolio.

Smith said "the IPO market has been working fairly well" and we're "not there" yet in a bubble, but in fact she's seeing "maybe a bubble in the pre-IPO markets."

Smith said she agrees with Jim Cramer's comments, always a plus on the Halftime Report.

Pete Najarian balked at Josh Brown's characterization of KING as a "one-hit wonder."

Michael Peltz said BlackRock is killing it in the institutional space, and said "the market seemed to lose confidence in Bill Gross and his calls."

Stephanie Link said she added SCCO to her Playbook Playoffs portfolio, and sold MRO.

Joe handed Judge dead air in simply agreeing with Judge that Joe got too conservative too early.

Josh Brown said he'd buy SPWR immediately because it's on its "6th straight down day" and "there's gonna be a snapback."

Pete Najarian said he bought weekly 33.50 calls in MU.

Pete Najarian's Final Trade was MU. Josh Brown said SPWR, Joe said SJM and Stephanie Link said WDR.

Judge referred to "Dexxis (sic pronunciation) Midnight Runners."

[Monday, July 7, 2014]

Karen beams in stunning
new dress

It took seemingly forever to get through the opening AAPL dialogue on Monday's Fast Money; eventually, we heard the Most Interesting CNBC Fact of the Day, which is that it takes a full 8 quarters (we think that's 2 years) to get your money out of Pershing Square, and that's with a healthy advance notice.

Kate Kelly reported that Pershing's International Fund is up 25% through June 30.

On the AAPL front, Karen Finerman explained "it feels like there is just a gravitational pull towards that 100 mark."

Tim Seymour questioned what has changed about the AAPL story over the last $60 in the stock, prompting Pete Najarian to scoff that "it's amazing how many bulls have come out" who were bearish around $400.

Karen Finerman, who stunned in a new long-sleeve dress, said Google's grocery battle with Amazon "is going to be expensive for everyone involved," but she still likes GOOG.

Finerman also said she can't help but be a bit of a conspiracy theorist in regard to a pair of GTAT downgrades at the same time, as though management is tipping its hand.

Tim Seymour claims this is ‘really the kitchen-sink year’ for banks (Drink)

Tim Seymour was the one on Monday's Fast Money invoking the "kitchen-sink quarter" (Drink) in a discussion about banks, but The Ambassador took it startlingly further in asserting this is "really the kitchen-sink year." (Double Drink)

Meanwhile, in one of the sadder comments we've heard on the show, Dennis Gartman actually predicted, "I'm not gonna be here in 20 years." (Hopefully that's another prediction we'll be able to add to Dennis' "wrong" pile.)

Gartman said that even though he's long a lot of AA and AAPL, he's "neutral" on the stock market right now.

But Seymour said to "stay away from aluminum."

Pete Najarian hailed MU (Drink).

Josh Brown, who found enough time in his day to do both the Halftime Report and Fast Money, said to stay with BBRY, but Pete Najarian said not to get involved in KING.

Airline watcher Bob McAdoo, who had to speak through off-camera chuckling on the desk, said he likes AAL and DAL. Pete Najarian tossed in ALK but said McAdoo made him a little "concerned" about UAL.

Mike Khouw said weekly $14.50 puts in AA were active.

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was FCX. Josh Brown said MOO, Karen Finerman said AGN and Pete Najarian said CRUS.

‘Transformers’ made Patty ill

We were checking around recently to see what movies, if any, the Fast Money crew has been watching, and happened to discover that Patty Edwards wasn't quite a happy camper during a matinee showing of "Transformers."

"I seriously got sick during it ... too much motion. Plus I was dehydrated," Edwards explained via Twitter.

That allows us a chance to report that "Begin Again" is hardly edgy and not exactly loaded with drama ... but is still a happy vibe for nearly a couple hours.

Judge’s vacation over

The star guest of Monday's Halftime Report, Laszlo Birinyi, curiously told Judge that he owns RH, but "wouldn't buy it here" ... nor would he sell it here. (Where's that Karen Finerman chorus saying "If you own a stock at the end of the day it's equivalent to buying it that day"?)

Birinyi contends that the S&P 500 will reach 2,100 by year-end, citing strength in one of his favorite stocks, NVR (and we didn't know that once a stock reaches a nominal $1,000 price, there's "no shenanigans" anymore).

Stephen Weiss said he's decided that equities and rates can go up together because only once since 1950, in 1969, did the 10-year fall and equities fall.

Dr. New World, who had a quiet show but a stellar gray suit/tie combination, said "the right play" is expecting yields to rise toward 3%.

Joe said that rather than plunge into TSLA now, "I'd rather buy it above 255." Josh Brown agreed and said if it clears 250, then 300 should happen "without a problem."

Judge, obviously rusty after a long break, gave Jon Najarian a chance to play catch-up on his horrid GPRO advice; Doc now suggests selling August 44 calls and buying August 39 puts to protect your gains.

Mike Murphy said, "Don't try to catch a falling knife in Bed, Bath & Beyond."

Josh Brown said he wouldn't be buying KING.

Steve Weiss and Josh Brown straightened out who was talking about unit growth in regard to GMCR.

JJ Kinahan said TD Ameritrade account-holders are trading just as much as they did last year.

Josh Brown's Final Trade was AMAT (that was different than his Fast Money Final Trade of MOO), Stephen Weiss said AAL, Mr. New Land said CVS and Mike Murphy said KKR.

[Wednesday, July 2, 2014]

Kayla Tausche gives Mel’s sizzling mellow yellow dress 2 thumbs up

Every so often, you hear an interesting statement on Fast Money.

On Wednesday, Tom Kloza of Gasbuddy.com claimed some people drive less ... to punish oil companies from making too much money.

"Believe it or not, some people will drive less because of spite," Kloza asserted.

Kloza predicted that gasoline is going to get cheaper and that "we drift much lower after Labor Day."

Karen focuses intently on drawing the perfect circle with her hands

Here's one we hadn't heard for a while — like years: Karen Finerman said on Wednesday's Fast Money that AAPL handled disclosures about Steve Jobs' condition "terribly."

But Finerman said "I believe what they've said so far" at JPM about Jamie Dimon's situation and said she'll give the company the "benefit of the doubt" as to accurately explaining what's going on.

Finerman also referred to "Bank America" (sic).

Karen said ISLE rose on GLPI discussions but rather skeptically noted that the original news was "leaked at 3:45 June 30th," an ideal moment for finishing off a quarter.

A toast to Jane Wells’
smoldering black top

Longtime favorite Louise Yamada was running around in circles with chart/camera trouble on Wednesday's Fast Money but managed to say she likes the strength of the S&P breakout over 1,900 and INTC's breakout over 30.

Steve Milunovich likes AAPL, CTSH and NMBL.

Guy Adami said "there's a shot you could see some upside" in VMW.

Guy Adami said DAL is a buy because sellers Wednesday were just looking for an excuse; "I don't think the moves are over."

Tim Seymour sputtered that the airline "innus (sic)" has become "much more cost-compati-" (sic) before righting the pronunciation ship with an "at the end of the day."

Melissa Lee pronounced Lindsay Lohan's nickname (that would be LiLo) as "Lee-Low" (sic).

Brian Stutland warned that the VIX tends to jump in July.

Tim Seymour's Final Trade apparently was to sell STZ. Brian Kelly said to buy SLV. Karen Finerman said NADL, and Guy Adami said X.

There was no Halftime/Fast Money during Thursday's shortened market session, but viewers of the 1 p.m. Closing Bell got Halftime Report veteran Zach Karabell stating, "You do not want financials in my view leading this economy or this market."

[Tuesday, July 1, 2014]

Doc’s GPRO $31 ‘gift’:
Front-runner for Bust of the Year

Every day, it just gets worse.

Here's the advice Jon Najarian gave Thursday (PgDn to see original entry) to Monster Asset Management clients who received a GoPro IPO valuation:

"We said, 'Wait about 15 minutes, and sell it'," Doc told Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. "We said, 'Take your profits, because that's a gift' ... they got out north of 30."

Except if they had just waited a little more than 15 minutes — say, until Tuesday — they could've gotten out north of 49.

On Tuesday's Halftime Report, Najarian was a bit testy when Missy Lee brought up the subject. "I've already taken my lumps," Najarian protested, adding that he told his clients, "I'm sorry I got you guys out at 31."

Dr. New World said publicity about the stock is bound to fuel GoPro sales. "Next coming days, I'll probably go buy one of these," Joe said.

We have to say, Doc is often right about quickly taking profits and moving on.

This one didn't lose anyone any money.

But it's a massive bust.

‘5 or 6 ways’ of analyzing
utility stocks

Tobias Levkovich, the star guest of Tuesday's Halftime Report, said he likes utility stocks and thinks there are "5 or 6 different (sic redundant) ways" of evaluating them.

But Levkovich spent much of his time scolding those who use these "very simplistic approaches" and try to "pigeonhole things" in predicting markets.

Steve Grasso shrugged that the Dow probably will see 17,000 because it's so close.

"These levels are like magnets," Grasso said, before demanding Mr. New Land explain to him, "Why would you be a buyer of energy now?"

Joe said "You don't have to be, and that's the point," and then reached back into the movie-quote playbook for a variation (from 2 films actually) of an all-time great, telling Grasso, "You know the truth," before opining that "today is all about mathematics."

"I wasn't trying to ask you an 'I gotcha' question," No. 386 assured Joe.

Jon Najarian predicted BBRY will see "mid-15s" by the end of the year.

Back to CNBCfix home