CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Fast Money Review Archive, June 2013]
[Friday, June 28, 2013]

‘This is the place you wanna start buying gold’

Melissa Lee for whatever reason on Friday's "half-baked" Fast Money asked traders to choose between 3 "laggards" of Q2, AAPL, gold and homebuilders, none of which really has any kind of correlation to each other.

Guy Adami claimed AAPL looks "as good as it (sic) looked in a while ... seem to have a little bit of a double-bottom."

Brian Kelly said, "This is the place you wanna start buying gold."

Tim Seymour suggested you want to own the gold miners, "not necessarily the metal," but once again talked his way into watering down whatever point he was trying to make.

Steve Grasso curiously tried to claim the best of both worlds is already being long gold miners and buying AAPL; "you gotta figure this thing is gonna bounce back," predicting it would "rally our way back up to the 450 range."

Guy Adami stumbled and bumbled his way through ABX hedge-buying-back comparisons to the S&P and the "ish" levels since then, and now ABX is 15.

So basically, no one's excited about homebuilders, but otherwise this gloomy panel sure likes AAPL and gold (but beyond that it's a bear storm ahead).

Adami contended that in the 2nd half, "volatility's gonna reign."

Tim Seymour claimed emerging markets are oversold; "DeutscheBank is my largest short," and he's bullish on the dollar.

Steve Grasso said "I like Monsanto, I like Southern, I like Google," but he wants to see the S&P 500 test 1,555 before plunging in.

At least they didn’t stand around a table of steaks for 5 minutes

Tim Seymour on Friday's Fast Money pronounced the BBRY slam as a "an opportunity."

Crediting "Mr. Hanes" (sic), Seymour said you start buying next week, "41% short interest, you start nibbling."

Brian Kelly, probably inspired by the Halftime crew's 5-minute staredown of a table of steaks (see below), scoffed at the stock as "all steak, no sizzle."

Seymour insisted, "Sum of the parts, this thing's worth 10 bucks."

Guy Adami admitted he's been wrong on the name but he agrees with Seymour.

Guest Anthony Chukumba said BBY is "way ahead of their original cost-cutting targets" and thinks there's more to go.

Tim Seymour argued much is priced in, and "you don't need to buy it here." Guy Adami suggested waiting for 23.5 or 24.

Adami said of CVC, "I think it's a buy."

Steve Grasso said he prefers EQT and COG to CNX.

Tim Seymour hailed THC for its "daily double" and said it's going higher.

Guy Adami cautioned that IBM's quarter might not have been a 1-off given the ACN news; "at 190, be a little careful here folks."

Tim Seymour gave a convoluted answer to a Twitterer's UGP/PBR question, suggesting EEMV was a good play, then saying he likes "40 on the EEM," but he wouldn't touch PBR in either direction.

Guy Adami said you're "flippin' a coin" in PSX but if so, use a 57 stop.

Steve Grasso said that heading into Q3, "high fliers are gonna be the ones that get gouged."

Tim Seymour's Final Trade was EWZ. Brian Kelly said short FXA, Steve Grasso said MON with a 95 stop, and Guy Adami said Happy Fourth of July.

Pete still thinks AAPL
is a 2nd-half story

In its quarterly wrap-up episode Friday, the Halftime Report sought assurances from Pete Najarian as to whether AAPL is still a "2nd-half story."

"I still believe in that," Najarian said, before offering a couple reasons why it might be anything but. "They did not deliver" at the WWDC, he said, and we're still waiting for a bigger screen on the iPhone; "they might be too late."

That's what Stephen Weiss said; "they're late."

Meanwhile, Carlos Kirjner, who Judge Wapner said is the charter member of the Google 1,000 club, said of his price target, "I think so far it has been proven right," and thinks the stock will get there on simple 19-times valuation once we see "EPS in the high 50s."

Jon Najarian though said "I worry about some of the spends here," the "balloons," and said AAPL is the real winner in the AAPL-GOOG-FB space in getting people to actually buy things.

APL, as well as AAPL, is deemed 2nd-half story by Pete

Mike Santoli, taking what we think is his first turn as a regular panelist on Friday's Halftime Report, repeated his previous thoughts about how this might be a more complete correction than the incomplete corrections we've seen earlier in 2013, and said this week has been "obviously encouraging."

But Steve Weiss said this week has been "encouraging and discouraging at the same time" because there wasn't a consolidation to rock bottom. Weiss said hospitals, in the wake of immigration deals, are his "favorite sector."

Pete Najarian said he likes health care and pipelines, Kinder Morgan and APL, plus HIG and AIG.

Jon Najarian mentioned CERN, HCA and ARII as his favorite 2nd half plays.

EM rebound ‘could be soon’

Echoing a common Fast Money theme in recent days, Mike Santoli on Friday's Halftime Report said emerging markets can turn quickly; "I don't think it's gonna be tidy, but I think it could be soon."

"I don't agree," said Stephen Weiss, who once again cited Brazilians rioting in the streets and the China "implosion."

Santoli suggested mean reversion is in order after the "3,000-basis-point outperformance in the U.S." Weiss said, "And it should be 5,000."

Santoli also tangled with Jon Najarian, who touted the XLU because "I think rates have peaked in the short term."

But Santoli argued, "as companies, as businesses, they're overvalued."

Stephen Weiss said "I'm pretty virile guy" who is not a fan of utilities, "I think the hiding's over ... I agree with Mike."

Najarian said elsewhere in the program that the XLF had a lot of put selling, and referred to Jeff "Grundlach" (sic).

Najarian: Gold ‘getting flushed out’

Homebuilders proved a polarizing subject for Friday's Halftime Report crew, with Pete Najarian arguing there is "plenty of upside."

Mike Santoli asserted, "I don't think there's any value there," and said they're not really good businesses, but beholden to economic cycles.

Stephen Weiss agreed. "I'm not touching the homebuilders," Weiss said, calling them "egregiously overvalued." But he said he would try HD and the REITs.

Jon Najarian backed his brother's call on the builders. "I think they're still OK," he said.

Jon Najarian graciously accepted credit for his gold-miner call, saying there was just a "flush at the end of the quarter."

And as for the metal, "I think gold's getting flushed out here," Najarian said.

Mike Santoli backed off a gold price call; "there's no fundamental value."

Halftime crew stands around staring at steaks for 5 minutes while restaurateur talks

Stephen Weiss on Friday's Halftime Report was forced to come to grips with his colossal BBRY bungle.

"Is it oversold? I don't know," said Weiss, who once again made his Porsche (Drink) analogy of small market share.

Jon Najarian was actually bullish on the name, saying it reached its Dec. 26 lows. "Down here at 10, this makes a lot of sense," Najarian said.

Pete Najarian even admitted, "I'm an owner of the stock ... I'm likely gonna add to it."

Erin Gibbs briefly joined the group to say that the GDP revision bothers her, and "my other big concern is China." She likes DLTR, and also mentioned AVB.

Pete Najarian scoffed again at people who use the term "defensives," because they've gotta have that underlying fundamental value.

Jon Najarian groused about the latest Eamon Javers report on selling of data seconds/minutes before it's released to the public; it's "cheating the markets."

Najarian said "It's Accenture" that was hurting IBM.

Michael Santoli, whose initials are MS, tackled MS, saying there have been "concerns about the bond-trading operation," and that the rising-rates-brokerage trade that others such as SCHW were thriving on seems to have run its course.

Pete Najarian said of MNST, "this thing is a monster."

Stephen Weiss said the Southeastern Conference found "no issues" with MCP.

Restaurateur Greg Sherry pointed out how he's always hedging meat prices and looks to other commodities for direction.

He said gambling's portion of Vegas' profit has declined; "steaks, restaurants, shows, they're driving revenue now to the casinos," which sounds a bit like the chat Michael Corleone had with Johnny Fontaine at Mo Green's place.

Jon Najarian's Final Trade was long GNC. Steve Weiss said short X, Mike Santoli said GLW and Pete Najarian said both LVS and PFE.

[Thursday, June 27, 2013]

Dan Nathan accuses Mike Pachter of ‘class warfare argument’

Michael Pachter, for the first time since maybe about 2011 (or at least early 2012), tried playing the wealth card on the Fast Money gang he thinks doesn't appreciate the marketplace for DVDs and physical video games.

Insisting GME has a bright future, Pachter said, "They're gonna thrive when game sales rebound."

Guy Adami asked why the short interest is so high. Pachter indicated he couldn't really answer; "I absolutely suck" at trading, he said.

Then he rankled Dan Nathan in asserting that the short interest is a "bunch of rich guys who think that everybody would prefer to receive everything digitally."

"What is this like, a flea market here," Nathan groused, saying GameStop has "disgusting stores."

There was some talking over each other, with Pachter trying to say, "I need to correct a misperception that you and a lot of rich guys have."

Nathan scoffed that the stock was 15 a while back, and "you're not telling me anything's really changed."

Nathan concluded by smashing Pachter's case that the used retail gadget/game market is important for all those people who can't get credit cards at the same time they're supposedly also selling $500 Xbox material. "He was like using a class warfare argument," Nathan scoffed.

Nathan, almost sort of veering into a "Good Will Hunting" reference in which the Harvard dude says Matt Damon will be serving fries at the drive-thru to the Harvard guy's kids on their way to a ski trip, flatly asserted that his own kids will be downloading games and not going to GameStop. (Although, full Fast Money disclosure, Eric Bolling's son was once on the show touting how much fun GameStop is/was.)

Honestly, hate to waffle here, but the truth is somewhere between these 2; as Steve Grasso indicated, it's just a question of how long the game window is open.

Running out of arguments, Guy Adami always tries Japan (Nikkei having another good week regardless, the correlation that matters except when it doesn’t)

Sometimes Judge Wapner has a very desirable job, the platform to try pounding sense into the Fast Money crew's permabears.

Thursday's message was that stocks in a week or so will trade lower because of how they traded a week ago, and whatever the Fed message was, they're just not gonna believe it.

Guy Adami called last week "very destructive" technically but said we should still get a "push maybe toward 16 and a quarter," at which point he'd trade on the short side.

Dan Nathan, almost as hyper as he was with Karen Finerman the other day, denounced the "incoherent message" from the Fed and said the S&P will "continue to make lower lows," and "I'm shorting it here."

Nathan predicted a test of 1,550 that will fail, sending us to 1,500, and "that's probably when it's OK to step in."

Steve Grasso agreed on the Fed message and flat-out asserted, "We'll test 1,555."

Finally Judge had had enough of the claims of Fed confusion and lectured Grasso, "Dudley today was about as dovish as you would want any, anybody to be."

Mike Khouw said he agreed with the majority that it's time to sell the rallies, perhaps in names such as BBY, or NFLX which he thinks has "topped out," and SCHW.

Anthony Scaramucci didn't hail the great job by the Fed this time but did say the market goes "higher here in the near term" before warning that if the Fed actually did say it's done with QE, the market would sell off sharply (and if Tim Cook said they sold 95 million iPads this quarter, AAPL would be 700 again).

Ed Yardeni tried to agree with this group's technicals but insisted that corporate cash is keeping the market attractive, an "amazing amount of cash coming in."

Yardeni said, "Sometimes you have to have a little bit of sense of humor," and pointed out that his 2013 S&P target was 1,665, so going sideways wouldn't surprise him, he'd just be avoiding materials and energy.

Interestingly, Yardeni pointed out that if you compare stocks 2009-now vs. 2003-07, "they're almost identical." (But what he didn't say is that this time, Jimmy Cayne is not employed.)

Guy Adami tried telling Yardeni, "Japan, the volatility there is disturbing to say the lease (sic)."

Then Adami reverted to one of his occasional favorite cliches, on China, "I think they're the best capitalists in the world" (Drink).

Steve Grasso, grasping for a bear case beyond dicey technicals, actually asked rhetorically, "What happens when it gets back on the front page."

‘Trend of the market is still up’

Meanwhile, despite painting a 1,555 picture for viewers, Thursday's Fast Money crew curiously gave a pass to Chris Verrone, who asserted "the trend of the market is still up, and still healthy," and said that at the beginning of this week, half of the S&P 500 was trading down to a 20-day low, which is generally a time to buy for the next 1-3 months.

Verrone likes financials; "banks are not being treated like they used to be," and suggested MTB, as well being a "buyer of dips" in KEY, CMA, WFC and USB.

Guy Adami actually agreed on banks, "that's really where the strength is," and of course mentioned USB (Drink). He also touted PNC in the program.

Steve Grasso insisted again that he'd like to see the test of 1,555 first.

Verrone also said it's encouraging that stocks have been outperforming gold.

CNBC's Sister Golden Hair reported that Jeff Gundlach thinks gold "looks like death."

In a not particularly profound statement, Anthony Scaramucci said "gold has lost favor."

But Guy Adami said he's not on board with Gundlach's contention that emerging markets may outperform for a while; there are "still some disasters out there."

Steve Grasso said miners can outperform the spot gold price because they can react with measures such as cutting production. Judge credited Dr. J for getting long a day ago.

Judge praises the info gleaned from conference calls after one of his panelists made a trading suggestion based on the raw numbers

Guy Adami, asked to opine about NKE's afterhours bounce early on Thursday's Fast Money, found himself speaking a bit too soon in claiming everything in the report looked good and that the stock would push toward 70 Friday with just a "benign tape tomorrow."

Later in the program, Judge Wapner noted that the shares had actually turned down.

Phil LeBeau told viewers that 7 of 9 airlines were profitable in Q1, and it's more than just baggage fees adding to the bottom line. "These numbers are just the beginning," LeBeau said, because they've got "packed planes."

Guy Adami said he prefers PCP over the airlines. Steve Grasso said he likes the airline charts.

Anthony Scaramucci questioned that if corporations such as PFE are doing buybacks because top-line growth is light, "why are there no acquisitions."

Mike Khouw suggested selling upside calls in the cable names.

Grasso unconvinced on P

Guy Adami said on Thursday's Fast Money that FSLR "can stay high," largely because of "30% short interest" and it's the best name in the space.

Mike Khouw argued, "This is actually a bad business ... basically selling to themselves."

But it's the "best in a lousy space," Adami said.

Dan Nathan said he's "intrigued by it in the low 30s."

Nathan suggested ACN's results are an indicator for IBM.

Steve Grasso took a Fast Fire on P and asserted, "I didn't say I would be a seller," but he "still wouldn't buy."

Guy Adami said it would not be a surprise if EBAY trickled under 50 because of its "monster double top."

Dan Nathan said he likes QCOM and is long August calls.

Steve Grasso's Final Trade was long MU. Dan Nathan said BBRY, Anthony Scaramucci said ALL and Guy Adami said X.

Doc: AAPL wishes it was
making sneakers

Thursday's Halftime Report was quietly and smoothly rolling along until Jon Najarian created howls with a bizarre celebration of NKE.

"There aren't any negative points for this one," Najarian, who doesn't wear the Blackhawks jersey now that they've actually won, asserted. "I think it goes higher. It's a technology company ... this is where Apple wishes they were."

Well, AAPL probably doesn't wish it traded for $62 a share, but the way things are going...

Actually this page said a year ago that forget about Twitter, or Nike; AAPL could buy Goldman Sachs or Mastercard or something particularly useful. (But they didn't.)

Najarian's description came after Mike Murphy made the bull case, starting with "this is an innovation company."

Josh Brown said it's only growing 9%, and is too rich at 21 times, and China and Japan aren't helping now, so Thursday night would be a good time to "walk back" expectations.

Murphy then tried to find some agreement and insisted viewers "buy on pullback."

Joe: ‘Energy trading incredibly well’

On Thursday's Halftime Report, Joe Terranova got the first word in, but hardly the last, as Joe barely gave viewers any quotable material after asserting, "I don't know if the liquidation cycle is over," but "energy is trading incredibly well," and data has been better than expected, so he likes TRV (also his Final Trade).

Josh Brown suggested that when people get their financial statements, "I wouldn't be shocked if that triggered another wave of selling."

Mike Murphy said "I think the market acted perfectly" to the Fed and all the noise and typical sell-in-May refrains, then suggested ORCL (which also became his Final Trade), admitting to Judge the quarter was bad, but "was it 10% bad? ... I'm going to be adding to the position today."

Jon Najarian said that to gauge the market, "The big one is interest rates for me," and he wants to see the VIX test 15.30.

Gregg Fisher told the panel that bailing out of stocks here is the "wrong thing to do," and we're at a point where people should "possibly even consider building foreign positions."

Fisher said people are probably underinvested in real estate, and that the "slope of the yield curve" between 1-year and 5-year U.S. bonds/bills is "extremely steep."

Ron Sloan opined that the bad-news-is-good-news theme is "yesterday's story," and we're looking for good news now, and he likes M perhaps the best, it is "synergizing" across multiple platforms.

Sloan also likes GE, PH and UNH. Jon Najarian called GE "the play for solar." Josh Brown said it's "tough to find a scenario" where UNH doesn't work.

Steve Liesman helped explain how Bill Dudley and others on the Fed are stressing that the markets got "quite out of synch" in what they thought they heard from the Fed. Judge credited Liesman for pointing this out days ago and launching "The Liesman Rally."

Coop: 10 for 10

Kate Kelly reported on Thursday's Halftime that Bill Ackman and Jonathan Gray both nailed single-family homes at last year's Delivering Alpha conference, and Jane Mendillo of Harvard knocked one out of the park on farmland and timberland.

But Kelly said the Coopmeister went "10 for 10" in stock picks and still likes HAL, QCOM and ESRX.

Dr. New World rightly questioned if anyone last year was saying sell gold or AAPL (besides Gundlach) because "not many" did, and long positions were very popular (speaking of which, we're probably due the obligatory John Paulson-his-gold's-getting-killed-but-other-fund-doing-great update soon).

Anthony Grisanti said crude has strength because there are "geopolitical tensions on the rise." Jeff Kilburg though said, "We wanna be short here at this 97 level."

Joe Terranova said Mark Fisher, who's playing cards, taught him to notice when something rises "despite" lack of apparent catalysts, as crude is, and it tells you something. Josh Brown scoffed that the market doesn't care what anyone thinks but suggested IEO.

Herb’s found another sector/stock that just might take a hit if there’s just one hint of a setback

Herb Greenberg paid a visit to Thursday's Halftime Report to suggest maybe price increases from home builders are too steep to be sustainable, and are there enough Chinese buyers if there's a blip.

Mike Murphy though argued, "I think there's a lot of upside for these guys."

Josh Brown, as he tends to do, said "this is actually a really easy trade," which is long KBH with a stop below 20, a level that he said has held support 6 times.

Brown suggested 71.50 in BBBY is "pretty major resistance."

Mr. New Land said we'll know in July whether Japan is headwind or tailwind, and "I expect it's going to be a tailwind."

Mike Murphy admitted that in M, "we missed this one."

But Murphy contended that WNC is a "great cyclical story" with more room to run, and found agreement from Josh Brown, who said "I think this one's got the right ingredients .. I think Murphy's right here." Joe Terranova cracked that it has "wearable technology."

Jon Najarian called EOG a "relatively safe play" and made TMUS his Final Trade.

Mr. New World said he doesn't like KEY because it's in Ohio, try RF and FRC instead.

Mike Murphy said if you're long TSLA, let it run but with a stop. Josh Brown said he's long LULU but won't buy more until this CEO debacle is cleared up. Brown's Final Trade is VGK.

[Wednesday, June 26, 2013]

Dennis Gartman (apparently) calls short-term bottom in stocks

Dennis Gartman joined Wednesday's Fast Money to tell guest host Judge Wapner and the crew that for the first time since February he likes the look of stocks, even though "I'm not sure it's safe."

"I own a little bit," Gartman said.

Pushed by Judge as to whether he's calling a bottom, Gartman offered, "It's the bottom for this run," and it "should hold." But if it doesn't, he'll get out.

Steve Grasso said, "I did nibble around the edges" of stocks and suggested the S&P could go 20 points higher and still tumble.

Josh Brown said he wants to see 2 weeks of consecutive closes over 1,600 before he's convinced, and cautioned that there are "7 Fed addresses going on this week."

Josh Brown invokes the preeminent Fast Money cliche, and a guest gold-watcher matches him

Steve Grasso said on Wednesday's Fast Money that there's "always a place for gold in your portfolio," but that was about the extent of the admiration for the precious metal.

"Mikey" Khouw pointed out that gold from the late '70s to 1999 made a round trip of pricing. Karen Finerman said that when people talk gold, it's a "valuation based on what?"

Gold investor Joseph Foster paid a visit to the set and said you want to have some gold allocation for those times when there's financial stress. But he conceded, "There's a lot of fear in the market right now."

Josh Brown asked, "At the end of the day though," does Foster really think gold-miner equities would be unscathed in another stock selloff.

Foster replied, "At the end of the day ... gold stocks ultimately follow gold."

Jon Najarian said he was buying gold miners, NEM, plus AGQ, because he thinks they're due for a bounce.

Dennis Gartman said "they got a little panicky on the downside" in gold and it can rally maybe $25 higher, but it's still in a "long-term bear market."

Bullish chart in BBBY

Mike Khouw said on Wednesday's Fast Money that "I think ho-hum is the story" in MSFT, but at least the discussion allowed Dr. J a chance to mention his "covered writing program" in the stock (that returns 2% a month, but he didn't mention that part this time).

Najarian addressed the recovery in BBBY and said he "thought it was overdone last week." Steve Grasso said the chart is looking "very bullishly for me" and would play with a 68 stop.

Grasso said ETFC and SCHW are "still a buy." Dr. J liked the P upgrade; "I think Cowen has it right."

Najarian cited "LeBron James" as the No. 1 reason for being long NKE, and tossed in "yogawear."

Mike Khouw said his bear argument on NKE is "simply one of valuation."

Josh Brown said "this is not a difficult one" to evaluate; Nike is relying on emerging markets for growth, and emerging markets are horrible.

Karen’s rising-rate play: HLSS

CNBC's Sister Golden Hair reported on Wednesday's Fast Money of the impact of rising rates on insurers.

Karen Finerman suggested HLSS as a winner in a rising-rate environment, saying companies that purchase mortgage servicing rights will face lower prepayment risk as rates rise. HLSS was her Final Trade.

Josh Brown offered, "Stocks in general tend to do pretty well so long as rates rise but don't rise too much" (Drink).

Scott Black told the panel that he's interested in "companies that haven't had big runs," specifically WU (with too many fundamental details to mention), and also ARII, though for different reasons than WU. (And, Black corrected Josh Brown for linking him to Oscar Shafer's point in Barron's).

Karen Finerman endorsed KBH; "for a bounce, I like it." Steve Grasso said BBRY might get bought. Josh Brown told viewers, "We'll be legging into Europe," then he and Judge debated with Steve Grasso whether the worst is over for Europe.

Ben Kallo affirmed his 118 target for TSLA, saying it built a better electric car than its rivals did.

But Kallo didn't say goodbye when Judge thanked him for taking part on the show.

Mike Khouw said someone was buying June weekly 102 puts in TSLA for 1.40. Jon Najarian said at the top of the show he was buying TSLA on Wednesday.

Mike Khouw said he's "fairly neutral" on PNC and would sell strangles.

Jon Najarian said he bought XLP and XLU and thinks we're "topping out on rates."

Karen Finerman said of BACk, "I'm staying long."

Najarian's Final Trade was a Finerman staple, FL. Steve Grasso said HERO and Josh Brown said to WAIT. (He really said "wait" to buy anything, it's not an actual ticker, that's a joke.)

Guest: 2013 rally like 1999 (in a bad way)

Peter Sorrentino told Wednesday's Halftime Report he still thinks "a little too much complacency's still in the markets."

But he curiously compared the present market to 1999, when he said the market was "priced to perfection" and people were somehow cheering themselves "all the way down" by celebrating having "a couple positive days," but "we were still rolling down the hill."

Sorrentino does like 3 stocks, CSCO, HP and DE; "we think they're early cycle," but he said he's "trying to avoid the bond refugees."

Mike Murphy said he likes CAT more than DE and would only want DE in the low 70s.

Stephanie Link said Sorrentino's CSCO call is "spot on." Steve Weiss said he's not high on energy and thinks crude could drop below 90.

Enis Taner warns of rough Q3

Wednesday's Halftime Report gang was only cautiously embracing the day's rally.

"Bad news is good again," said Stephen Weiss.

Stephanie Link said Cramer was buying GE, EBAY and FB.

Mike Murphy said the market is looking past the data. "I'm a buyer here, but you also have to beware," Murphy said.

Enis Taner said he shorted the SPY, which was his Final Trade, but struggled to explain how all the dots (stronger dollar = U.S. weakness) connect in his global thesis. "I would rather be in European equities than U.S. equities," Taner said.

Ilch: Back off silver

Mike Murphy said on Wednesday's Halftime Report that even after the shellacking, he's "not even close" to buying gold miners.

Stephanie Link kind of feebly said maybe you could try FCX for a gold play.

The Ilchmeister, Rich Ilczyszyn, said silver is struggling. "This is a deflation story, not an inflation story ... I don't think you step in here," Ilczyszyn said.

Jeff Kilburg said that for markets, this kind of volatility "is flashing a big danger sign."

Stephen Weiss shrugged that "Silver Wheaton is not bulletproof" to silver's fluctuations.

‘More to go’ in HIG

Eric Stein was a perfectly fine guest on Wednesday's Halftime Report, but his top trades of long Sri Lankan T-bills and the Philippines peso seem like a bit of a reach for most viewers.

However, he enthusiastically is short yen.

Kate Kelly reported that Ray Dalio's Bridgewater all-weather fund has been slumping like other risk parity funds.

Stephanie Link said "I think there's more to go" in HIG.

Mike Murphy said CHK has momentum that could take it through 22.

Enis Taner said 26 could be resistance for YHOO.

Stephen Weiss said to "stay away" from APOL.

Stephanie Link suggested KEY, MTB and WFC in the banking space.

Enis Taner said he doesn't like P, but he praised MSFT as being "much, much cheaper" than consumer staples. Mike Murphy said he likes the story at GIS.

Prof is still long AAPL

Aswath Damodaran, one of our favorite Halftime Report guests, might've gotten a little overbilled on Wednesday when Judge praised him as the dean or practically the Nostradamus of stock-market valuation.

Damodaran said "I wouldn't call it cheap but it's not expensive either," then contended that commodities and certain cyclicals right now are the "best chance of finding bargains," a point that raised eyebrows among the panel.

"I bought Petrobras," Damodaran added.

He told Judge Wapner he's "still holding onto" his AAPL shares that might've been bought around 450, and said he still owns FB.

Stephanie Link argued the bull case for LUV, calling it a "high-quality company" that is executing in a lot of ways.

Mike Murphy said the stock's around the levels of its 2010 highs that were trouble, and he sees the AirTran deal as a negative.

Link said LUV has just gotten into Atlanta, and it tends to rule the markets it enters.

Enis Taner gave Link the nod.

Taner said "I'd wait till at least next quarter" before buying FIO.

Steve Weiss predicted "the toughness is going to continue" in CF. His Final Trade was sell ANR.

Mike Murphy said he'd want SNDK about 10% lower. Murphy's Final Trade was long ORCL.

Steph Link said if you're long OXY, hold on, and made BCC her Final Trade.

[Tuesday, June 25, 2013]

Would you rather rely on old management to re-create the brand?

Karen Finerman and Tim Seymour on Tuesday's Fast Money conducted a COH debate with utterly no catalysts.

Finerman called it an "enduring brand" that is "ridiculously cheap" not only to KORS but its own historical prices, despite an "absolutely pristine" balance sheet.

Tim Seymour, citing an apparent expertise in women's handbags, claimed "this is a company that's past its peak."

In a head-scratcher, Seymour said, "They brought in new management here at a time when they need to re-create their brand. That concerns me."

Guy Adami backed Finerman; the stock "at these levels is a buy."

Mike Khouw added, "I'm with Karen."

Guy Adami complains about
the notoriety of the Fed

Guy Adami during Tuesday's Fast Money conversation about Fed members touched upon something that really deserved a little more conversation.

"In a lot of ways these guys have become rock stars ... intellect aside, they shouldn't be. I mean, I don't think that we should be able to identify these people as readily as we can," Adami said.

There are several reasons for that.

The biggest has to be the explosion of media. Nowadays people have at least 3 business channels, plus countless blogs, when they used to just read WSJ 5 days a week, watch Louis Rukeyser on Friday, and read Barron's and perhaps Forbes on Saturday. And something besides Mandy Drury has gotta fill the space.

Then there is a more dubious reason: Regular Joes pumping money into 401(k)s/online trading accounts (it's OK to lose money as long as you know what you're doing), and they actually notice the 100-point Dow moves.

Also, because of the 2008 crisis, the Fed has taken extraordinary, unprecedented actions that demand rightful scrutiny.

Finally, there is the cottage industry of the CNBC pundit (way too many to list) who try to claim that Fed people, and their various statements, are actually individually important, when the whole enterprise is in fact a massive consensus that includes the White House, Congress, Wall Streeters and international bankers and isn't about to change regardless whether it's Janet Yellen, Larry Summers or Ricky Gervais who takes the helm next.

(And oh yes, there was the ridiculously elevated government esteem for Alan Greenspan when the position should probably rotate every 4 years.)

Adami raised a great point but made no follow-through, nor did his colleagues. Certainly Adami is not grumbling about Reason 1, that there is too much media, nor is he likely complaining about regular Joes in the stock market given that he speaks to them (almost) every night on Fast Money. Either Adami is arguing the Fed should never have taken these extraordinary measures (he has indicated he believes as much, even on Tuesday's show in his description of Ben S. Bernanke), or he thinks the drib and drab of the Fed is overrated by stock-market watchers, which is certainly true.

Arguing what would've happened without so much Fed help is an intriguing exercise. So is the contention, made most recently by Joe Terranova, that every time there's been Fed news in 2013, the market sells, and it's been a buy (current situation pending).

Maybe in a future episode, we'll get the "why" from Adami.

Been a long time since
Whitney Tilson opined on NFLX

Andy Hargreaves didn't seem terribly excited about his appearance on Tuesday's Fast Money but explained that his Netflix thesis stems from, "We're assuming they get relatively close to 50 million" in the subscriber tally.

Tim Seymour cited the "children's catalog" as a reason to like Netflix, but he said he'd only buy it if it came down to 180.

Guy Adami said if he were forced to choose right now whether to buy or sell, he'd buy.

Mike Khouw said there was a big buyer of July 210 puts, and as for the stock, "I would definitely not be a buyer."

Khouw said he would only do BBRY from the long side with options, and called MSFT "fairly dead money."

Karen Finerman said she wouldn't short AMZN, but she could never be long.

Adami: S&P to 1,615

Guy Adami, who eyes contrarian stock moves the way Lou Holtz eyes upcoming Saturday afternoons against the Air Force Academy (see below), asserted on Tuesday's Fast Money that 1,615 is "gonna be your moment of truth."

(Sigh ... here's the deal with bears. It often works, short-term, and that's great. The problem is, every summer for years, there's a sky-is-falling moment on Fast Money, and if you plunged into the short side AFTER a big move has already been made, in May 2012, or August 2011, you quickly ended up in face-ripped-off land.)

Adami managed to say that "Japan is still a very interesting place ... I use that term extraordinary (sic) loosely."

Tim Seymour sounded the most bullish of Tuesday's crew, insisting, "At the end of the day the Fed is not gonna run out of the burning buiilding."

Mike Khouw pointed out how the deficit might factor into Fed tapering, a point we had previously heard on the show made only by Jeff Gundlach.

Mohamed El-Erian, who usually appears on Fast Money to defend either a position paper or tweet from Bill Gross, told the gang, "From a value perspective, there is value in Treasurys up to about 10 years now," but that the technicals are iffy.

For stocks, "Growth is gonna be the key issue going forward," El-Erian assured.

Notify Kyle Bass: Underwriting standards seen as starting to ‘fray a bit’

Thomas Flexner visited with Tuesday's Fast Money gang and observed that a lot of people have been playing a strong housing recovery, when "I'm not sure all the data support it yet."

But he said he thinks interest rates are "quite a ways away" from the level they would "become a negative" on housing.

Guy Adami questioned if the "velocity" (Drink) of the move in interest rates would prompt people to race in and buy homes.

Flexner said he's concerned that "underwriting standards" might begin to "fray a bit," as the market seems to be in the 5th inning while underwriting is in the 7th inning.

Tim Seymour said he would sell a rally in homebuilders. Guy Adami recommended HD and later said "trade it against a 73 stop."

Guy: Own SWHC

Herb Greenberg explained on Tuesday's Fast Money that ISRG has been "cited by the Food and Drug administate-" (sic, it was just kind of funny).

Guy Adami said the move presents opportunity; "you could trade this stock against this 475 low."

Karen Finerman said XLF merely had a "bit of a turnaround" from recent selling, but "I still like the names."

Guy Adami said YHOO can be traded long vs. 23, and he expects a "push toward 28 bucks."

Melissa Lee, who wore the same color dress as Karen (#noteverythinggotorganizedonmorningconferencecall), said she was surprised that SWHC has 21% short interest. Guy Adami claimed the stock is "also a Homeland Security play" (is that in bull mode or bear mode now?) and said it's "a stock you wanna own here."

Appetite for discounts

Susan Kaplan, who at a minimum had a fine head of hair for her appearance on Tuesday's Fast Money, said she (er, rather her clients, who started calling her the last several days) likes stocks because "still the P.E. ratios are quite reasonable," and her clients have had "quite an appetite to get some discounts."

Guy Adami called BBBY a "no touch" but said you can get long over 72.50.

Tim Seymour, after Jane Wells in sexy farm-related attire reported on genetically modified crops, said he'd be long MON, and "I'd buy more," and made it his Final Trade.

Tim Seymour admitted CLF has been a disaster but said he's "gonna continue to hold."

Seymour told F watchers to "give it another day, you can probably buy this weakness."

Mike Khouw's Final Trade was long FCX via selling August 26 puts. Brian Kelly said sell SPY, Karen Finerman said GOOG and Guy Adami said BKS long but as a "trade only."

‘Tim Cook is the right guy,’
don’t need another Steve Jobs

Steve Milunovich affirmed on Tuesday's Halftime Report that somehow he has a $500 target on AAPL, even though it's having an "innovation lull" and it won't be until "probably next year" that the "really exciting products" start appearing.

Perhaps those will include a "fingerprint identification" for the phones, Milunovich said.

Judge Wapner was digging into the cliche book for AAPL with "headlines to the bread lines ... from the penthouse to the outhouse" and pointed out that no trader on Tuesday's show is long the name (thankfully we're about done with the daily "omg, did you see that thing BOTTOM intraday at 426, I think it's going to 505!!!!!"), which prompted Milunovich to declare, "Expectations are low."

Milunovich called it "premature" to conclude AAPL innovation is dead, then dropped this whopper: "I do believe Tim Cook is the right guy. I don't think you need to have another Steve Jobs."

Actually, Tim Cook, a fine person, is the most boring figurehead in Silicon Valley, and the stock under his leadership is going to be as punchy as the 1970s New York Jets.

Stephen Weiss grumbled, "I've never heard an analyst less excited about a name they're recommending ... innovation's dead right now."

Dr. New World made an exceptional observation that hasn't come up, what about that AAPL bond issue that was humongously oversubscribed. Joe said someone he knows bought it. It was all Joe could do over Weiss and Mooch's annoying bantering to get a comment out, pointing out, "Apple is frustrating, equity and debt."

Judge quotes Al Davis

Mike Murphy told a lot of viewers on Tuesday's Halftime Report just what they wanted to hear.

"You can start buying here," Murphy said. "I think a lot of the selling is over with."

Murphy's bull call on BAC and other financials, during a finely crisp go-round at the top of the program, actually went over well with Steve Weiss, who called BAC (his Final Trade), C and AIG buys.

But Weiss predicted "the nervousness will return" to markets, and while long positions will be safe after the summer, expect a "lot of volatility interim."

"I wouldn't buy the commodities still," Weiss said.

Joe Terranova, whose 30-days-of-frustration call at the start of the month frankly after a day or week looked highly shaky but now looks great, trumpeted to Judge Wapner, "I've said it's gonna be frustrating" and said he's not enthusiastic right now; "I think this is passive money."

Judge though hectored Anthony Scaramucci for asserting a month ago that the market would fall off a cliff with the withdrawal of QE, explaining that Scaramucci had been saying, as one owner used to say famously in NFL Films clips about other teams' quarterbacks, "This market is gonna go down, and it's gonna go down hard."

The Moochmeister responded by twice mentioning "price discovery" and 2 or 3 times mentioning "expectation management" and hailing the central bank because "the Fed has done an unbelievable job here."

"The correction that I was talking about happened through the jawboning," Scaramucci explained.

Scaramucci then tried for a neat reversal against Dr. New World, challenging Joe's dismissal of recent data and asking him to "surmise" if the Fed is starting the "jawboning process" which indicates growth expectations. Joe shrugged, "The Street doesn't believe the growth expectations that the Fed has."

"No QE is a good thing," said Mike Murphy.

‘For 2013, China’s not gonna kill ya’

Alec Young told Judge Wapner on Tuesday's Halftime that the markets figure to be "choppy," but "we'd be looking to buy."

"The bond market's gotten ahead of the economy," Young added, and then offering the sleepless answer when the question wasn't even asked of him, "The one thing that keeps me up at night is this China credit situation."

But he said it's more of a longer-term thing; "for 2013, China's not gonna kill ya ... not necessarily a concern in the immediate future."

Mr. New Land insisted that Young's bull call on "domestic cyclical" names accounts for just 18% of the S&P 500. "I wouldn't agree with that," Young said, saying a lot of financials could be included there, maybe COST and TGT too, there are a "lot of gray areas."

‘She’s awesome’

Nobody on Tueday's Halftime Report panel, or any other Fast Money program for that matter, can explain what product Yahoo makes that's so essential.

But, everyone likes Marissa.

"She's awesome, and the stock's going higher," Anthony Scaramucci contended, citing (of course) Alibaba.

Mike Murphy backed the stock, citing "valuation of the Alibaba IPO."

Even Steve Weiss said, "I think the stock continues to run."

Mr. New World even said "buyer, absolutely," then was forced to admit to Judge it was a better buy many months ago, but insisted, "she's fixing the company up."

Anthony Scaramucci added, "Sony is the next Yahoo."

Scaramucci curiously balked at an FB Fast Fire, "I was already dipped in the Fast Fire on the 5 p.m. show," though we couldn't find a record of that. (He was, however, assuredly ripped for GM about 4 days after it happened, and at one point recently complained of "being dunked into the Scott Wapner dungeon," and we don't want to know what occurs there.)

Scaramucci said FB seems to have support at 23-24, but then cautioned viewers he reached on this one: "When you get out of your comfort zone ... you can make mistakes."

‘Yen will re-enter a weakening phase’

David Snoddy on Tuesday's Halftime Report told Judge Wapner in an excellent Japan discussion that "I think the volatility's gonna settle down," and "the yen will re-enter a weakening phase."

Unfortunately, Snoddy introduced some math, which involved taking the BOJ balance sheet, dividing by the Fed balance sheet, and take dollar/yen, and you get something like an r-squared .86, but we can't even compute an earned-run average, so we'll take his word for it.

Anthony Scaramucci suggested Snoddy "dumb it down for the viewer."

Snoddy said he likes TM, which either gains profits or market share with a weakening yen. (This writer is long TM.)

Curiously, nobody endorsed the Guy Adami Thesis that Japan has utterly "lost control" of its bond market and is an outright "disaster."

Snoddy said that in China, there's a "certain deliberateness to what they're doing."

Carl now talks to Judge
all the time

The bull/bear debates on Fast Money/Halftime frankly are getting tiresome, especially since the DIS debacle of a week ago (see below); on Tuesday's Halftime Report Stephen Weiss even introduced dead air before responding to Mike Murphy's NAV bull case.

Murphy merely claimed the "selling is way overdone," the company has orders, and "this stock is going back up into the mid-40s."

Weiss said Carl Icahn isn't right about everything, and "They missed dramatically their EBITDA targets."

Weiss insisted Paccar and Cummins are cheaper. Murphy questioned which metric, but Weiss said any metric.

Amid all the crosstalk (not the first time that was a problem Tuesday), Joe Terranova said he agrees with Weiss on CMI.

Speaking of Carl Icahn, who once said during the Ackman battle that he'd never do television with Judge again, Judge said he talked to Carl moments earlier about DELL (lessee, why did Carl not speak during the program ... either he had big lunch plans, or wasn't really prepared for a full slate of tough questions on DELL right now), and Carl said something about Finance 101 and learning when a bond has to be paid.

Joe Terranova said he wouldn't get in emerging markets at all this year because of the outflows in the sector.

But Mike Murphy suggested a bottom must happen; "there has to be a price, right."

"It's not a trade, it's an allocation story," Joe explained.

Stephen Weiss seemed to back Terranova, saying that in Brazil "they're rioting in the streets," and China is a "disaster ... it is a house of cards, it's going to blow up."

Jim Iuorio said copper might climb back up to 3.18 or 3.20, and then, "I would sell it there." Anthony Grisanti said copper is a signal that "housing definitely has some headwinds coming."

Steve Weiss said he likes CVS better than WAG, just like Karen Finerman does.

Joe Terranova said PSX only got a "modest rebound" and refiners need a bigger spread to rally.

Mike Murphy said to own FSLR only over 47. But he said not to get ahead of SWHC earnings.

Anthony Scaramucci said, "I'm a huge buyer of IBM here," and endorsed C, making it his Final Trade.

Joe Terranova said OXY is a buy and figures to eventually get over 100, and made an old favorite, TCBI, his Final Trade.

Stephen Weiss said to avoid ZNGA, and made BAC his Final Trade. Mike Murphy said VLO.

[Monday, June 24, 2013]

Toni Sacconaghi never answers Guy Adami’s question about what the HPQ growth business is

Toni Sacconaghi didn't call HPQ a "2nd-half story" on Monday's Fast Money but asserted, "This is still a collection of very attractive businesses," and "they still have a long ways to go."

But the Tonimeister, who had trouble dealing with the specifics of Fast Money panelists' questions, couldn't explain a strategy much beyond if Meg doesn't fix it the board will fix it for her.

Rather, when Guy Adami asked what the growth story is at HPQ, the best Sacconaghi could do is call it a "trading stock" in which "the rent is too low," and assert that the company still has to convince the market it's an investment and not a trade.

Tim Seymour was asked if he'd buy the stock and utterly failed to produce an answer, claiming its cash flow is "right in line with their peers!," which did produce something else, dead air, as Sacconaghi awaited a question.

Pete Najarian bluntly claimed it's a "stock that could fall down," and so he'd play with options.

Pete still sticking to
the AAPL 2nd-half story

Toni Sacconaghi cautioned on Monday's Fast Money that regarding AAPL, "I'd probably have downside to maybe 360," but it still has potential for new products, and "real option value."

Guy Adami was a little more optimistic, conceding, "I think there's a chance into 380s," but don't bother to short, "It's mindless to do it at this point."

Tim Seymour said he's done with the 505 stuff, and "I don't buy it here."

Pete Najarian assured AAPL longs, "I still think it's a 2nd-half story."

Guy Adami: The Lou Holtz
of stock-market prognosticators

Guy Adami has been predicting off-and-on (mostly on) for virtually years on Fast Money that the stock market's on the verge of falling off the cliff, but only recently has he gotten as good as a certain famous football coach at installing eye-opening high expectations for the other side of the trade.

Adami on Monday's Fast Money insisted we "should get a bounce" on Tuesday, and added, "The bounces are gonna be violent."

(And, nobody's put together an offense like the Purdue Boilermakers recently.)

But once we get to 1,615, the market's a sell, Adami said, unless we somehow get past 1,625.

Pete Najarian and Tim Seymour tangled over the EEM (you know, the one that Jon Najarian felt he had to cash out of while Pete stayed in it), with Pete insisting there is "huge negativity" in this trade constantly rolling over to later months, while Seymour insisting that emerging markets at least in some spaces, such as ABV (his Final Trade) or IDX, have gotten into "oversold territory."

Karen Finerman said "I have no idea" if the high is in for the S&P 500, but "I'm surprised we haven't seen the MLP ETF sell off even more."

Pete Najarian said he likes YHOO, but "I think it's gonna pull back further," basically because "the market's breaking down."

Guest Joan Solotar explained, "This seems to be more of a correction than a protracted bear trend," and then told Guy Adami "I don't know that I can really call a level" where it would be labeled something worse than a correction. "We still like real estate," Solotar said.

Dennis Gartman: Gold ‘nowhere near’ low

Dennis Gartman tackled copper and gold on Monday's Fast Money, suggesting without any real conviction that in copper, "You might, you might be making a low here," but "gold on the other hand I think is nowhere near making a low." (And yes, if you must own it, own it in yen terms, and yes AAPL is a 2nd-half story.)

Tim Seymour, who sounded like he was looking more for a friend than an argument, told Gartman he's short Aussie dollar and looking for 85 before 100.

Gartman responded, "I've got the other side of the trade on, and I did it today."

Seymour told viewers that he sold POT last week but said "3rd quarter late, you buy it."

Guy Adami said he was wrong to try to trade CLF (hint: capitulation nearing) and said it's best to be out of it.

Pete: MSFT ‘towards 40’

Pete Najarian argued on Monday's Fast Money that PHM is bouncing back because Pete thinks we will "see some stability come back" in mortgage rates and the valuation looks good.

Tim Seymour, with no other rebuttal than the chart, insisted, "This is ultimately a stock that's broken technically ... this company is expensive."

Karen Finerman said it's a tough call, but she would side with Pete.

Finerman found herself on exactly the same side as Guy Adami when it comes to ORCL. After the bad news, "It just didn't go down anymore," Finerman explained, and Adami backed that, adding that the "risk/reward sets up well." Both made long ORCL their Final Trade.

Pete Najarian called himself "one of those folks who thinks Microsoft's going towards 40 in the very not-too-distant future."

Adami: Wait on TLT

Chartist Jeff DeGraaf said on Monday's Fast Money that the 10-year hitting 2.50% "puts that 3% in play," but at the same time he sees a "temporary low" in bond prices.

Guy Adami suggested it's not time to plunge into the TLT; "think you gotta let this wash out." But DeGraaf said there have been some winners, Schwab in particular "looks great to me."

Pete Najarian predicted SWHC would go higher, it's a "shareholder-friendly company."

Karen Finerman said she'd pick CVS over WAG. Guy Adami said Barnes & Noble is giving Karen Finerman's book prominent display.

Finerman said Monday was "not a good day for AIG," and admitted her bull call on HTZ was "premature," but she still likes it.

"I wouldn't continue to own" WTSL, Finerman said, and that's a stock, not a radio station.

Tim Seymour said that "Macau is slowing" for WYNN, and "I think you stay away."

Guy Adami said an analyst recently called for refiners to double, and they've been "grim death ever since," but he thinks you can trade VLO vs. 32.50 and TSO vs. 50.

Pete Najarian said "I do think there's upside" to JNJ but made selling XLB his Final Trade.

Guy Adami suggests high in
for next 12 months

Barely a week after predicting a run back up to 1,687, Guy Adami is back in the "high in for the year" camp that he most recently espoused in the winter.

"I think there's a 75 to 80% chance, the high for 2013 is put in. Maybe the first half of next year as well," Adami said on Monday's Fast Money.

According to a chart shown by Melissa Lee, in dynamite new dress, Adami is the only panelist believing the high is in for the year; Tim Seymour and Pete Najarian say no, and Karen Finerman said, "I have no idea."

Judge actually thinks a salesman would notify a company 2 months in advance that he’s leaving

Herb Greenberg visited Monday's Halftime Report to discuss an old standby, HLF, given the news of Chairman's Club member Shawn Dahl bolting.

What was bizarre was that, instead of a general conversation about what this means for HLF, which Greenberg tried to address, Judge sought to hang a disclosure infraction on company management for stating in its April 30 comments suggesting no knowledge of departures, demanding of Greenberg whether "they had absolutely no inkling whatsoever" on that date that Shawn Dahl was exiting.

Greenberg, hilariously ambiguously, said that even a week ago there was "no indication" Dahl was going to walk, "when I called the company," and then Greenberg said "no," he didn't believe that.

Simon Baker was actually the voice of logic here. "He's a sales guy, why would he be telling the company he's gonna do that," Baker pointed out.

Another day of massive selloffs, still no suggestions by HFT-conscious Halftime crew of ‘the machines taking over’

During an ETF-trading-level discussion deemed so important it was left for the ending minutes of Monday's Halftime Report, Judge Wapner decided guest Steve Sachs was a little too nonchanlant about recent NAV prices.

"I think 'concern's' the wrong word," Sachs said.

"With all due respect, um, 'concern' to me seems like an absolutely appropriate word," Judge fired back.

Sachs said Wapner's example of a broker dealer unable to meet some kind of redemption isn't relevant to public buyers; "those ETFs worked as they were supposed to work ... 1 broker-dealer or 1 bank doesn't make a difference."

Even on a day off, Mike Murphy can’t resist reporting for work

Mike Murphy wasn't on Monday's Halftime Report panel, but he apparently really likes his purchase of F at $14.50 because he called into the program to crow.

"We think the selling is overdone," Murphy said.

Steve Weiss shrugged. "I sold my Ford," Weiss said.

Simon Baker countered, "I'm along with Murphy," while Jon Najarian didn't indicate anything wrong with that but did say he's just not in the name.

Stephanie Link made it a tie. "We own it, I like it," she said, also mentioning BWA.

Short throws in the towel

Andres Garcia-Amaya briefly joined Monday's Halftime Report to assert that the training wheels are coming off the economy but that banks can win with rising rates, and industrials can also benefit from lower commodity prices.

Stephen Weiss argued that C is oversold; "It's trading at 45, like Vikram Pandit's coming back to be CEO."

Guest Anton Schutz said the "market's been a little early" in its anticipation of rising rates, and he thinks one way to get ahead now is to sell out-of-the-money puts in big banks.

Also, "I really like M&T," Schutz said.

Kate Kelly reported that short seller Jim Carruthers has left Third Point because it's been a tough year for shorting and because those smaller positions don't move the Third Point needle enough.

Steve Weiss said you can still short steel. Simon Baker, who ruled the show with the best lines, observed, "This guy'll get a job pretty quickly."

Stocks down to same level as 2 months ago

Stephanie Link tried to strike a positive tone at the top of Monday's Halftime Report, saying Cramer bought AIG and GE.

Stephen Weiss though wasn't convinced. "I still think it's too early ... you've gone from global easing to global tightening."

Steve Liesman balked at that, explaining he was "deeply saddened" about Weiss' comments and that Liesman has never "disagreed with you more."

Rather, in the markets, "they are confusing Fed hawkishness with Fed optimism," Liesman said.

He indicated the last 2 weeks haven't been a secret central bank plot. "I'm sure this is not what the Fed wants," Liesman said.

Simon Baker indicated he still likes financials and tech but would avoid staples.

Doc nibbles at BTU

Jon Najarian argued on Monday's Halftime Report that CAT is a buy, given 22% Latin America growth and 5-year dividend growth of "9-plus percent."

Stephen Weiss, the bear, contended that "estimates were about 50% higher 2 years ago with the same stock price," then tried to ask Najarian "3 quick questions" that weren't worth jotting down.

Stephanie Link hemmed and hawed and waffled but said in the low 80s that the valuation is attractive.

"Full disclosure: I'm short," Weiss said, and "Full disclosure: I'm long," Najarian said, in an impressive showdown of convictions.

Weiss also said, "You can short the coal stocks still." But Najarian said that with the shellacking of BTU, he was "buying a little down here."

Weiss: 399 AAPL ‘probably OK’

In the most wishy-washy call of the day, Stephen Weiss said on Monday's Halftime Report that AAPL around 399 is "probably OK here."

Stephanie Link tried to trumpet that. "We actually sold some last week, just, really more out of frustration," Link said.

Simon Baker said "Google looks the best" of big tech.

Stephen Weiss revealed, "I own Tenet ... still like the hospitals," but he thinks the pharma trade for right now is over.

Jon Najarian's Final Trade was HALO. Steph Link said MCD, Steve Weiss said to short ANR, and Simon Baker first spelled "C-E-M" and then indicated it's CME long.

Karen gave up watching TV to make time for Fast Money

Getting ahead often requires sacrifice.

Karen Finerman told an AOL blogger that when she got the offer to be on Fast Money she wasn't sure she would have the time, so "she gave up watching TV."

And, "She gave up a hobby," which was modern art (we didn't know that, although not hard to figure out given her occasional Sotheby's commentary).

Finally, "she also got CNBC to come to her office to do hair and makeup."

[Friday, June 21, 2013]

Nikkei up 4.3% for week

Guy Adami recently has been saying on Fast Money that the U.S. stock market is all about Japan.

In fact, about 7 minutes into Friday's Fast Money, Adami claimed it's not solely the Fed, "I think it's Japan which is to me a disaster."

But in fact, the Nikkei had a good week, which is perhaps why Adami said at the top of the show that S&P 500 has had "just a technical freak-out," and "we had an outside week lower."

Just another Fast Money correlation that works, until it doesn't.

"I think you sell every rally" until 1,625, Adami said. But there are exceptions; "I think you can be long Monsanto."

Josh Brown asserted stocks are in a 1,576-1,610 range, and "I don't think we've seen all of the panic."

Steve Grasso said he bought GOOG but "got run over really quick," and he's also long GDX and SO.

Brian Kelly said "I don't think this is over," and added, "It's the emerging markets, it's China," though that wasn't exactly the case for the first 5½ months of 2013.

Brown: 3-handle for AAPL

The star guest of Friday's Fast Money was Gillian Tett, who warned that rising rates might sting banks, especially smaller ones.

Tett said big banks can hedge, but "we have no idea how good those hedges are."

Melissa Lee said it sounds like the worry might be the "velocity of the move (Drink) in rates."

Guy Adami said USB is "not the sexiest name out there" but a resilient winner. Steve Grasso suggested USB, WFC and STI.

Josh Brown admitted he has sort of called the bottom in FB but is "still not excited enough to get long."

Brian Kelly claimed it's "a little too late" to short EEM.

Guest Frank McGhee probably didn't realize panelists were snickering when he insisted gold is still a good investment, even though he predicts a test of "1,110, 1050-something" before it finds "long-term support."

McGhee insisted it's "definitely a good investment," but traders must be on the short side now.

Steve Grasso and Josh Brown argued over whether the miners outperform when gold rises.

Guy Adami pointed to NEM and said to "stay away from the miners."

Steve Grasso said there's "still room to the upside" in MU.

Josh Brown said "I have a feeling we see a 3-handle" in formerly mighty AAPL. (But Gundlach said 500 seems easy.)

Josh Brown said the "love fest continues" in YHOO, mentioned the Asian assets, but merely said the "stock's OK."

Steve Grasso said "there is gonna be a day" when BBRY blows through the roof.

Josh Brown insisted DDD is only in the "3rd or 4th inning," which frankly doesn't sound much different than Frank McGhee's gold forecast.

Brian Kelly's Final Trade was sell FXB. Steve Grasso said long DNKN, Josh Brown said long CVX and Guy Adami said full-speed ahead to 1,687 LLL.

So what happened to HFT? Market shellacked for days, no references this week on Fast Money/Halftime to ‘the machines taking over’

Nobody was really calling for shorting the stock market on Friday's Halftime Report.

Odd, because almost everyone was claiming that more waiting is necessary before plunging into stocks, which didn't stop Judge from skeptically suggesting in nearly every conversation that everything on sale could get a lot more on sale.

Stephen Weiss cautiously told Judge that the "point of entry is too soon ... I'd wait."

Mike Murphy told Judge, "You don't throw everything you have into the market right here, right now." But he revealed, "We bought Bank of America this morning."

And Weiss admitted he "bought a little" C in the morning.

Stephanie Link asserted that the "bond market needs to settle," and it has "absolutely" been driving stocks.

Link also said the market can be fine with rising rates if they're "at a slow pace" (Drink).

Jon Najarian told Wapner, "You buy T-bills in particular."

Mike Santoli said, like Redd Foxx, this might be the real one, after "we had 2 basically incomplete corrections earlier this year."

The market's struggling with the "adjustment process" of Fed expectations, Santoli said.

Judge hammered Santoli's recommendation to try EEM. Santoli argued "It's the only stuff that's cheap."

Jon Najarian told viewers for likely the 3rd or 4th day in a row that "I sold out my EEM puts."

Stephen Weiss scoffed, "China is a disaster."

Mike Murphy called Ford's pullback a "great opportunity."

Michael Fredericks told Judge that the selling in the 10-year "feels a bit overdone," but he envisions a renewed bid on defensive, quality stocks, and suggested covered calls as a way to succeed in this market.

Seems everyone likes TOL

In a predictably dull debate on homebuilders on Friday's Halftime Report, Mike Murphy said the pullback is a "great opportunity to get in" to PHM, which has geography on its side as well as backlogs up 53%.

Steve Weiss' rebuttal was that it trades at "3.5 times book value," and he'd rather buy LEN and TOL.

Jon Najarian reiterated his increasingly tiresome "I like the homebuilders because the selloff's been huge" routine, but Weiss correctly told him "don't split the baby in half" and make a ruling on PHM. Najarian only said he'd buy TOL.

Stephanie Link decided, "I'm siding with Steve."

Najarian howled it's "dogs and cats sleeping together." We probably wouldn't have used the term "sleeping together" in such a reference, 'cause that's how rumors start.

Some still think that Bill Gates and Steven Ballmer are going to listen to ValueAct

Stephanie Link took pains to tell Judge on Friday's Halftime that ORCL was blaming Australia and Brazil, but Judge didn't sound impressed, saying people think ORCL is just deflecting blame from itself, and Link admitted, "There was part of that to the story."

Link did tout RHT ("on weakness, I think you buy it") and FB ("we were buying yesterday").

Mike Murphy said if you're long something like MSFT, which has sold off for Bernanke reasons only and nothing else, "that's no reason to run from the name."

Murphy thinks DDD has gotten "a little bit too expensive."

Stephen Weiss said he no longer wants S, and he said for those trading ZNGA, "move onto something else."

Weiss said he likes the Q10 and asserted again that ulimately "BlackBerry gets sold."

Jon Najarian uses Friday’s live television to repeat utterly everything he has said from Monday-Thursday

Michael Harris issued somewhat of an Industry Brag Trade on Friday's Halftime Report, telling Judge Wapner he was at a managed futures conference where people "made good gains" on Thursday even though their long-equities books got smashed.

Harris said he thinks that for his equity positions, he might be "flat and maybe even short within the next few days."

Jon Najarian insisted again that gold has "got a lot more upside than downside" and predicts it will "retake 1,300 and go back up."

Herb Greenberg cited some stat folks as pointing out that certain ETFs got disproportionately walloped, but "despite the volatility, fund outflows were surprisingly light," suggesting little panic. Jon Najarian said whatchoo talkin' about Willis, there certainly seemed to be panic in the EEM (which he got out of, you know).

Mike Murphy said if tougher comps are the only reason for the hit to KMX, it's attractive.

Stephanie Link said of DRI, "the stock's a buy."

Jon Najarian said SPRD got a takeover offer. Najarian also opined that in the VIX, "we've got a floor in for the near-term," and he doesn't see mid-teens until September.

Mike Murphy said MCD can be a quality stock in this market.

Jon Najarian pointed out that the VNQ and REITs have really gotten slaughtered. Judge shrugged that things marked as 50% off might be 50% off 3 days later. Najarian expressed confidence in a bounce back, it's like thinking "They're not gonna have Christmas anymore."

Stephen Weiss then unleashed the line of the day, "That's why I prefer Hanukkah because I have 8 days to look at it," so good that Najarian even talked about being converted.

Steph Link suggested taking profits in both TSO and (Final Trade) AVP.

Jon Najarian said ARNA's "pivot point" will come during the American Diabetes Association's June 21-25 conference. Najarian's Final Trade was long EXC.

Steve Weiss' Final Trade was C, and Mike Murphy said T.

[Thursday, June 20, 2013]

Don’t get emotional about stocks: Dan Nathan unglued, ‘let me tell you something,’ perhaps thinking about Guy Adami’s ‘full-speed ahead’ to 1,687 of 2 days earlier

Maybe it was Red Bull, or maybe he just had a lot of money on the Spurs in Game 6.

Dan Nathan went down the warpath against his own colleagues on Thursday's Fast Money apparently because ... he wants to spare TV viewers from bad financial advice.

"I'm a little annoyed here by Karen," Nathan said, after Finerman pointed out how successful buying the dip has been for 4 years.

"A lot of people do what they see on TV," Nathan grumbled, which is odd, because no one seemed terribly concerned a week ago when Fast Money panelists were telling people that DIS was going to sell off if "Man of Steel" did less than $115 million. "I'm not in the business of picking out long-term S&P."

Nathan declared Thursday's meltdown (the market's, not his own) "most certainly is" just the start of something bigger, even though it's 100 points into a spiral already, making Nathan sound like he's endorsing the "people like to buy tops" notion he mocked in the program.

"Let me tell you something," Nathan told Melissa Lee (who knocked one out of the park with new hairstyle and chic new red/black outfit) and Karen Finerman about 7 times, the selloffs have been "very orderly until today," so now, "I think you sell these rallies."

And, incredibly, he wants viewers to get into emerging markets instead.

And, he insisted there's "not a chance" the S&P hits 1,620 on Friday.

Basically his bear case (depending on which person he was talking to at the time) was either A) global growth is terrible, or B) the Fed put is gone. (Why not the yen, or Syria, or Bob Kraft's Super Bowl ring?)

Nathan said the word "suck" on television, predicting that the market actually will hate it (snicker) if the Fed were to announce an increase in QE down the road; "this does not set up well."

We're the worst stock pickers on earth, and we'll take the other side of everything Nathan said.

Finerman impressively more than held her own and said she's not going to try to predict the bottom and told Nathan, "that's great if you think you can."

Meanwhile, Guy Adami, who just 2 days earlier was forecasting an S&P 500 run "full-speed ahead" right back up to 1,657, now thinks if we fail to break 1,608 an "outside week" is likely and "1,570 comes into play."

Further selloff called based on something that happened in 1927

Carter Worth sounded like a bandwagon jumper on Thursday's Fast Money, telling Melissa Lee, "once you're down more than 5%, history shows you don't stop there."

Except they had to have stopped somewhere, or else we wouldn't have had all-time highs this year.

Worth pointed out that the "median decline is 8.3," and so "the presumption is more."

Then Worth got downright loopy with the cliche that people take for granted that doesn't make an ounce of sense, "In order for this bull market to stay healthy, you want the correction. You don't want it just to stop after a couple percent," which is like saying the Miami Heat had to lose Game 5 in order to win Game 7.

"It makes perfect sense," claimed Dan Nathan.

How many times was Doc planning to say that Pete is still clinging to that EEM short?

Meanwhile, Doug Kass botched his chance to say something of significance on Thursday's Fast Money, calling out Guy Adami for no reason when it was Dan Nathan he apparently wanted to quibble with, even though he and Nathan seemed aligned as shorts. (They're just not so aligned on their short "certainty.")

"I think the only thing certain is a lack of certainty," Kass told Adami, and then unfortunately bored everyone with the 500th analogy on CNBC this week of the Fed weaning a patient with methadone.

Kass did observe that if the market keeps selling, "It's almost self-fulfilling."

Marc Faber of course told Melissa Lee "Yes I see further downside," but not because he was listening to Dan Nathan, but because "I think the markets are worried about something else," perhaps China and the 4% Faber says it's putting up.

Jon Najarian said he was buying TOL, SPF and RYL but explained that the options market, while expecting an S&P 500 recovery, doesn't really see it until September.

Najarian said he sold his EEM puts, but that Pete was hanging in there.

Later on, he reiterated that he sold his EEM puts because he thinks a bounce is likely, but Pete is still hanging in there.

Karen Finerman said "we were buying stock today," including M, and selling SPY puts. "I think it's a little bit overdone," Finerman said.

We were surprised
there are as many as 1

Jon Najarian, easily the best researcher at bull-bear debates, argued not particularly convincingly on Thursday's Fast Money that FB has a Vine project, is following Jack Dorsey, "the hashtags are gonna be huge," so get long the stock.

Karen Finerman countered that it comes down to mobile, that GOOG is far better and cheaper in that space, and we've seen "desktop growth slow to just a crawl here," and only 1 FB analyst has a "sell" rating.

But, "I wouldn't short it," Finerman said.

Brian Stutland chipped in, "I gotta go with Karen."

Dan Nathan is concerned about people doing what they hear on television, sees no problem with buy-gold advice

Marc Faber on Thursday's Fast Money defended his gold buying recently, suggesting an "intermediate low" for now.

Jon Najarian acknowledged he's making the bull case and taking positions although the correction came deeper and earlier than he said it would (and, to be honest, it might not be done); "we did get that blowoff," he said, but "I see a lot more upside for it than downside."

Guy Adami admitted gold has taken it on the chin, but "I don't think it's ending," and "ya gotta be in it."

Adami said that for MO to go higher, "it's gotta hold 33 and a half."

Nothing for the day about Japan, even though Guy Adami has said for a couple weeks that ‘Japan is the key’ and has lost control of its bond market

Guy Adami made the day's most intriguing single-stock call on Thursday's Fast Money, telling viewers, "If you believe that rates are going back down, CME is a really cool short here."

Adami said the problem with the ORCL quarter is that the last time they said it's a one-off, and "clearly it was not a one-off," but around 30 the stock looks good. His Final Trade was ORCL with a 29½ stop.

Dan Nathan scoffed at getting long this one; "probably much better places to be." Jon Najarian said he agrees with Adami that it stops at 29½.

Adami warned about BLK, "it'll find its way to 240 I think." (This writer is long BLK.) But he said USB and PRU were strong on Thursday, relatively speaking.

Karen Finerman said she likes BAC among the big banks because of its U.S. focus.

Dan Nathan singled out European bank turmoil and insisted, "We will see this sort of volatility come to our banks."

Nathan said he wants to short MU on the open, and made that his Final Trade.

Jon Najarian said HPQ got hit in a sell-the-winners stampede. Karen Finerman said "I'm still long" DIS.

Dan Nathan said he thinks FDX will "bottom out somewhere below 90." He said he'd buy GOOG "closer to 800."

Jon Najarian cautioned that QCOM "could soften into the mid-50s."

Najarian's Final Trade was long BMRN. Karen Finerman said M.

Dr. J just argued the other day to start buying

One term we don't necessarily associate with Fast Money is "consistent," but that's indeed what Joe Terranova was declaring on Thursday's Halftime Report.

"We've been consistent on this show talking about a bearish gold price, and it's gonna continue," Terranova said, saying such an approach is an "investment" and not just a "trade."

Josh Brown said the "low-conviction money is dribbling out" of gold, and "I don't think it's over yet."

Terranova piped up, why bother with gold now when real estate is doing well.

Stephanie Link suggested the issue is, "There's no inflation anywhere."

Simon Baker warned that if gold's plunge continues, "the dividend could evaporate" for NEM.

Jim Iuorio offered, "The sentiment in gold has changed," and concluded, "gold is toxic in my mind."

It’s the Grexit/S&P downgrade of 2013

Of all the folks on Thursday's Halftime Report who might've been questioning the day's stock market action, it was Steve Liesman.

Liesman, whose best discussions are generally with Rick Santelli (he's not on this show) and Gary Kaminsky (he's at Morgan Stanley now), asked for a wide shot of the panel, got it, then asked for a show of hands for anyone who heard something new from Ben Bernanke about the taper schedule. No hands went up.

"I'm not sure what's goin' on," Liesman admitted, and said he's shocked in the manner of "Claude Rains shocked" (i.e., not many viewers under 45).

Dr. New World continued to press his "it's too confusing" argument, asking Liesman, "Should I feel confident that there's any clarity" when both a dove and hawk were dissenting.

And, "He acknowledged deflation," Joe crowed about his call from earlier this week.

Terranova asserted, "You don't buy stocks ... you remain on the sidelines for the month of June," because the market had been relying on the Bernanke put, and "the put's not there anymore," which was where Joe was flat-out wrong.

Josh Brown said the November rally's over, there's a "massive carry trade unwinding," and he wouldn't buy much now because it "could get worse."

Stephanie Link played the cliche game, saying rising rates aren't so bad "if it's a gradual backup (Drink) in rates" and that they don't go up "much higher and much faster." Link said the Cramer crew was buying AIG.

Simon Baker acknowledged the rough day but said it's still "the cyclicals over staples."

Nobody mentioned that this is the type of selling that happens every summer, and that the same news/data of Thursday, had it happened in March, probably would've boosted the Dow 80 points.

Guest Mark Kiesel made the case for bonds, saying "the Fed is actually quite optimistic on growth" and so the hike in rates is a "buying opportunity" because the markets are pricing in too much tapering.

Mark Freeman meanwhile was endorsing the Goldilocks mode, saying the market choppiness stems only from the "transition process" while "there really are some positives on the horizon."

Freeman called Judge's comparison to letting the 4-year-old off of training wheels a "great analogy."

Freeman said he could see a GE dividend boost in the 2nd half of the year, "sooner rather than later."

If Ivy Zelman would
ever stop talking ...

Judge brought on the "definitive voice on the market" of housing, Ivy Zelman, to Thursday's Halftime, and Ivy proceeded to speak as though she were paid by the word.

Zelman said the housing boom is "absolutely not" over from rising rates, but it's just a new playbook. "Investors that buy on these dips right now are gonna be very happy about it," she said, predicting strong earnings from Lennar.

It's "kind of silly and stupid" to worry, but that's the old playbook, Zelman said.

Simon Baker said he likes MTG. Josh Brown said the builders will rebound, but "I think you'll get a better crack."

Stephanie Link said to avoid the builders but that you can buy WY, BCC, and Joe's favorite, LPX.

They listened to their customers, but will they listen to ValueAct

Josh Brown said on Thursday's Halftime Report that GME is rising because "you had complacent shorts."

Simon Baker gave Brown kudos for backing the stock. Brown came up with the preeminent cliche of the 5 p.m. Fast Money regarding Microsoft's Xbox reversal; "at the end of the day you listen to your customers."

Brown said to avoid SNE, while Baker said DIS is around fair value.

Brown, who has been saying there are no sellers in FB at 23, said Thursday there's no reason to be long the name for the pending announcement; "this stock does not pop on these meetings."

Simon Baker insisted that FB will monetize Instagram someday.

Mr. New Land said GOOG will reach 1,000, just not in the next 2 weeks.

Grisanti: 2.8% possible

Joe Terranova took a page from the Pete Najarian Cliche Book on Thursday's Halftime and said "I wanna be long financials" because they're a 2nd-half story, and also suggested the preferreds.

Stephanie Link said she doesn't think you have to wait till the 2nd half, though honestly, it's only a few days away, and look what happened on Thursday.

Josh Brown said JEF isn't really an indicator of Wall Street banks; "it's kind of its own story." But Brown pointed to Schwab and E-Trade as recently strong names that they never talk about.

Anthony Grisanti predicted 2.4% or 2.5% for the 10-year as its next resistance, and "we get through that, we could see 2.8%."

Stephanie Link argued for FCX, it's "trading at a discount" was largely her pitch, with "world-class copper assets."

"I gotta tell you," countered Josh Brown, "I think you're playing with fire here," because emerging markets and mining are not exactly strong right now. "Nobody wants anything to do with either one," he said, suggesting FCX could ultimately sink through the 2009 low and be a "teenager."

Simon Baker said it's good that the CEO bought a bunch of shares, but "I gotta go with Josh on that."

Joe Terranova argued with Brown, "It is not a falling knife." Link concluded that "a lot of the bad news is priced in."

From FCX to FDX, Link said, "I think you can get this at 90 or below."

Josh Brown asserted of EWZ, "I gotta tell ya, I don't think it's over just yet."

Link called KR's quarter a "high-quality beat" and a "good story."

Mr. New World said of CLF, "you don't wanna be in this," and explained, "I got a little tickle in my throat."

Link said of HIG, "We own it and like it."

Simon Baker said of SLB, "love the company, own it."

Joe Terranova's Final Trade was long XBI puts. Stephanie Link said MTB, Josh Brown said CVX under 120, and Simon Baker said CME.

[Thursday, June 19, 2013]

Wonder if the B-52s actually play ‘Love Shack’ in concert, or if they’re too tired of it

Josh Brown observed on Wednesday's Fast Money that "the staples got crushed," and he recommends being long only your most high-conviction names and to keep dry powder available.

Brown said it's significant that energy and materials did the best Wednesday, which might be a signal for summer markets, on a day the VIX wasn't terribly impressed.

Whoa whoa whoa cut in Dan Nathan, who pointed to volatility in EEM and suggesed UUP is the right trade.

Brown unfortunately didn't revisit his excellent call this week about how the market right now is jerking around on Fed headlines but is going to tire of them soon; it was Steve Grasso who said Wednesday's announcement was just a "sell-the-news event."

Jon Najarian didn't take a big stand on market direction but reiterated, "people are trying to get ahead of the Fed here."

Najarian said that the EEM trade had just gotten too good for him; "I had to take some off the table."

Guest Michael Feroli said the Fed might have "less hope or faith" that the jobs participation will rise appreciably, and said "May 22nd was a wake-up call" for the markets.

Mike Khouw advised viewers "continue the rotation into cyclicals."

Mike Santoli, who with Melissa Lee was more interested in the B-52s show later at night than concerned about tapering, acknowledged that "nothing was really immune today," but that semiconductors, media and tech names might be a little immune to Fed swings. Dan Nathan complained about TXN but Santoli said that's one of the more volatile ones, and he likes GOOG, whose price targets he says are not like the AAPL 1,000s.

Months-long or years-long themes are suggested in HPQ debate during most volatile market in recent memory

Steve Grasso, in debating HPQ with Josh Brown on Wednesday's Fast Money, got off on the right foot:

With a Brag Trade.

Explaining he already owned it from 13 to 22 (but this time without crediting the buddy who told him to buy it at the lows because it always bounces 100% off those lows), "I actually bought it again today," Grasso said.

"You're buying it for cloud," not PCs or printers, Grasso said. "It's a turnaround story."

Josh Brown argued that "40% of the business is PCs; 20% is printers," and the "easy money's been made," with tough resistance ahead at 25-26.

Grasso countered that if it breaks through 29, it's likely off to 35.

Brown shrugged, "You'd do much better in a Cisco."

Dan Nathan, who generally hates everything, not surprisingly said, "I have to go with Josh here .. the easy money has been made."

Steven P. Grasso delivers 2 Brag Trades in less than 30 minutes

Mike Khouw said on Wednesday's Fast Money that there was activity in the BA June 105 calls.

Dan Nathan said he's actually "long a July put spread." But Jon Najarian cautioned that a selloff into the 90s may be as low as it goes because of the "7-year backlog."

John Brynjolfsson told Melissa Lee on the Fast Line he likes U.S. and German 10-years, and is not so optimistic about the economy, "a lot of headwinds here in the U.S."

Jon Najarian predicted ORCL wouldn't have a disappointing quarter but said the guidance might be weak. Steve Grasso said "I think you're gonna see a pop" in home sales.

Dan Nathan actually called FB's pending mumbo-jumbo announcement a "really important event."

Mike Khouw, in something of an inside joke, referred to a bad call he made a while back on GMCR (that we didn't even remember) and admitted the bounce was at least partly on fundamentals, "The stock actually did deliver much better than I expected."

Steve Grasso issued a piping hot Brag Trade in the form of DPZ, telling viewers he has owned "probably from the $30 range" and that "it's exploding internationally ... I still like the name."

Jon Najarian said ISRG is "at a pivot spot," and assuming it clears 514, "I think this one goes a lot higher."

Mike Khouw said he's still not sold on BBY; "the long-term story is very impaired."

Melissa Lee delivered a rather edgy rebuttal when Josh Brown suggested she dance the "Taper."

Doc: More upside in GME

Josh Brown said on Wednesday's Fast Money that "420 is a very significant level" for AAPL, and if it breaks it this time, "385 would be the next rational level of support."

And shockingly, that was the extent of the AAPL talk.

Dan Nathan called ADBE "expensive."

Brown said he was surprised SNE didn't have a big pop on the Loeb news. Steve Grasso said "I'm still long" S.

Jon Najarian said VVUS might've risen because of the 15-minute erectile dysfunction medication.

Najarian said there's more to go in GME; "I gotta like this one still."

Mike Khouw said the estimates of BBRY suggest troubles making money.

Khouw indicated he thinks people have an irrational fear of FDX (maybe "Cast Away" has been airing on cable) despite its "pretty solid earnings growth ... not exactly sure what people are so afraid of."

Dan Nathan reiterated that TSLA is not a short. Khouw scoffed that it's like selling a bag with $10 in it for $50.

Khouw's Final Trade was long ESV. Jon Najarian said IRM, Steve Grasso said HPQ and Dan Nathan said to sell the XLF.

Gundlach: Expect instant rally in long-term Treasurys

Jeff Gundlach first told Judge Wapner on Wednesday's Halftime Report he's not sure it makes any sense to "guess" what the Fed is going to say ... then proceeded to rattle off a series of highly-confident-sounding predictions about bonds and the markets.

"The Fed is going to reduce their bond purchases later this year," Gundlach said, adding that the best investment for the "next several weeks" is going to be "long-term U.S. government bonds."

It'll be a "bond market rally that's going to start fairly quickly," Gundlach contended, in part because "there's really nobody making any money in anything."

Jon Najarian said he basically agrees with that forecast and suggested 1.70% for the 10-year. Pete Najarian said he agrees. Gundlach said stocks would be fine with bond yields falling to 2%.

Gundlach spent much of his appearance criticizing the weak hands in dividend-paying stocks, MLPs and REITs, and told Judge that come July 31, a lot of people are going to be seeing 12-month losses in bond funds.

The algorithm guys actually write programs for Lee Cooperman’s Halftime Report appearances

Lee Cooperman said on Wednesday's Halftime Report that stocks are in a fair-value zone and the thing that would derail that "would be a radical change (snicker) in Fed policy," but that's "off the table."

Coop came through with one of our favorite recent cliches we haven't heard this week, that it's not rising rates that would sink stocks, but if that rise is out of control. "2.2 to 3 depending upon the slope of that rise (Drink) could spook the market," Cooperman said.

He twice mentioned TCRD, apparently his top favorite, and defended LINE as well as touting ARP.

Cooperman also explained all the nuances of his S ownership; "we think the stock is attractive." He said of DISH, "we own it, we like it." He went on to rattle off ESRX, HAL, RIG, MSI, QCOM, SD (which went up about 2% on the mention, which always gets Judge excited), and CIM.

Coop gave a lengthy, and high-quality and interesting, explanation of his case against Tetragon (basically they're refusing to listen to him).

Doc: Gold to bottom at 1,320

Wednesday's Halftime Report included a gold debate that was made interesting only by the forecast of Jon Najarian (who is regularly trouncing the competition in bull-bear debate research), who says it will have a "blowoff bottom" at the end of Q2 around 1,320.

And, Najarian explained, "I'm a senior economic adviser for Capital Gold Group."

Stephen Weiss made the same arguments he always does, that miners don't make money, and "there's no intelligent way to value gold at all."

Pete Najarian said he'd like to agree with his brother, but has to side with Weiss.

Pete at the top of the show said that when it comes to the Fed, "We wanna know something about the wind-down," and later said financials will be the key. Jon Najarian suggested that he'll be watching the XHB and thinking it might move up on the Fed statement.

Pete Najarian's Final Trade was GT. Jon Najarian said DFS, and Steve Weiss said MTG.

[Tuesday, June 18, 2013]

Someday maybe we’ll learn what Bubba Watson’s first stock purchase was

In a downright bizarre feature, Tuesday's Fast Money tried interviewing golfer Bubba Watson in a monsoon at a baseball park.

And Anthony Scaramucci tried to ask Watson 3 times what his first stock purchase was, which Watson couldn't hear, or perhaps maybe he just couldn't remember, or maybe he was still trying to sort out Laurence Meyer's assessment of the Charlie Rose interview.

Why Fast Money was addressing golf stocks 2 days after the U.S. Open, who knows, but Guy Adami called ELY an "awful, awful stock" that is so low it is perhaps doable as an "options play."

Mike Khouw was asked by Melissa Lee about NKE and rather than stating what matters most — golf is not the "driver" of that stock — Khouw said it looks "fully valued" to him.

Brian Kelly volunteered, "I would be short gold. I think 1,200's the next stop." Anthony Scaramucci said he agreed with that and advised being "very, very cautious" with it.

Dan Nathan suggested taking a shot at RHT after earnings, and offered that CRUS might be a "decent contrarian play."

Guy Adami said GE has "room on the upside." Adami also correctly rebuffed a bogus Fast Fire (goodness only knows how they choose these) on CLF, pointing out "it actually did bounce" after his recommendation in early May, and right now, "I think you load up again" and watch it go to 20.50.

Mike Khouw said he's not sure he'd try CRM at this valuation.

The Mooch is mistaken
for Beekers

Laurence Meyer indicated on Tuesday's Fast Money, when he wasn't talking at the same time as Melissa Lee, that a Charlie Rose interview really threw him for a loop.

The president, Meyer said, "essentially fired Ben Bernanke on the spot."

Melissa Lee tried asking Meyer a couple times to clarify. "It's unclear uh, uh, what the president wants ... I'm just befuddled," Meyer said.

But Meyer opined, "I do think that Janet Yellen is the most likely" successor.

Anthony Scaramucci by contrast said he had dinner with Austan Goolsbee, who said Bernanke is exhausted, and that the president was "more or less giving him the out."

"Janet Yellen is gonna be the next Fed chairman," Scaramucci agreed, calling Yellen a "female stud" (and we're not going to analyze that one for a moment).

In a bungle, Meyer twice called Scaramucci "Brian."

Guy Adami actually grumbled that Bernanke would leave while easy money is still occurring; "he should have to see it through to the end."

Adami: ‘Full-speed ahead’

Guy Adami on Tuesday's Fast Money advised viewers to ride the Fed train.

"I think it's gonna be full-speed ahead," Adami said, predicting the S&P eventually retests 1,687. For now, "I think the banks catch up."

Anthony Scaramucci said the word "taper" is this year's "Grexit," and offered, "I don't see them tapering anytime soon."

But the other half of the panel wasn't so optimistic. "You buy UUP ahead of the Fed meeting," said Brian Kelly, while Dan Nathan suggested getting long U.S.-centric names against the global-growth names.

Kelly suggested maybe the Fed should take a look at its easy-money policy and realize "maybe it's not working."

Jens Nordvig predicted tapering will occur, or perhaps just be declared, in September.

Guy Adami admitted that he predicted an S&P ride up Thursday, which he still thinks we'll get, but that Friday was an "outlier."

Guy Adami says WLT is similar to HPQ circa November

In an utterly tepid debate, Guy Adami on Tuesday's Fast Money touted FDX, "I think they're poised to recover this quarter." Brian Kelly said the problem is emerging markets.

Mike Khouw though said the options market, where bulls have bought the 105 weekly calls, is agreeing with Adami.

Dan Nathan said he wouldn't chase SNE; "I would buy this thing below 19."

Guy Adami predicted GS would push toward 168.

Mike Khouw said he likes SBUX but is unsure how long a company of its size can keep cranking out the high growth.

Kate Kelly reported on the difficulties of going public and some of the issues of venture capital funding as Yahoo buys up a lot of companies. Guy Adami said, "I think you stay long Yahoo."

Adami thinks WLT in the last 3 days has "put in a short-term bottom."

Anthony Scaramucci endorsed INTC. Dan Nathan sort of mocked TSLA's endless gains whenever Elon Musk says something and advised, "sounds awesome buy it."

Dan Nathan's Final Trade was to short TXN. Anthony Scaramucci said long CSCO; Brian Kelly said SO, and Guy Adami said APA.

‘This is Amazon at its beginning’

One thing we didn't expect to hear on Tuesday's Halftime Report is a housing play likened to perhaps the world's premier tech name.

"This is Amazon at its beginning," said Tom Barrack, who seemed to outline a no-lose scenario regarding foreclosures and new homes (endless demand, tight supply).

Barrack told Judge Wapner that it's "always great to be the slowest guy at Fast Money," and then, in a rather strange analogy, said Colony American Home didn't go public because it was like "raising the beautiful baby child" who grew up destined for "The Bachelor" but ended up on "Octagon."

Or in other words, the REIT market went south in a hurry, thanks to typical seasonal selling and/or fading headline jitters "taper talk."

Barrack insisted, "Housing today is not a bubble," and rattled off names he likes, including MGIC, RDN, HD, MHK, LEN and AVB. He also said he bought the Fannie and Freddie preferreds.

Alexandra Lebenthal
confronts the Twitter ‘haters’

Alexandra Lebenthal seemed determined to defy the "haters" on Tuesday's Halftime Report, surprisingly indicating that people who think munis are in for a prolonged slide should get out now; "your first loss is your best loss."

But most curious was Lebenthal's answer to Judge's question about Detroit. "Every time I come on there are always some haters on Twitter, that will say, you know, 'Here she is, she's always a big promoter'," which apparently was a prelude to making a bearish call, which isn't hard to do with Detroit frankly, suggesting that a ruling making general obligation bonds unsecured (or something like that) would be a game-changer. But Lebenthal said California is impressive.

We might suggest that Alexandra adopt Charlie's approach on Twitter, which is our favorite, but urging followers to return to their trailer parks is probably not Alexandra's style.

Quentin Tarantino directs
Tuesday’s Halftime Report

Perhaps given the "Reservoir Dogs" getup of Judge Wapner and Joe Terranova on Tuesday's Halftime Report, Ben S. Bernanke will be Mr. Wolf and solve the market's troubles.

(Yes, that reference is a combination of 2 films, either of which is relevant here.)

Steve Weiss, who wasn't playing along fashion-wise, thinks the market is "still poised to have a great run here" and that if the Fed causes a pullback, it will be "not down for long" and a buying opportunity.

Mr. New World actually said "the proof is in the pudding so to speak" regarding earnings and claimed the market is "kind of on a pause."

Terranova then reiterated his Fed-deflation angle; "I talked about this yesterday," and argued it's "the best thing the market can get tomorrow."

Simon Baker grumbled that "I think the carry trade is pretty much over" for the yield plays.

Alec Young predicted the Fed would be more dovish than 3 weeks ago but argued that if so, "some of the defensive areas could actually benefit." He said stocks do well with rates in the 2-4% range, "as long as rates don't go too high."

Judge unfairly gives Simon
a bum rap

Simon Baker, who got picked on all day by Judge Wapner on Tuesday's Halftime Report, said it's time to get long X, because it's the 2nd-most-shorted name in the S&P 500, and "if you really believe in global growth ... this is a trade, not an own."

Steve Weiss countered with the usual, "major overcapacity in China," and said even at "82% capacity utilization," X can't make money, so "I am short."

Dr. New Land said he had read the Goldman Sachs report, and "I like what Simon is saying," but he agrees with Weiss, "This is about the problems at U.S. Steel."

Jeff Kilburg told Jackie DeAngelis, who looked marvelous, that he wants to buy gold, for 3 reasons that included inflation, data and unemployment (actually all 3 are encompassed in reason 2).

Anthony Grisanti, on the other hand, insisted "it's completely wrong to buy gold here" and chided Kilburg on a futures show for "still looking at the past."

"It doesn't really matter what the Fed does," Grisanti said, in regards to gold.

Joe Terranova refreshingly admitted, "I should be Fast Fired on Boeing, I said sell it at 99," and honestly we'd forgotten about that one. Terranova said he'd avoid GY but likes UTX.

Judge practically tried to run Simon Baker off the set for making a reasonable observation about the S headlines of the day.

Baker's Final Trade was NKY. Weiss said ZTS. Joe said Butch's dad's watch PGF.

[Monday, June 17, 2013]

Jane Wells is far more sympathetic than Fast gang toward Scott London (who looks like he’ll be giving out more than 1 ‘exclusive’)

This page must start on Monday's Fast Money with by far the most important angle, Mel's dynamite toned bod (pictured above).

Obviously feelin' it, Lee even trumpeted the preeminent Fast Money Cliche, mocking Scott London's "throw up" remark about the amount of his friend's haul to Jane Wells: "At the end of the day it does not make a difference, if he's passing on this information, how much that person makes."

London told Wells, in an exclusive that seemed too easy, "I had a clean record, no violations of anything," and this is something he'll "regret every day of my life."

Lee wondered if Wells actually verified the purported jewelry in London's car.

It took 11 minutes, but
Josh Brown finally made the taper point that matters

Guy Adami said on Monday's Fast Money that he understands the market's knee-jerk reaction to every Fed headline; "it all makes sense."

Josh Brown scoffed at people who would suddenly make moves around 3 p.m. based on an article's release, "if that's your game."

Brown said he'd be "fading outlandish moves in either direction."

Mike Khouw said he doubts the punch bowl will be entirely pulled away.

Pete Najarian warned that volatility won't end with Fed minutes or remarks, "I think it stays for the summer."

Steve Grasso observed that the S&P has regularly bounced off the 50-day, and "if we do it again, we're well over 1,700."

Melissa Lee, in striking zipper-top, welcomed Robin Harding, author of the FT article that rattled markets Monday. Harding complained that it was the "existence" of the story rather than the "content" that the market seemed to react to, as if there were "some secret Bat signal coded here."

Lee persisted several times in trying to get Harding to admit he sat on the story and that FT might've been gunning to jolt the markets Monday. "We send them out when we write them," Harding insisted.

Harding said the Fed might indicate this week that "grounds have shifted a bit on labor force participation."

Guy Adami agreed with Pete Najarian, "I think volatility is here to stay."

But it was ultimately Josh Brown who delivered by far the most wisdom on this subject, pointing out we went through these anticipatory headlines with fiscal cliff, then sequester, "at a certain point they get ignored entirely ... it's only a matter of time."

Brown: X to $10

Amid a year of pain, X got a boost on Monday's Fast Money from Guy Adami, who claimed, "Now might be the time it starts to get interesting again."

Adami said the analysts are negative, there's 30% short interest, and "if China has bottomed ..."

Josh Brown, the bear, insisted, "The business is getting worse ... this is a company in substantial decline ... I see this thing going to 10 bucks."

Mike Khouw added, "I'm with Josh on this."

Isn’t that being
long gold in oil terms?

Dennis Gartman told Melissa Lee on Monday's Fast Money that "I think crude oil wants to go higher," based on the term structure and how fronts are leading the way up.

"I'm long WTI, I'm short Brent," Gartman said, also revealing he's long crude against a gold short.

Which sounds a little similar to how he always plays it with the yen, or maybe it's not.

Steve Grasso said the crude range is 85-97, but he would trade nat gas instead, COG or EQT.

Guy Adami touted APA. Pete Najarian said CP's pullback is a "great opportunity."

Adami said there's no reason to sell PXD yet, and the LMT-LLL-defense sector still works.

Mike Khouw said he'd pick CVX over BP, and he'd avoid MO. Steve Grasso said he'd "probably stay away" from LINE.

Grasso said he "would not be a buyer just yet" of JOY.

Bedding profits

Jeff Lick visited Monday's Fast Money set with some intriguing picks in the consumer space.

Acknowledging it only recently has come back from a meltdown, Lick said management had decided to "change their media buying," which "constricted that down." But now it's got a new product cycle that figures to be a winner.

Steve Grasso said those temperature-controlled beds are so appealing, "Why would you ever leave your home."

Lick said LTM's newer facilities are more profitable than the older ones; "you're gonna see earnings accelerate."

He said the problem with TGT is that with everything it sells, it's "not really the best at any of those."

Lick endorsed RRGB, crediting management excellence and saying "very little subtle changes" such as compelling customers to buy a Diet Coke helps boost that average check of $11.

Adami: MA is everywhere developing markets want to be

Jeff Shen, whose favorite EM picks are evidently China, Brazil and Poland, said he expects a lot of volatility in China for "1 year or 2."

He said Mexico has gotten ahead of Brazil in valuation, relatively speaking, so he'd overweight in favor of Brazil.

Guy Adami said MA works as an EM play. Pete Najarian asked why anyone needs to be in EM products when you can just own a name like CAT.

Josh Brown contended that EM can rip when the S&P is flat, and, "These markets have gotten disturbingly cheap."

AAPL still a ‘2nd-half story’

Pete Najarian on Monday's Fast Money said somebody bought a bunch of July 470 AAPL calls, the biggest single batch he's seen this year, then uncorking his reigning favorite personal cliche (and by the way, if AAPL proves not a 2nd-half story, this will be the No. 1 Fast Money Bust of the Year).

"I'm a big believer in the 2nd half in Apple, absolutely," Najarian said.

Josh Brown offered his own favorite cliches in regard to CSCO, "I gotta tell ya ... there's no resistance, there's no one to sell this name here."

Steve Grasso said MU is beholden to DRAM prices, and "I do think it's going higher." He made it his Final Trade.

Grasso said he's still long S, though he has trimmed.

Pete Najarian said, "I like BZH." Guy Adami touted LL (after touting LLL), for its 23-24% short interest.

Najarian had pronunciation trouble with something that didn't seem particularly effectively hard to say, "Sandiks (sic) ... I think it's goin' higher."

Najarian likes BA and GE. His Final Trade was SE.

Mike Khouw said someone bought SFD January 34 calls in hopes of a higher bid.

Khouw called TWC "fully valued here" and suggested long ACE, via selling August 87.50 puts, for his Final Trade.

Josh Brown predictd a "long season of chatter" between cable and online companies such as SIRI.

Brown said of REITs, "I would avoid at the current moment," and made C under 50 his Final Trade.

Guy Adami's Final Trade was COP.

No one sold a single share of CSCO on Monday

Mike Murphy on Monday's Halftime Report insisted that FB is a buy in the $24 range, because at its next announcement, it "is going to be a mover," and he predicted, "It will get above 30."

Josh Brown backed the bull case and asserted, "I think there are no sellers left at 23." (At least not when they can get $24, although there are knuckleheads out there.)

Judge Wapner wasn't impressed, telling Brown, "Yeah that's great but if no one's coming to your store to buy anything either, you've got a problem."

Brown conceded "There's just not been any great news yet," but all the same, "there's no one left to sell."

But Brown was hardly done with absent sellers. "There are no sellers here," he said of CSCO, calling the stock a buy as Mike Murphy had, "I think this is a name you can ride."

Mr. New World called GOOG the "most important technology name right now" and opined that "1,000, potentially it does go there."

Josh Brown called GOOG the AAPL of 2 years ago. Mike Murphy cautioned that AAPL is in no-man's land; "you don't want to jump in here."

Joe: Fed will throw ‘deflationary pressures’ twist into markets

Joe Terranova attempted to rock the central-bank boat on Monday's Halftime Report.

"I don't think you're gonna get more of the same from the Fed," Terranova said. "The Fed on Wednesday is going to acknowledge deflationary pressures."

Mike Murphy, however, contended that it'll be "just more of the same," and Josh Brown said that "all that May 22nd stuff is getting walked back."

Even Steve Liesman took issue with Joe's pronouncement. "I don't know if I agree with Joe that we're gonna get a kinda fresh, bullish signal," Liesman said, suggesting that "September is something that is in the cards."

Murphy said as long as the S&P holds 1,640 this week, it'll be fine. Stephanie Link said there's no need to chase the market here.

Judge Wapner actually rankled Liesman in suggesting that market bulls "would want the GDP forecast to come down, wouldn't they."

Josh Brown was heard to say, "Day traders would want that," but that actually doesn't make any sense, why would day traders care what the GDP forecast is?

Rather, Wapner's question was valid, as he clarified: If bulls are concerned that the Fed's projections are too optimistic, they would fear the Fed stopping QE too early, when the market needs more. Liesman agreed, and retreated from his "everybody wants growth & jobs" spiel.

‘Over time, you’ll be just fine’

Steven Wieting told Monday's Halftime Report crew that it would be "marginally helpful" if Ben Bernanke can convince markets that tapering isn't the same as tightening.

Wieting cautioned that "stocks are a risky, volatile asset class," but they're still among the most appealing investments.

Later, Joel Dickson of Vanguard said that in fixed-income portfolios there has been "lots of change" to investor portfolios involving "shortening duration and taking on credit risk."

Dickson painted a silver lining for rising rates, saying people reinvesting at higher rates are eating up some of that loss, and "over time, you'll be just fine."

Josh Brown opined that the 10-year has "probably seen the worst of the short-term."

‘Capitalize’ proves a toughie

Douglas Simmons told Monday's Halftime Report that he thinks utilities are "particularly interesting" on some kind of mean-reversion scale, as they've underperformed by 12% in the last month yet still have a "competitive dividend yield."

Josh Brown complained that they've been a bond proxy and are trading at a historically high premium.

But Simmons countered that they're "extremely cheap compared to bonds."

Stephanie Link set up Simmons on one of his top holdings, CNP, with a question that, by definition, answers itself; "Do you really think that there's value at 18 times forward?"

Simmons actually got tripped up on terminology and shifted to an easier pronunciation in explaining that CNP figures to "catapulize, um, cata ... take advantage of the natural gas shale revolution in the United States."

Link suggested waiting for CNP at 20; "I think they could pull back more."

Dr. New Land suggested WMB. At another point he also observed, "It looks like technically crude wants to go above a hundred dollars," and suggested HAL, BHI and HOS.

Josh Brown touted IEO. Mike Murphy though cautioned that if oil goes up, "That's gonna serve as a major headwind for the economy." Brown disagreed, stating, "Oil and stocks have been positively correlated since the financial crisis."

A ‘really easy’ Netflix trade

Dr. New World spoke of NFLX bullishness in absolute terms on Monday's Halftime Report, claiming "It absolutely will continue to go higher," because of the "technical formation ... phenomenal turnaround story," and the fact Carl is still in it.

Mike Murphy insisted "the market has overshot this," and that "Netflix does not have the firepower to go head-up with Amazon," which is an argument that's been made on Fast Money at least 4 years. Murphy said the stock isn't bad, just overpriced. "I'd be a buyer down in the 150, 160 range," he said.

Terranova fired back that the cost argument is valid, but "they've bought themselves time" for an international buildout.

Josh Brown, as he's prone to do, called this a "really easy" trade (without specifying whether it's easy to make money, or easy just to put it on) and said to get long with a "stop loss at 200."

Joe anoints LPX a ‘2nd-half story’

Joe Terranova, reiterating his June theme, said on Monday's Halftime Report that there have been so many economic mixed signals that "I don't know where to go yet."

Kate Kelly, however, reported that John Paulson — when he's not trying to ludicrously buy all the world's gold — is doing well this year in his Recovery Funds, up 14%.

Josh Brown wasn't so impressed. "A lot of these moves are a little long in the tooth," Brown said, citing the "real estate reflation" trade as being in the "7th, 8th inning."

Stephanie Link bragged that Cramer was either ahead of Paulson on HIG or ahead of the current price, "we've owned it lower," but it's still a "turnaround story."

Dr. New Land said "I like Allstate, I like Travelers," and then united a pair of Fast Money cliches in adding, "LPX, I think that's a 2nd-half story."

Terranova also likes VMC.

Stephanie Link said CAT pointed to 90-100 crude as ideal, and she likes ESV.

Joe Terranova said "activism" by Paul Singer and Carl Icahn in the shale producers will pay off, and he likes EOG.

Mike Murphy, as Jon Najarian had last week, said housing is still a healthy bit off the highs; "I think there's upside there."

Stephanie said BIG might be up but she "certainly wouldn't chase it here." Link said the WY CEO "totally gets it" and would buy on a pullback.

Link called COF a little rich but likes the strategy.

Josh Brown said the notion of a TWC buyout was downplayed on Monday. Brown added MRK to his stable of not-too-hard trades, saying, "Merck is not difficult here," there's no reason not to own.

Mike Murphy said BA "looks like it wants to keep going."

Murphy said MU is "still ripping" and not one you want to fight.

Joe Terranova said AET works as a "despite" trade, in other words, "despite what we're going to get from ObamaCare." He said UNH is his favorite.

Joe also declared that "LinkedIn is everything that Facebook wants to be ... it's a buy-buy-buy."

SODA, a favorite of Steve Weiss (who wasn't on the show), briefly came up. Josh Brown said it's a "cult stock" and shorts have learned a lesson. He said you can be long with a trailing stop-loss at the 50-day. Mike Murphy though said, "I wouldn't be a buyer of this stock here," and argued, "shorts are winning this hand right now."

Judge asked the crew for ticker symbols for Final Trades. Murphy was the only one to oblige with ADT; Josh Brown said "Citi," Stephanie Link said "Boise Cascade" and Mr. New Land said "Expedia."

[Friday, June 14, 2013]

Judge warns next week’s shorts

Every day, the beleaguered Fast Money crew takes whatever direction the S&P 500 went and suggests it's going further that direction the next day, so it was no surprise Friday when Dan Nathan claimed that if we break 1,600, "I think we see 1,550 quickly."

Josh Brown said the "old playbook" of yield-hunting came back this week.

Guy Adami reaffirmed, "I think Japan is the key ... I think Japan is out of control."

Steve Grasso, whose Final Trade was to wait until Bernanke talks to put on new longs, said, "At this point, it's a sell-the-Fed."

Guest host Judge Wapner targeted Grasso's seemingly negative bias toward the Fed, stating that if Bernanke says they're not tapering anytime soon, anyone who's short is "gonna get run over."

Guest Scott Migliori shrugged off taper talk as a "red herring" and said the Fed will remain "data-dependent," but what really matters are "earnings and the prospect for a continued global slowdown."

However, Migliori likes PCP, which he said is "not highly dependent on GDP," and he likes MSFT, "I think you're gonna see a re-rating of tech."

Pros actually do
call tops in strong stocks

In a curious 2-vs.-2 debate on Friday's Fast Money, Steve Grasso and Josh Brown hailed RH, while Dan Nathan (of course) and Guy Adami (mostly of course) took the bear side.

Grasso said it has "new product lines," and if you get long you're "buying growth," while shorts are going to get pounded; "I'd be a buyer here."

Brown argued that "professionals don't call tops in strong stocks."

Meanwhile, Nathan said the RH surge "didn't make any sense to me," and he'd go with Ethan Allen instead.

Guy Adami was bearish on RH because "I believe all the shorts got squeezed."

Nathan bristled that he wasn't actually saying to short RH. But Brown conceded he'd prefer to look for a pullback to buy. So everyone kind of met in the middle.

‘68 written all over’ YUM

Dan Nathan said on Friday's Fast Money that ORCL "probably" fills in the gap it had a few months ago. But Nathan struggled to make a point as to why GRPN was going up (some upgrade).

Nathan's Final Trade was shorting XLF through July 19 puts.

Guy Adami said FDX "probably surprises to the upside," and he singled out RJF as the financial he likes best to rebound.

Adami said YUM has "68 written all over it," and made GPS his Final Trade.

Steve Grasso said to play the housing stats through HD. Addressing WLT, Grasso said, "The whole space needs money."

Grasso said he thinks GME has legs as a company but faces resistance at 40.

Josh Brown said "I don't like" SWY but made VJK his Final Trade.

To think that Bud Fox didn’t even have to pay that airport mechanic to say ‘Erie, Pennsylvania’

Anytime you want to get Jon Najarian going, bring up the breaks of High Frequency Trading.

That's what Eamon Javers did on Friday's Halftime Report, saying whatever data came out of the University of Michigan once again got seen 2 seconds early.

But Javers said the university claims this data has been produced since the 1940s, and has been for sale the whole time.

"This is just wrong," Najarian groused, explaining there are "guys in prison" for getting early copies of BusinessWeek, while this is OK. "That's just b.s. That's complete garbage," Najarian said.

Simon Baker, who somehow thinks colleges are 100% pure (tip: check out their basketball and football programs), once again brought up "ethics" but this time admitted it's "sort of a gray area."

"And apparently we should subscribe to the NSA," Najarian scoffed.

‘The stock price has nothing to do’ with an analyst’s thesis

Michael Pachter, a regular in the Fast Money/Halftime Report, assessed the video-game conference (Zzzzzz) for Judge Wapner on Friday's Halftime and declared Microsoft losers for failing to explain why something or other costs $100 more.

That means SNE triumphs; "right now they're the winner," Pachter said. "I think ActiVision looked great," he said, and he likes EA and GME too (which basically encompasses the whole sphere).

Dr. J suggested to Pachter that GME actually has a future, and Pachter agreed; "those guys have a lot of years ahead of them."

Judge couldn't resist asking Pachter if he was going to throw in the towel on his NFLX bearishness. Pachter bristled, "The stock price has nothing to do with my, my thesis about costs."

Simon Baker doubts that "Johnny Gamer" wants to stand in line at GME. "1 word: Blockbuster," Baker said.

Pete endorses DXJ, but not its direction

Pete Najarian on Friday's Halftime Report made a bull case for FSLR, first saying "it's trading right around book value," then pointing to "the growth in Japan in solar."

Simon Baker, barely pausing between words, said margin compression and China something or other are crushing the market.

Pete countered that FSLR "makes a heckuva lot of money."

Stephanie Link said "I'm going with Simon," because there's "still overcapacity."

Speaking of Japan, Pete called the DXJ a "great way to play Japan," and then, pressed by Judge (who struggled to convey to Pete that he wanted Pete to opine on whether anyone should be playing Japan now), referred to the Nomura call for Nikkei 18,000 and said, "I don't agree with that call whatsoever."

Judge asks panelists to offer small-caps, then tries to suggest they’re too risky

Michael Santoli, the star guest of Friday's Halftime Report, pointed out the U.S. outperformance of emerging markets, which he thinks is a crowded trade, and suggested either EM could strengthen, or U.S. could falter in some kind of mean reversion.

But which way it goes is the "big question I have."

Jon Najarian persuaded Santoli to say, "I don't think the housing thesis is breaking apart."

Simon Baker said RH is one you should "definitely buy here." Jon Najarian said SWHC got a boost from a beat. Stephanie Link said she'd buy BA, (sigh), "if it ever were to pull back."

In a twist, the crew was asked to name some attractive small-caps. Baker said CALX, a "mini-Cisco Systems," while Link touted CEVA and its "big big discount to ARM Holdings." Pete Najarian said BZH and Jon Najarian said PAAS, "at $12 I think it makes an awful lot of sense."

Jon Najarian also said he likes gold and silver.

Pete Najarian said he might've underestimated GOOG but he likes YHOO better. Simon Baker said he likes GOOG.

Baker, in the day's most controversial call, claimed that with LULU, "We put a short on the stock a while ago, and it's continued to be a very kinda (sic) good short."

Actually, he said to short it in the low 60s, and it went straight to the 80s over 2 months.

How in the world was that "kinda good short"?

Jon Najarian said TOL reinforces his belief in housing. Najarian's Final Trade was TIVO. Stephanie Link said "the easy money has been made" in COP, and CIT was her Final Trade. Pete Najarian said that FB only goes up when Zuck talks about mobile. Pete's Final Trade was MRK. Simon said Father's Day.

Pete’s avoiding banks

In an utterly unexciting top of Friday's Halftime Report, Judge Wapner sought to pump some life into the program by asserting, "I don't think it's overstating it to say that next week is the biggest week of the year."

But the only concrete call (not the Cemex variety) anyone was making was Pete Najarian's spurning of banks; "I'm still staying away from the financials," Najarian said.

Stephanie Link, sounding rather hopeful, said she sees does not see the Fed tapering "anytime soon."

Jon Najarian said the Friday morning markets appeared to be "erasing a little bit of the Hilsenrath pop," but the VIX has healthy interest; "institutions are in there."

Simon Baker contended, "I still think you need to stay long the market."

Rebecca Patterson, who didn't join hubby for the prenup discussion on Power Lunch an hour later, told Judge Wapner that all the various Fed comments are shaking up markets like what happens with the ECB, even though, "I'm not blaming the media."

Patterson declared, "I think stocks can still go up, it's just gonna be a choppier summer."

She concluded that, "I also don't think China's gonna allow a hard landing," and then apologized to Judge for referring to Bloomberg; "sorry to mention them."

More from Friday's Halftime later.

[Thursday, June 13, 2013]

Possibly the most embarrassing moment in Fast Money history

Every so often, whenever we're dissatisfied with a particular show, this page will scoff that the stock picks on Fast Money are for entertainment purposes only.

That was surely the case Thursday, during the most knuckle-headed, mind-blowing disaster we've seen on the program in years.

Melissa Lee introduced a bull-bear debate on DIS, contingent on the release of "Man of Steel."

And, Jon Najarian and Brian Kelly indeed discussed how that release will affect DIS shares.

Problem was, at the end of the program, Lee noted that "'Man of Steel' is a Time-Warner film and not a Disney film. So, no impact on the Disney story here."

Oh. My. Goodness.

Najarian, despite clearly being unaware that "Man of Steel" is not a Disney film, sort of impressively gave himself cover in asserting, at the beginning of his argument, "It's not about Superman, Melissa, as much as I'd like it to be and I'm sure as much, uh, the Disney studio would like it to be."

For Brian Kelly however, this was utter kryptonite.

"Let's go to Superman, it's all about the content," Kelly said. "They're looking for $115 million this weekend. OK. We can have 3 choices, either it comes in at 115 million, everybody's expecting it, stock goes down. If it goes lower, it comes in at 100 million, stock goes down. It beats, stock goes up, 2 out of 3, 66% odds, stock goes down, BK will take those odds every day and twice on Sunday."

Not only that, Kelly concluded the discussion by asserting to Najarian how relevant this movie is to DIS shares short-term; "I'm telling you, Superman comes in light, Superman comes in light, Disney's going down."

"I agree," Najarian unfortunately admitted.

Figuring out how these train wrecks get started is always intriguing. The guess here is that it began with a producer, who either just assumed Superman is part of the Marvel staple (it's not) or misinterpreted some article somewhere.

Then obviously, the Fast Money crew asked to do the opining didn't bother to check it out.

Najarian had argued, convincingly, that it's actually an upcoming Pixar film, "Planes," that really matters and will be "huge," cited streamlining at ESPN provoked by NBC's gains, and the theme parks, all quality arguments.

But he nevertheless agreed the stock would get hit on a weak Superman opening.

Kelly started off OK, pointing to ABC ratings decline ... but after he launched into Point 2, which became his most prominent point, about movie-opening forecasts and assessments and proclaimed "I'm telling you," it was clear that this person who runs a money management firm and makes stock picks on television had done virtually no research and didn't really know what he was talking about.

There's a delicious little question here, which is, if any others on this panel actually knew during this discussion that "Man of Steel" is not a Disney film, do you immediately correct, or stay silent?

Mike Khouw was thrown this future hot potato by Melissa Lee for a ruling. Khouw revealed he wasn't up to speed on this either, saying "I don't think Superman is gonna have that much of an impact. First of all, the movie-studio business is small relative to Disney's overall business." Khouw said DIS has got theme parks going, plus ESPN, "it's hard to sell that."

Melissa Lee noted that nobody mentioned "Star Wars." One wonders how many Twitter followers voted that Brian Kelly won the debate.

We thought the Kerry Trade was John Kerry taking over as sec’y of state

Mohamed El-Erian — who woulda thunk, CNBC actually managed to land a Pimco guest — said on Thursday's Fast Money that what's happening in Japan is, "The market questioning the effectiveness of unconventional policies."

El-Erian, who generally spends much of his CNBC time reaffirming what's just been released in Pimco position papers/tweets/blog posts, blamed the volatility on the Fed; "they created this assault on carry trades."

"This economy is fundamentally weak," he added, explaining that what we've got now is something called "the stable disequilibrium."

Guy Adami reasserted that "I think Japan has lost control" of the bond market. Jon Najarian countered, "How quickly could Japan get control back." Adami shrugged and said "7% move ... unprecedented."

Why not just say ‘come home to roost’ like Guy Adami does?

While bears and people like Mohamed El-Erian point to Japanese volatility as disrupting the whole world, Jon Najarian on Thursday's Fast Money asserted that not only is the Nikkei run not over, but "I think Japan is just in the early stages of this," and fade this "at your own peril."

Karen Finerman called Japan "a macro event that's really scary."

Guest Larry McDonald seemed to be in El-Erian's corner, saying, "The more QE they do, it's increasing currency volatility, and bond-price volatility, worldwide," and he hasn't seen this kind of volatility since "right before Long-Term Capital."

McDonald then said he's not joking about this, but the side effects of QE are like "Frankenstein," something that will, after several tries, "manifest-estimating" (sic) into something.

Guy Adami, trying to be a step ahead again, asked McDonald if there's not a derivative book out there on the verge of collapse ... "by definition it would almost have to be out there somewhere." McDonald said, "Absolutely," which Mel Lee found intriguing.

Mike Khouw said "valuation's a little bit challenging" for TM, and he'd prefer Volkswagen at half the multiple. (This writer is long TM.)

Tim Cook isn’t demanding enough

We'd hoped that after the Worldwide Developers Conference, about as overrated as the June jobs report, Fast Money would start to wean itself off of AAPL promotion like some folks want to be weaned off QE, but that hasn't happened.

Basically every show it's, "Wait'll they come out with a bigger screen ... cheaper phone in emerging markets ... boost dividend/buybacks/capital allocation ... get more people into the ecosystem ... 2nd-half-story ..." and never something more relevant like, "Tim Cook is boring, it's a boring company now, and a boring stock."

Steve Milunovich on Thursday's Fast Money told the crew, "We do expect the 5S and a lower-end-priced phone to come in September," but the bigger phone "may be 4.8 inches."

Melissa Lee questioned whether that gives it any kind of edge. "I think it helps," Milunovich said.

But while he said a cheap phone is possible in the fall, "We're thinking 350 to 400 dollars."

Karen Finerman said that, based on what she heard from Milunovich, if that's the plan going forward, "That can't be enough to satisfy the investor base."

Guy Adami cut in with a tangent, saying, "I think you can trade Qualcomm from the long side."

Jon Najarian tried to define what Karen meant, then said he's not concerned about margins on cheap phones, but "the $335 they make from every single person that purchases an Apple product. That cash flow is $95 per person."

Doc should’ve told ’em to stuff it regarding the unfair Fast Fire

Guy Adami said on Thursday's Fast Money his top trade is TLT, which "reversed on Tuesday" and has "traded really well since."

Adami said of the broad S&P, "today is a mirror image on the upside" to what happened May 22.

Jon Najarian pointed to the "huge rally back in the EEM," and then mocked the shorts: "The ghouls were out in force," but they "overextended their welcome" and got "caught short."

Najarian noted, as at Halftime, that XHB, MAS, LEN and WHR were a big part of the reversal, "turned and burned today."

Mike Khouw said CSCO, GM, DE and BA (his Final Trade) look cheap, and suggested people diving into stocks here should try cyclicals, not staples.

Karen Finerman, who just a day ago touted Coty over AVP, acknowledged a change of heart Thursday, explaining, "This Coty debut was really unimpressive ... could you pick a better day to come public?" Finerman said this 1 day's worth of trading is evidence you should "buy the best, not the cheapest."

Guy Adami said that for BBRY, "risk/reward sets up really well," and it has 13 downside vs. 18.50-20 upside. (At least he didn't say BBRY has a Superman movie coming out.)

Karen Finerman said of RH, "I'm a little afraid of it here," and she likes WSM better. Guy Adami pointed to RH and observed, "It's impossible to play these individual names from the short side."

Jon Najarian somehow was Fast Fired for a February bull call on ARUN, apparently because at the time he said 30, which it didn't reach, even though it delivered gains for weeks. Najarian said the call needed some "lubrication," then told Mel Lee and Karen Finerman to "get your minds out of the gutters." He said he's gotta like ARUN at 14 but he has no position and isn't really encouraged to get in now.

Melissa is in exceptionally
good shape

This one's gonna get us in some kind of trouble.

We don't know what she's been up to lately, but Melissa Lee recently has been turning up on Fast Money in dynamite toned shape.

(Please note: That does not mean there was anything wrong with the shape Melissa was previously in.)

Karen Finerman said MW longs will like the way they look.

Mike Khouw called it "kind of ironic" that ADT is presenting at a "growth" conference.

Guy Adami said Cramer likes PVH (that's a different show) but Guy thinks you've "gotta wait for this to pull back."

Jon Najarian said he likes HAL.

Guy Adami said TIF is an elite name, but "if you're buying it from the long side here, you're praying."

Mike Khouw said FNSR June 15 calls were hot, apparently trading "on whatever they're going to announce in the middle of next week," but oddly enough, that brought no outrage from Jon Najarian like the Thomson Reuters-University of Michigan deal, perhaps because FNSR was Najarian's Halftime Final Trade.

Guy Adami said of ADM, "I think there's some room in this" for reaching 2011 highs.

Karen Finerman said no to RAD.

Mike Khouw tackled KR and SWY and called the space "dead money."

Guy Adami had fun with the term "inclusive" for some reason. (But no "at the end of the day" this time.)

Brian Kelly curiously argued that the run in BX and BLK is over (not apparently because they put together "Man of Steel" this weekend), because, "In the next 5 years, all the baby boomers who were investing in mutual funds are now gonna start taking that money out to retire on," an observation apparently lost on the markets in the first 5½ months of this year. (This writer is long BLK.)

John Harwood delivered breaking news on U.S. Syrian intervention and (surprise, surprise) said our government was "a little cagey" about what it intends to do. (Perhaps monitor some Syrian iPhone calls.)

Jon Najarian's Final Trade was WU. Brian Kelly said XLU, Karen Finerman said HRB and Guy Adami said HD.

Judge goes to the well too often on ambiguously useless QE-paradigm quote

Judge Wapner reported on Thursday's Halftime that the ladies and gents at Nomura are actually predicting Nikkei 18,000 in 2013.

"It makes sense," said Jon Najarian.

Joe Terranova cautioned, "You have to get the direction of the yen correct," and then went a little overboard with scheduling minutiae in suggesting the key is "next Friday's commitment trader's report."

Mr. New Land said Abe spoke with Obama, but didn't clarify if the National Security Agency was monitoring the conversation.

He did stress that those attempting the Japan trade this year should know what they're getting into. "This is the big boy table," Terranova said, of "high-stakes poker."

Stephanie Link said Cramer has been buying DXJ, and she thinks "you have taken a lot of the weaker hands out of this trade."

For the 2nd time in the program, Judge Wapner referred to a quote he got from a respected money manager: "QE = calm and happy. The paradigm has ended."

First of all, while it seems to imply that the concept of QE has kept markets calm and now is no longer doing so, it also could be interpreted to mean that either QE is ending, or that the markets somehow no longer actually like QE.

So basically, it doesn't really mean anything, and is gobbledygook wisdom-dispensing.

The panel impressively jumped on this nonsense, with Josh Brown pointing out that they're just getting started in Japan, and Jon Najarian stating in general, "It has not ended."

"I'm not talking about the QE ending," Judge insisted.

Then Brown uncorked the line of the day, saying he's been doing this 15 years, and "whenever you hear the term paradigm, hold your wallet."

Brown urged viewers, "Buy the DXJ," and made that his Final Trade. Jon Najarian suggested Asian investors were playing catch-up due to the Chinese holiday and as for early Thursday's washout, "I think that signals the bottom." Joe Terranova said he's not yet going to get into it.

Don’t these people know that Pete Najarian has been saying all year that the ‘back 9’ trade for 2013 has to be AAPL?

Mike Ryan told Judge Wapner on Thursday's Halftime that "we're still constructive and we're still overweight" despite what's happening in Japan, but it was his golf analogy about the 1st half of the year and 2nd half of the year that really resonated.

"You don't play the back 9 the same way you played the front 9," Ryan said, apparently not even contemplating that the weather might be the same the whole round.

Judge argued that until now, "The Fed has enabled us to lift clean and place our ball."

Ryan then tried to take down the QE-as-a-narcotic stigma by likening it to an antibiotic and having the antibiotic gradually reduced (which sounds like drug withdrawal just the same).

Joe Terranova questioned if it's not wise to try different sectors on the back 9 but stated, "I'm not a golf guy," and he prefers to think of it in terms of switching hockey sticks halfway through games (we though they were played in increments of thirds but you can do anything you want at the 10-minute mark of the 2nd period).

All of the golf analogy set the stage for entrepreneur Andrew Glaser to hand Judge a driver in the studio and trumpet his company that puts ... $39.99 logos on golf clubs.

Judge implied he was going to nail Glaser in the mouth if Glaser didn't move back so Judge could demonstrate his swing.

Najarian: Buy the housing dip

Jon Najarian, decked out in Blackhawks jersey, actually delivered goals on Thursday's Halftime Report while the rest of the players merely settled for icing.

Josh Brown said that in these volatile markets, "You run with your hair on fire," and said 1,600 has become much more important.

Joe Terranova scoffed that it's just become "short-term trading," and it's a "period where you have to have a wait-and-see mentality."

Stephanie Link said what she always does, (not verbatim here), "Oh I think you can look at this and that and so-and-so and we like these names too and industrials and tech and financials and some consumer discretionary on a pullback," and Thursday narrowed it down to financials and industrials while declaring "volatility is definitely here to stay."

It was Jon Najarian who explained his Hawks jersey, "I wanna celebrate," and then cut to the chase, "I like the housing stocks a lot right here ... housing and energy."

Steve Liesman cautioned, "I don't think you can say we're clear of Japan," and told Judge the Fed cares "a goodly amount" about stocks and would be "reticent" to change policy during times of market stress, though Liesman himself feels like he's on Wapner's "witness stand."

Josh Brown said, "I wanna make a really important point on Japan," something about the Wisdom Tree folks predicting something important in July 21 elections, which we'll mark on our calendars along with Joe's commitment traders report (that you can probably pay Thomson Reuters to get 5 minutes and 2 seconds before the official release).

Actually, Joe also said that Ben Bernanke's comments on Wednesday will be the most important event of next week, so we'll add that to the calendar as well.

Steve Liesman said the Fed thinks the economy has handled sequestration better than expected and that there's a "broad consensus" of improved growth in Q3 (but he didn't say it will be a "growthier" (sic) quarter.

Doc thinks Bill Gates listens to activist investors (a/k/a some CEOs/chairmen aren’t Tim Cook)

Jon Fortt reported on Thursday's Halftime Report that Microsoft is opening stores within the stores at Best Buy.

Jon Najarian's best argument for the stock though is that there are "activist investors in there" and that he somehow thinks Gates and Ballmer "could be convinced" by these activists of splitting up the company.

Josh Brown rightly countered, "I don't think there's any kind of corporate transaction happening any time soon," because it's an "intransigent board," and also scoffed, "Don't tell me a Best Buy-Microsoft deal gets you excited."

Dr. New World, who had prejudged the debate, issued an Xbox "stranglehold" for the 2nd day this week and said he agrees with Najarian because the gaming conference shows MSFT's dominance in the field. Stephanie Link, who also prejudged the debate, also backed Najarian's argument because of MSFT's "shift away from PCs."

Joe convinces an
easily convince-able guest

In one of the stranger Fast Money/Halftime interviews in recent memory, Steve Smith joined Thursday's Halftime on-location from a conference in Chicago, with a bit of a time delay, purportedly to talk about higher rates and telling Judge Wapner at the outset, "I'm excited to see what you ask me today."

So Judge asked where rates are going, and Smith offered a curious take on "what happens if Ben Bernanke's successful" and noting we've had an "unnatural situation."

Doctor New Land asked Smith if he likes "EM" debt. After clarifying that Joe was speaking of emerging markets, Smith paused and said, "Emerging market debt is fine with me."

Afterwards, Judge asked Smith how they did with their questioning. "I think you did great," Smith said.

Joe: Gold cash going into real estate

The Ilchmeister, Rich Ilczyszyn, roared back into the Futures Now mix by telling Thursday's Halftime Report that gold's moves in the wake of Japan's moves should worry gold investors "a lot."

Anthony Grisanti said that to get gold going, "We're gonna have to see a massive spike in inflation" and pointed out it's had trouble at 1,423; "gold is no longer the safe haven," but he didn't mention that Dennis Gartman always says it isn't.

Joe Terranova introduced a new wrinkle to this subject, saying Scott Rechler told the WSJ this week that people have been selling gold to buy real estate, and "it's gonna continue."

Josh Brown gushed about PVH; "the chart looks incredible."

Stephanie Link said of SWY, "I like it on a pullback," and said Cramer's buying DD on weakness.

Joe Terranova said "I am long oil" and likes HAL, BHI and HOS, and "I like the financials."

Terranova said the Belo trade (which nobody was in) is really the GCI trade, "I like what they're doing here."

Joe said he thinks he might be wearing the same suit from his Fast Fire for a February PCLN call but was thinner then; "clearly it was a wrong call;" he likes TRIP but says to avoid EXPE.

Josh Brown said the trend in IPOs has been to underprice it significantly, so COTY's a little different, and advised, "Let this thing digest a little bit."

Brown called WDC a "trend-follower's dream."

Jon Najarian sort of stated the obvious regarding SE, "I think uh people that have been in it have been very happy." His Final Trade was FNSR.

Stephanie Link said she-Cramer like BAC but there's just not much room in the portfolio for it. Link's Final Trade was TXT.

Joe Terranova said "I like IP," and MS was his Final Trade.

[Wednesday, June 12, 2013]

Is the stock more likely to go lower if you bought it at 12?

In what passes for a Fast Money rerun, Melissa Lee opened Wednesday's program rehashing 2 warmed- over stories, starting with giving Jon Najarian a chance to tell viewers for the 5th time in 3 weeks that "Fisker going out of business" (notice he's not using the "bankruptcy" term recently) was the real catalyst for TSLA.

Mike Khouw denounced Tesla's fundamentals and offered that people buy stocks because "you hope they're gonna go higher."

Steve Grasso noted that Khouw could've made the same bear case with the stock at 35.

Then, to bolster clicks at CNBC.com by promoting the Meg Whitman interview, Melissa Lee asked her panel about HPQ.

Brian Kelly curiously claimed that Whitman "clearly demonstrated how good of a salesperson she is." Which will be news to California voters who instead chose Jerry Brown in an utter rout in what was basically a Republican year.

Kelly actually issued a Cost Basis Trade in the presence of Karen Finerman, who didn't object (too much smiley-happy book stuff going on), explaining that if you were fortunate enough to buy HPQ around its bottom of 12, you should take some profits. (Because if you bought it at 20, it's not going to move the same direction.)

Steve Grasso gloated that he owned it from 12 to 22.

Karen Finerman expressed skepticism of LULU; "there's something off in the story ... I still think it's frothy."

Melissa Lee, in one of her most animated moments, pointed to P.E. ratios of NKE and UA and exclaimed of LULU, "Why is this stock so expensive?!"

Nobody had a good answer. Steve Grasso said he'd buy it around 60. Tim Seymour asserted that you don't buy the dips, "You sell a bounce in this thing."

Once Dennis Gartman capitulates on the short-yen trade, the bottom’s in

Dennis Gartman, in a 2-parter on Wednesday's Fast Money, asserted that long-term rates are rising, and that still might be OK for stocks.

Tim Seymour though asked a good question, if these rates are climbing, "Why is the dollar falling." Gartman weakly answered that it's concerns about the "deficit" and "ObamaCare."

Gartman said if stocks fall another 5% he'd be buying even with rates rising, and if you forced him right now to buy, "I'm gonna buy Nasdaq stocks," because he sees the dividend emphasis as done (even though that's a big part of the tech play today).

Later, Gartman came back to say "these are very scary times" in the yen (that's why the Fast Money gang is talking about transparent pants and bottoms and Selsun Blue) and "I'm cutting my positions way down."

Emphasizing the show's rerun tendencies, Gartman pointed out for about the 5th time in the last few months that he remembers when we had 265 yen.

This activity is the most volatile he's seen since Russia in 1997, Gartman said, but that year turned out OK, right?

Gartman concluded, "I like Canada and Aussie against the yen."

Mike Khouw said both the DXJ and EWJ have experienced "immense upticks in open interest," and there were big buyers of the July 50 DXJ calls.

Tim Seymour said nothing this time about "pile back in" to the Japan trade.

Dennis sure looked great, but he didn't look anything like Melissa Lee, who stopped traffic (if only pedestrian) in Times Square in all white.

‘Do you think of yourself as a woman in business, or person in business?’

Karen Finerman, in a quiet performance, assessed her own interview with Mona Scott Young on Wednesday's Fast Money and amid conversations over Moscato Mania (apparently that's a women's business thing), declared, "I actually found her fascinating."

Finerman said of HRB, "I like the name. We're long."

Jackie DeAngelis, who unfortunately let down her stunning hairstyle from Halftime, reported that Coty is going public.

Karen Finerman said EL is the premier brand in this space, and of the next tier, she prefers Coty to Avon. But Tim Seymour said he likes Avon better.

Finerman said LYV benefitted from a ruling that didn't really ding it. Finerman said she likes FINL and FL (the latter being her Final Trade) but that to be long BKS, you have to believe in the Microsoft potential.

Steve Grasso said of SE, "I would wait for the stock to settle in." Grasso said he prefers AMZN to GRPN.

Mike Khouw said of MAS, "I would avoid it here." Khouw also did the once-a-year or twice-a-year Fast Money Obligatory Golf Trade that always features ELY and NKE and Khouw even brought up the former staple, Fortune Brands, until Titleist was unloaded (even though Titleist never moved that stock), but Khouw even admitted he's not interested in any of these trades and that NKE in particular doesn't move historically in June, he "probably would wait." (But maybe some guys will pay Thomson Reuters to learn the identity of the U.S. Open winner 5 minutes and 2 seconds before the public sees the end of the tournament and they can trade it via the Nikkei.)

Tim Seymour said FSLR is planning some new projects, which concern him given the supply. Seymour also made fun of Kanye West wearing a skirt.

At least Kanye West doesn’t refer to himself as ‘KW’

Tim Seymour claimed on Wednesday's Fast Money that CAT is a buy on valuation, "very near the bottom of a 1-year range." He made it his Final Trade. Brian Kelly said its dividend move makes him think it doesn't have any better uses for its money, and will be hit by rising rates in housing.

DDD chief Avi Reichental spoke on the Fast Line to Melissa Lee, who called it a "cult stock," but was hard to hear on this phone connection. Reichental insisted "We've done extraordinarily well with our integrations," and claimed his selling of shares has occurred in a "very transparent, straightforward way."

Tim Seymour complained about DDD's multiple. Karen Finerman, though, admitted it's a company that "I sort of find intriguing."

The Moochmeister, Anthony Scaramucci, got to tout the "Hunt & Fish Club," which is "sorta like the 'Cheers' thing" (see, even hipsters on Fast Money are stuck in the past), prompting Steve Grasso to wonder, "Is Gary Kaminsky the short-order cook there." (One might also wonder if Charlie is washing dishes just like at the Silver Moon in Yorktown Heights.)

Scaramucci managed to add a market commentary, saying the bond market looks "shaky" near-term.

Steve Grasso's Final Trade was DPZ. Brian Kelly said to short CME.

The real suckers are the knuckleheads who trade at 10:00 based on this news

Once Jon Najarian stopped saying "Shame on," Wednesday's Halftime crew actually started to put together the beginnings of an extremely thought-provoking debate about the worth of a university's intellectual property.

Eamon Javers, Judge's newfound sidekick in HFT reporting, delivered an excellent report — really, a remarkably clear presentation — on how the University of Michigan sells 5 minutes worth of advance notice of the consumer sentiment survey results to Thomson Reuters, as well as a 5-minute, 2-second version.

Dr. J couldn't contain himself. "Shame on Thomson Reuters," as well as SEC, FINRA, CFTC. "Shame on all of these folks," he added, because this "disrupts the markets ... this is just terrible ... almost like that NSA spying, Judge ... I'm outraged."

What's really "terrible" is that there are enough morons out there who actually buy or sell the S&P 500 based on this particular report's findings.

But that's beside the bigger point.

Stephen Weiss, the only crew member Wednesday to actually give this serious thought, told Najarian in a good punch line, "All that being said, I'll split the price of a subscription with you," then rightly asked, "How do you legislate out capitalists being capitalists?"

Weiss pointed out that the university has spent money, "a fortune," building a database, and why should it give out the results to everyone for free.

"Shame on Michigan!!" Najarian bellowed.

Dr. J was bad enough, but Simon Baker sounded as much a blockhead on this subject as the characters in the Charlie Brown comic strip, actually grumbling that "schools like that teach courses on ethics," and "I think it's dreadful." (Has he ever noticed college basketball/football?)

"They're not doing anything illegal," Weiss pointed out.

Judge Wapner had it right. "Maybe the best vote of all is for the market not to pay any attention to the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey," Judge said.

‘Growthier’ (sic)

Kim Forrest joined the Halftime Report crew Wednesday and asserted that rates are on the way up; "We knew that this day would come, and here it is," and so she's "looking for growthier names."

Forrest said dividend payors, utilities and health care are not attractive now, and in fact neither are financials, because even people who can afford to repay loans aren't borrowing.

Steve Weiss questioned spurning the financials, but Forrest reiterated that she likes the "growthier" names.

But Forrest likes big tech. "We have moved into Intel," she said, and she likes MSFT, "They are an IT play."

She also touted BA, as well as JOY. "Joy's really a coal play," she said, based on China and India.

Stifel really needs to wake up

Simon Baker admitted on Wednesday's Halftime Report that "maybe I was a little bit early" in backing FB, but Stifel calls it the "most compelling Internet trade going on right now."

Pete Najarian was asked if he agrees with that and somewhat contradictorily said, "Sure. I don't know that it's the most compelling." But he likes the stock, because however you parse the accounts, it's a "huge audience of people."

Jon Najarian said the stock has slumped because "I think there's a lot of folks who have been selling all the way down to the 24 level or so."

Stephen Weiss opined, "The revenues don't really support the stock right now."

Simon’s right: This market ‘recovers really really quickly’

Although he didn't declare a specific date this time, Paul Richards on Wednesday's Halftime Report once again got away with suggesting instant Fed tapering and not being challenged about it.

"It's not the yen," said Richards, who recently made a bad short-term call on that one (holding 100) and grumbling that "5 commentators send me summaries about the yen" on a daily basis, but in fact it's the dollar, and people "waking up to the fact that maybe it's not Goldilocks."

"The fact that maybe." OK.

Richards capped the 10-year; "I think rates stabilize around 2.20," and then admitted, "I just think this is general volatility."

Stephen Weiss said that in general when there's this much volatility, "it never ends well."

Simon Baker was positive. "We continue to buy the dips," and mentioned GM, WFC and SSD, and made the best point of this discussion in regards to this particular year in stocks: "When the market recovers Scott, it recovers really really quickly."

Baker said to try the VXX if you want to hedge. Pete Najarian thundered that his own view is "far more negative than it was" because the VIX has had 5 closes above its 200-day this year and 2 of them have been in June and Wednesday figured to be the 3rd. This year it isn't sell in May, but "sell in June," Najarian said, though it really was "sell in May," it's just going to be less difficult than the last couple of summers.

Jon Najarian pointed to the downfall of the EEM represented by the options that he and Pete watch hourly.

Doc: Own GME now

Jon Najarian, taking a page out of the Guy Adami book, on Wednesday's Halftime Report recommended GME, for its "great guidance" and because there's apparently a "bunch of new platforms coming on the market at the same time."

Simon Baker made the bear case. "Think of Blockbuster, think of PC sales," and the fact people can download the games now, "the writing's on the wall." Also Baker said the dividend is "not sustainable at all," and so the stock is a "great short right here."

Asked to declare a winner, Steve Weiss had prejudged the case but said he thought he should go with Baker because "rarely have we seen him so prepared," but then he said "Pete (sic)" won, because of the product cycle, "that's when you wanna own these."

Happy birthday, Steve Grasso

Herb Greenberg, who tends to have trouble formulating a point on his Halftime Report appearances other than "I hate this stock so it shouldn't be going up this much," went down that path Wednesday with his take on ULTA, and its gross margins that were "down 100 basis points!"

"They got some issues here," Greenberg said, explaining he's talked to "many people out there," and "they believe the accounting is very aggressive." And, the leader is "still an interim CEO."

Stephen Weiss said that "beating reduced expectations" is what the market's about, CMI goes up all the time, and ULTA has "only a 10% short interest, there's room" to try.

Now, the funny thing about this dialogue is that Herb concluded, "It's a messy quarter," but "in this market... (something unintelligible because Stephen Weiss was talking over him)" that's apparently fine.

Yet, Pete Najarian and Paul Richards and Stephen Weiss just said at the top of the show that we're not in a very good market right now.

So really, we're just in whatever kind of market it takes to satisfy whatever kind of conversation we're having. (And people thought Joe's "give me simple answers to my 3 questions" a day earlier was pushy.)

Pete Najarian said there was "huge call-buying" in SE.

Stephen Weiss said FCX muscled through something at a factory but warned "There's more capacity coming on."

Simon Baker said to "stay the hell away" from TSLA.

Steve Grasso said the market momentum has changed, it used to be Bernanke and now it's the yen and Europe; "bad news is bad, and good news is factored in." Grasso said the key level is "1,598 in the S&P cash," and if it breaks that it figures to fall "50 or 60 handles." (We'll take the other side of that.)

Anthony Grisanti, introduced by Jackie DeAngelis, who had an absolutely exquisite look Wednesday, predicted of nat gas, "I see prices higher from here." Jeff Kilburg said that's fine, but "this is a short-term trade" that will go lower based on the "meek and mild weather forecast," he'd be short to 3.50.

Steve Weiss said he sold GLW "frankly out of boredom." Weiss' Final Trade was UVXY (that really does exist). Pete Najarian said SBUX, Jon Najarian said SCSS, and Simon Baker said VXX.

High in for the year(?)

Byron Wien joined Wednesday's Halftime Report for a market chat, but it was what he didn't say that was most intriguing.

That would be the screen text that said Wien believes "U.S. equity gains are in for the year."

Right now maybe that sounds reasonable, but we've gotta take the other side of that one; this is the Barry Bannister Market© and 1995's best-in-4-decades performance is in serious jeopardy this year.

Wien told Jduge Wapner that "the market has come a long way," and that we've gone 4 months without 3 down days in a row (Judge correctly noted we've gone the whole year with that statistic), and that the problem for stocks now is that "profit margins in my opinion have peaked."

Also, "I think maybe we've seen the low in rates," Wien said.

Oddly enough, during the time of year when euro bailouts generally sink U.S. stocks, Wien contended that "things are better in Europe," and "I'm still positive on the emerging markets," as well as non-stock instruments such as mortgages, leveraged loans and mezzanine financing."

More from Wednesday's Halftime later.

[Tuesday, June 11, 2013]

‘What’s going on right now with the IRS is very healthy’

Jonathan Litt on Tuesday's Fast Money sort of did for REITs what the works-in-inflation-works-in-deflation crowd used to do for gold, saying selloffs like the recent one "end up being a great buying opportunity."

Litt stressed, "They're not bonds ... historically when the Fed is tightening, you wanna own REITs."

Apparently the only time you don't want to own REITs is "when the Fed is cutting to salvage a weakening economy," Litt explained, which apparently means the only time you don't buy is right when we're on the cusp of recession.

Melissa Lee, in fine purple but it wasn't as hot of an outfit as Monday's, asked Litt which of the recent controversial REIT conversions concerns him the most. Litt didn't really answer but said the scrutiny of conversions is good and inexplicably, showing a total tin ear to recent headlines and pop culture, actually said, "What's going on right now with the IRS is very healthy."

Tim Seymour asserted that REITS are "about 5% away from a move where there's a fantastic floor on these things."

The end of the world is coming home to roost (Drink), until about 50 minutes later, when it’s obviously not

Gotta say, that Fast Money gang on Tuesday was really concerned about the volatility in global financial markets.

Obviously, extremely concerned.

Guy Adami, recommending the TLT, in fact predicted the Japan financial unrest "is gonna find its way here to the equity markets ... they've lost control of their bond market."

In a mild gloat, Adami noted he's been asking Fast Money guests recently, "is there's a chance there's a derivative book out there" that's going to explode with Japan's volatility; "it's everything coming home to roost (Drink) now."

Steve Grasso, who reminded viewers he was "lucky enough to go to 60, 65% cash," said 1,609 is the next support, and then "1,580 is really where you draw the line."

Tim Seymour said in Japan, which he said to "pile back in" to just last night, it's "an unwind of the carry trade," and "European banks are deleveraging."

Dan Nathan asserted that the S&P "is the safety trade."

Jeff Saut took the opportunity to sort of issue a Brag Trade, stating twice that he's had a 1,700 S&P target so it was right to lighten up around 1,687, and then said the Fast Money gang had offered "very good advice" on the subject, but that he sees 1,598 from last week as crucial support.

And less than an hour later, all of these so-scared-we're-plunging-into-the-TLT traders were yukking it up about Selsun Blue, flakes, bottoms, and where Mike Khouw shops.

Patty Edwards gets ‘horrid’ service at elite restaurant

And people think it's only the Japanese markets that are making stomachs turn.

Around here we try to keep tabs whenever possible on the CNBC Twittersphere, in the anticipation that maybe once a month, somebody reports something interesting ... and such was the case Tuesday when Patty Edwards lowered the boom on a certain prominent restaurant chain.

"Ugh. Horrid lunch at McCormick & Schmick's Bellevue. Bad service. Marginal food. Remodel ruined atmosphere. Avoid at all costs."

The gut feeling here is that Patty probably should've opted for the Horseradish Crusted Steelhead, rather than the Shrimp and Andouille "Mac & Cheese," but that's neither here nor there.

This curious Twitter declaration made us wonder if 1) others had experienced the same issues, and/or 2) if Patty had vented such concerns in another forum. The answers, per the restaurant's Yelp page, appear to be check and doublecheck.

In today's world, nothing is safe from the critic.

Mel questions Sheryl Sandberg’s commitment to Facebook

(Sigh) This one's gonna get us in serious trouble.

(And it has nothing to do with Paul Tudor Jones.)

Kayla Tausche was reporting on Tuesday's Fast Money about the highlights of the Facebook conference call and indicated that Mark Zuckerberg actually claimed, "No agency has direct access to its servers."

Tausche also said that Sheryl Sandberg took a question about whether she has too many outside priorities and insisted that Facebook is No. 1 and she's staying until those IPO shares are no longer underwater Mark tells her to go.

But Melissa Lee seemed to find that a very valid question; "she's been everywhere, so you gotta wonder."

We definitely shouldn't say this ... absolutely should not say this ... but the fact is that Karen Finerman has relentlessly been promoting a book project (and please note we're totally sure it's a fine, excellent book) the last several weeks while global market volatility according to the all-male Fast Money gang on Tuesday is coming home to "roost" (Drink), so it seems a little odd for a Fast Money personality to be faulting Sandberg on this.

Dan Nathan scoffed that the question remains about Mark Zuckerberg, "Is he the right guy for the job," because they need a "grownup," and "everything this guy does is a disaster."

Exercise, and eat smartly

The best thing about Arena Pharmaceuticals chief Jack Lief's interview on Tuesday's Fast Money was that he correctly called Melissa Lee "Melissa."

Unfortunately, Lee asked twice about why Belviq will do better than its competition, and Lief and partner-in-this-drug Lonnel Coats had little in the way of specifics, though Coats insisted that insurers will love it because of the "exploding cost of treating patients with obesity."

Guy Adami opined, "I think Arena's pretty interesting" and said some analyst has a 12½ target. Tim Seymour said WTW is bouncing back and "actually looks interesting here."

Guy Adami loves defending the big banks

Tim Seymour on Tuesday's Fast Money made the bull case for Morgan Stanley, calling it "arguably the best fixed-income" shop and asserting that the rest of the Citigroup Smith Barney acquisition is a "major driver" in wealth management.

But, Seymour cautioned, "Don't chase it."

Steve Grasso countered that "The fixed income desk, they've actually been cutting back on," and he claimed that if there's global turmoil in Europe or whatever's happened the last 2 summers, the stock gets "cut in half."

Mike Khouw, who likes banks in general, agreed with Seymour and said MS is "really a wealth-management, asset-management business now."

Grasso made a curious observation, noting "it has performed exactly on pace with the S&P."

Guy Adami at one point in the program defended JPM's London Whale. "I don't think JPMorgan did anything wrong at all" and questioned whether there would be an outcry if it/he/they had made $8 billion instead; "the risk is exactly the same."

Mike Khouw a couple times in the program said financials still have upside including C and BAC.

2 Final Trades for DE

Steve Grasso said on Tuesday's Fast Money to let LULU reach 61 or 62 before getting in.

Tim Seymour advised not chasing YUM, and Dan Nathan called that a "very crowded space."

Tim Seymour said not to sell BTU or jump in right now, which really is contradictory and doesn't make any sense.

Guy Adami said of GME, "I think the trade is over," and "I think you fade" RMBS.

Adami admitted he was wrong on the GM move but at this point calls it a "coin flip." Steve Grasso curiously said that if you want to be in autos, pick F.

Steve Grasso said "look at the chart" in DPZ, but he wouldn't play FSLR either long or short.

Dan Nathan called TXN an "expensive semiconductor stock" with downside room.

Nathan predicted P would come down, then get taken out, prompting all sorts of Pandora's Box references from the supposedly grim group that sees volatility coming home to roost.

Mike Khouw called S "really a deal stock" and reported big buyers of HYG July 88 puts.

Guy Adami said you can "take a shot" in AN around 42, 42.5, but "stay away here" from CAT.

Adami said he'd pick AMZN over AAPL, and suggested options as a way of protecting long positions against black swan events.

Steve Grasso said of AAPL's Tuesday, "It did feel like it was stopping the bleeding."

Grasso said HRB tends to go up on earnings even if it misses, "I would still be a buyer."

Grasso uncorked a shampoo discussion in saying about the UNG, "I would dabble right at these levels."

Tim Seymour said some people think DOLE should sell for $15, that's why it's higher than the apparent bid of $12.

Seymour said you can get back into TUR at 57.50.

Mike Khouw's Final Trade was selling DE September 80 puts. Tim Seymour said buy DE at 82.50. Steve Grasso said AAPL, Dan Nathan said long XLF July 19 puts, and Guy Adami said TLT.

Josh Brown thinks making a wrong call on a stock-picking show is no big deal

CNBC's Fast Money franchise for some reason tends to love MSFT, and when you start hearing about Microsoft 2 or 3 times on a single episode as happened on Tuesday's Halftime, you know it's a wise move to consider changing the channel.

Joe Terranova pronounced MSFT the play in the video-game space, having a "stranglehold on the industry."

Josh Brown though said he sees a "rounding top in shares of Microsoft" and would "be more apt to fade it."

Brown later had to answer for a bad bearish call recently on MSFT and deadpanned, "I'm the only person ever in history to get a stock wrong on TV ... I gotta tell you" (Drink).

Pete Najarian said at various points, "I like this stock a lot," and "I still think there is plenty of upside."

Mike Murphy said he's "long Sony here" and wants a pullback in MSFT, and he also mentioned TTWO.

Shout-out: Robert Redford

Paul Meeks assured Tuesday's Halftime Report crew that "I'm not a screaming bull" on Facebook, but "if you have some patience," the stock will ultimately become one of the "major 3, 4 horsemen in this space."

First of all we're not aware of a "3 horsemen" slogan, and while we should offer a nod to the Notre Dame Irish, we'll instead settle for Sonny Steele (despite his ridiculous notion of setting free a champion racehorse in the wild) and Alice Martin in Sydney Pollack's "Electric Horseman," a late 1979 (yes, the yinz were a month from Ring No. 4, those were the days) box-office hit but one of the most critically underrated films of a generation (perhaps, in fact, Facebook's trajectory will mirror "Horseman" ... woeful start, then a staggeringly powerful ending).

Meeks told Melissa Lee that buyers now could expect a "fairly sizable gain" a year from now.

Mike Murphy flat-out declared, "They've monetized mobile."

Josh Brown was more circumspect, saying people are finding out through "anecdotal" evidence that will become "empirical" evidence that "the user base is not quite what people think it is."

Pete Najarian actually asked Meeks about "all the storylines" at the WWDC, as though there were any. Meeks said he was particularly stoked by the "rejuvenation in the OS."

Brown: LULU ‘way overdone’
(a/k/a who cares if a CEO quits)

Josh Brown on Tuesday's Halftime Report called LULU a "pretty easy trade."

It's not clear if he meant "easy" to put on, or "easy" to profit from.

Brown said to get long the name and use a stop loss around 65 and implied the plunge was no big deal, it's "always had these astonishing 1-day drops ... I actually think it's way overdone today."

Mike Murphy insisted that the CEO departure is "much bigger news than you're giving it credit for."

Brown though said, "I gotta tell you something ... this CEO should step down," but didn't really finish his thought; apparently Christine Day's see-through pants bungle was unsurvivable.

Pete Najarian sided with Brown. After a monster dip, "I love it," Najarian said.

The ‘velocity’ of money has done something or other

Joe Terranova opened Tuesday's Halftime Report revisiting his "30 days of frustration" call and, without declaring victory or defeat, stressed that we've had "5 consecutive up months. This is the last month of the 2nd quarter" (no argument there) and, Mr. New Land asserts, the institutional money won't be flowing back until the next quarter, so it's the type of market where you sort of have to stop and ask directions.

Josh Brown decided to be interpreter, explaining that Joe was talking about the "velocity" of money, but really "not much has changed," other than "smart traders are playing smaller."

Mike Murphy said as long as we hold 1620 or 1625, "I think there's a great opportunity."

Pete Najarian wasn't so sure, asserting that the VIX is telling us that "we're getting awfully jittery."

Pete Najarian addressed the put-buying in EEM and said those buyers are "prepared for more downside."

Anthony Grisanti said the gold trade has "been a head-scratcher today."

Jim Iuorio said 1,338 and 1,325 are support levels for gold, and to call it a "head-scratcher" on Tuesday is an "understatement."

‘Still pretty early’ in DXJ

Mike Murphy on Tuesday's Halftime Report said to just wait for C to base around 50; "you wanna buy these stocks on dips."

Murphy also predicted GOOG would "rebound back to old highs," and said AN "looks like a buying opportunity."

Josh Brown, warming up the cliche machine, said the DXJ trade is still quite viable, "I'll tell you, the smartest minds in global macro think that we're still pretty early here," and there's even rumors that George (JCP) Soros is in it; the rally "could be 18 to 24 months."

Mike Murphy said he's long SNE and pointed out it held 20.

Pete Najarian said he likes DAL in the airline space. Najarian also said that DMND "ironically" had unusual options activity when there was nothing ironical about it.

Najarian said that day traders have moved on from AAPL and GOOG to TSLA.

Pete's Final Trade was SUNE.

Josh Brown questioned why TXN was up on remarks about an encouraging environment. Brown said "I'm not a huge fan" of Mexico, or at least investing there. His Final Trade was buying the LULU dip.

Joe Terranova said CMI is the play to own in the NAV space. Joe's Final Trade was owning SPX 1,600 puts. Mike Murphy's Final Trade was long T.

Is it Pete, or Joe, who’s a bigger celebrity in Omaha than Warren Buffett?

It's just like old times.

Judge Wapner, who spent an abysmal day yesterday camped out at WWDC, got the day off Tuesday, and who else but Melissa Lee got the nod to guest-host Tuesday's Halftime Report.

And Mel proved just as adept at Judge at not addressing at all what this ridiculous TD Ameritrade investor index actually IS or what it even MEASURES. (Emphasis ours.)

Lee on Tuesday welcomed Nicole Sherrod, who is indeed a fox (picture above is from her previous appearance), who reported that the "investor movement index" was in May "down about 5%," so a little out of step with stocks.

Lee feebly tried to get Sherrod to explain what it is, suggesting it "measures investor sentiment." Sherrod agreed and called it "kind of a concurrent indicator" in which TD is able to "ping our database of over 6 million clients" and ... determine something or other. (Well, at least they're (hopefully) not monitoring client phone calls and electronic communications.) (Actually, gotta wonder if the NSA is intrigued about stock-trading accounts also.)

All of that aside, Sherrod who apparently had designs on a Burger King lunch, uncorked a real whopper, pointing out that Ameritrade and Berkshire Hathaway are based in Omaha, and that Warren Buffett is "probably the biggest celebrity of our base, present company excluded."

Joe’s 3 questions in search of a ‘simple answer’ (and pause after the first) irk Mel

Little did we know on Tuesday's Halftime Report that Dr. New World was going to play Charlie Rose.

Guest Jason Pride told Melissa Lee that "everything seems good," but in fact, "a lot of this is stimulus-driven," the market has come "too fast, too far," but be aware that there are "bad ideas out there" and "good ideas out there."

Viewers wondering if Pride was ever going to say something specific likely became even more confused when Joe Terranova, who resurrected the "30 days of frustration" and had trouble with how "feople (sic) feel," joined the discussion and posed what he said would be 3 questions for Pride, demanding a "simple answer" to each, beginning with "is it above trend, or below trend."

Pride was silent, so Joe answered it for himself, "you can't come up with a simplistic answer," and then rattled off the rest of what his questions would be; Pride agreed we're "getting a lot of conflicting signals" without explaining what viewers are supposed to buy.

By that point, Melissa Lee had seen enough, wearily telling Pride, "Just tell me, I don't care about conflicting signals."

Pride said, "We like high-quality, dividend-paying, high-profit-margin companies," and he sees "interesting opportunities in the bond market."

Hmmm. An investor who likes "high-quality" companies. Breakthrough.

Lee then chided Terranova, "You're killing me with the 3 questions."

Terranova insisted, "OK, but that's exactly the point," whatever the heck the point was that Joe was trying to make.

Bystander Mike Murphy noted that people are taking the other side of Pride's interest in EEM. Pete Najarian said he likes pharma on a pullback, plus MSFT, INTC, IBM and CSCO.

More from Tuesday's Halftime later.

[Monday, June 10, 2013]

Tim Seymour:
‘Pile back in’ to Japan

It's not often one hears a legit table-pounding buy on Fast Money, but that's exactly what viewers got from Tim Seymour on Monday.

"Pile back in" to the Japan trade, Seymour said, asserting the correction's fading or done. (This writer is long TM.)

Dan Nathan questioned if that means we see new highs in the Nikkei; Seymour said "yes."

Seymour opined on the rising sun after Dennis Gartman conceded "the last 2 weeks have not been fun" for yen bears, but that he can easily see 150 yen, though it might "take months if not years," quite simply, "they have no choice."

Meanwhile, a bit further down south, guest Eric Brock, whose China fund is actually making money, asserted, "There is a bull market in the private sector in China."

Brock conceded there's "potentially a big problem in steel" but told Tim Seymour the country is resisting major intervention in the industrial space to avoid having more boom-bust cycles and to foster a longer-term diversified economy. Brock told Josh Brown he's not so high on the state-owned enterprises because they're "not as dynamic" as the newer sectors he has identified.

Jon Najarian told Melissa Lee that he thinks 38.90 is the point where his winning EEM short gets unwound.

At the end of the ‘Day,’
Guy calls LULU a buy

If Tim Seymour's Japan call wasn't the most provocative on Monday's Fast Money, then it must've been Guy Adami on LULU's afterhours shellacking: "I think it's actually a buying opportunity," Adami said.

No one was heard to second that, so it's not quite as unanimous as the day the Jeff Macke-inclusive panel agreed that a similar hit to AAPL one night on Steve Jobs health news was a screaming buy. We've seen this stock take hits (while owning it; this writer has no position now) and sometimes the hits keep comin', so we're not on board with Adami just yet.

Later, perennially cute Dana Telsey (Stacey Widlitz didn't get the nod probably because she can't stand the compliments on this page she was too busy) agreed with the notion "it is a chance you've been waiting for" to get long, and said LULU still has a "cult" following. Telsey said it's understandable that Christine Day leaves at this stage of the company because they'll be looking for someone with "sophisticated operational skill set."

Telsey suggested that Nike, Kering or even VF could be suitors, but seemed to downplay the chances.

Guy: WDC might be vulnerable

Every time a Fast Money panelist has to announce at the top of the program what song got played during the intro, it's about as weak as someone defining "par" (not the golf term, which also shouldn't need a definition), but Tim Seymour nevertheless was compelled to tell viewers of Monday's Fast Money that they were hearing "Mr. Roboto," and by the way Seymour thinks big tech has "more room to go."

Dan Nathan conceded "they are still cheap ... but the trade may be up," and he meant "up" as in "done," not "higher."

Nathan, though, suggested ORCL could be the next catalyst in the space.

Guy Adami said his top tech trade is YHOO. Adami suggested that viewers recall Jim Chanos' bearishness on WDC and said "if the tape does turn," that's one you look to see fall.

That left it to Josh Brown to correctly point out, "These are all dividend and share-repurchase stories," and that the industrials are more intriguing.

Seymour insisted that MSFT's "cloud penetration" is "far from insignificant."

Whatever the talk about tech, Melissa Lee in sizzling blue stole the show and should've had a man take her to dinner Monday evening.

Tim either didn’t watch Halftime or was just putting the screws to Brian Marshall

We were afraid, having already seen Monday's Halftime Report, that the 5 p.m. Fast Money would be little more than a redundancy of Judge Wapner's already redundant AAPL-centric program.

Unfortunately they had to tap one of the same guests, Brian Marshall. But Melissa Lee impressively squelched the AAPL-non-news from most of her Monday show.

Marshall told Lee that Monday's presentation amounted to "Extreme Makeover, IOS edition" and said AAPL has upgraded something or other to Android level and features a "lot of translucency, multi-layering."

Melissa was taken aback that AAPL is only now doing something as well as Android; "that's chasing," Lee said.

Marshall reiterated that this wasn't a game-changer, "Expectations were very low."

Tim Seymour, evidently out for lunch around noon, actually made a good observation in telling Marshall, "I'm trying to figure out honestly whether you're bullish or bearish here," because even though Halftime viewers already knew, it sure as heck wasn't clear from what Marshall was saying at 5 p.m.

Marshall told Seymour he has a "strong buy, $600 target," and threw in an "at the end of the day," but once again, disappointingly, neither Guy Adami nor Melissa Lee said "Drink."

Marshall said the WWDC is reassuring because "innovation is alive and well" at Apple.

Dan Nathan said he couldn't believe Marshall would say that. "I gotta tell you," Nathan said, given that Jony Ive didn't show up but just sent a saucy video, and this is all Tim Cook had, this show was "nothing short of disappointing."

But before Marshall could respond, Guy Adami cut in with a question about what's wrong with the stock for the last 9 months. Marshall finally got to the nut graf, saying he thinks the stock will improve once they get a 5-inch screen and a low-cost phone.

Josh Brown shrugged that the WWDC never energizes the stock; "it's not exactly a huge trading catalyst."

Brown: ‘No sellers left’
in FB at 22-23

For some unfathomable reason, Guy Adami on Monday's Fast Money was infatuated with GME, even invoking fellow panelist Josh Brown's favorite phrase. "I gotta tell ya, valuation isn't ridiculous in this stock, but the short interest is," Adami said, making it his Final Trade.

Guest Peter Moore, COO of Electronic Arts, wouldn't tell Melissa Lee when the "Star Wars" game would hit shelves, which made Mel bristle a bit. If we were Moore (assuming generic unattached male) we would've told Lee, "I'll tell you over dinner tonight."

Guy Adami said AMZN "still looks interesting" but must get over $285.

Josh Brown said the type of thing you can never believe, about FB, "There are no sellers left at 22, $23," but thinks the stock is in "no-man's land."

Brown claimed that TSLA has "certainly gotten ahead of itself fundamentally" and "short interest is the key." Dan Nathan said of SCTY, "This story's not done."

Tim Seymour said he's not sure about MU even if Regis Philbin is.

Guy Adami and Tim Seymour conducted an insomnia-conquering "debate" over MCD, with Adami calling it cheap vs. peers and a beneficiary of European improvement.

Seymour countered that it "looks like it's very toppy at 102" and is "expensive to itself."

Dan Nathan agreed with Seymour and said there's a "lot of resistance" at 100 (that's "par" by the way). Josh Brown agreed; "It's a Golden Arches double-top."

Scott Nations said that "at the end of the day," but he actually meant at the end of the day, there were big sellers of June 100 calls in MCD.

Josh Brown's Final Trade was PFE. Tim Seymour said VALE, and Dan Nathan said to sell AAPL calls.

Some people evidently still don’t know what the Tim Cook Era is gonna look like

Brian Marshall came through with an "at the end of the day," and Jon Najarian came through with a Fisker-going-out-of-business AND a selling-just-out-of-the-money-calls-in-MSFT-every-month-for-20%-gain.

Those were the highlights of Judge's boring/redundant on-location program at WWDC on Monday's Halftime Report.

Stephen Weiss assured, "This is a critical event for Apple ... I don't think any of the new operating systems move the needle."

AAPL watcher Brian Marshall thinks the stock can get to 600 and that Jeff Gundlach's 500 prediction is "probably conservative."

"Expectations are frankly pretty low," Marshall said, pointing to "updated software, updated ecosystem" (Zzzzzzz), and so, "at the end of the day," there are minimal expectations.

Another guest, Glen Kacher, agreed that "expectations are pretty low here" (Zzzzz) and said people want to see "what the Tim Cook era is gonna look like" (Double Zzzzzz).

Kacher took the opportunity to issue a Brag Trade, saying he "lightened" his AAPL stake at higher prices, and has "added at levels here and below ... we're looking for a bounce-back here."

Unfortunately, Kacher never answered Steve Weiss' question about what Apple's growth rate will be and what multiple it should get. But he did say that there's an "interesting dichotomy" with RIMM and NOK, and "we're short those 2 stocks." And, he said he sold YELP on valuation.

Shazam chief technology officer Jason Titus said if nothing else, Google has created a "competitive market" for developers with AAPL.

Jon Najarian argued the bull case for MSFT being fueled by Xbox 1, which is so good it may become "some sort of a spinoff," and that while some downplay what Value Act (snicker) can tell Steven Ballmer and Bill Gates, "these guys may listen here" (double snicker).

Then Najarian cut to the chase, reminding folks that he's been selling the just-out-of-the-money calls each month in MSFT and collecting that "mid-20% yield."

Steve Weiss, the MSFT bear, said Xbox is so important to MSFT now that "I don't see them spinning it off," and that the overall company is a "slow grower into a deteriorating market."

Kacher explained on Twitter that he and the Halftime crew enjoyed sushi (image above).

Najarian: BAH ‘goes a lot lower’

Judge Wapner not only managed to get people to say the same old things about AAPL on Monday's Halftime Report, he got them to say the same old things they say about other stocks too.

Stephen Weiss said of TSLA, "stay away from it; get out before it cracks."

Jon Najarian reminded viewers that the key was "when Fisker went out of business, I say it over and over again."

Weiss said he likes BBRY though he recently made a mistake; "the endgame for them is to be acquired."

Weiss also called CHK "still a short." And he added SODA on Friday.

While discussing MCD, Najarian redefined "par" for viewers who don't know and called "European sales surprisingly strong."

"I like Intel," Najarian said.

Weiss said MON is the "right space to be in" and that he won't touch the homebuilders yet; "they have to come down a lot further."

Weiss said people are waiting for a breakout in FB to get in, but it's a "race against time."

Najarian had the most substantive opinion of the show (whether it will be correct or incorrect, we don't know), saying he's surprised BAH was not lower, and advising, "I wouldn't touch this stock here ... I think it goes a lot lower."

Najarian's Final Trade was adding to his EEM short, while Weiss said to get long DXJ "on any dip."

[Friday, June 7, 2013]

Tim Seymour is sick of hearing how many jobs over 200,000 we need to be creating in every report

Guy Adami, thwarted yet again in his call to fade Friday morning's rally (actually it could be a good call within a day or two, but obviously wasn't the right call on Friday), insisted on Friday's Fast Money that Japan "matters a whole lot more" than Fed tapering/not tapering, and pointed again to that May 22 reversal that everyone will have forgotten about in a month and suggested "volatility in the Asian markets is gonna come home to roost," one of about 3 or 4 references on the show to something coming home to "roost."

Tim Seymour opined that what's "ridiculous" now is how everyone is offering some number over 200,000 as what it will take to get the economy moving, and then asserted, "You buy Japan here." (Because apparently Tim doesn't mind seeing the Nikkei drop 500 points 2 out of every 3 days.)

Dan Nathan, grasping for signs of bearishness, stumbled and bumbled through a non-point about how the market thinks we've "somehow decoupled" from these all-important "emerging markets."

Seymour, in his best line in years, asked Nathan, "Well what's your point."

Nathan said that the volatility "will come home to roost here."

Seymour countered that there's no panic, and "I think the U.S. is goin' higher."

And Seymour reiterated, "Japan is definitely a buy here."

Jon Hilsenrath, who's always got an inside joke or two going with the Fast gang, said that as far as the Fed is concerned, "I think things are proceeding on track," though it's worth noting that a lot of bank economists think the Fed is too optimistic in its growth projections.

In fairness to Adami, Dr. New World's "30 days of frustration" might be no more than 21 at best, and Stephen Weiss' "momentum has changed clearly" from Wednesday looks like a bust.

When do smartphones
become PCs?

Even on a half-hour version of Fast Money, Tim Seymour on Friday met his Samsung-mention quota with an observation on AAPL and the smartphone market; "this whole sector's under a lot of pressure right now."

Dan Nathan observed, correctly, that people claim they're not anticipating blockbuster products at WWDC but they're also suggesting the bottom is in, so "expectations are kinda high."

Guy Adami, grim most of the show, grumbled that QCOM was the outlier of the day.

Adami only perked up slightly to endorse BBRY in a debate with Dan Nathan, claiming "their ecosystem is not getting the respect it deserves" and the company has the ever-popular "improving gross margins."

Steve Grasso concisely countered that "short interest has actually grown in this name ... people don't believe the story."

Tim Seymour had prejudged the issue, saying May looks good so he agrees with Adami. Dan Nathan said he agrees with Adami now and thinks it's a buy "on the next pullback" and is a "takeover candidate."

Josh wasn’t there,
but his words were

Dan Nathan on Friday's Fast Money invoked the favorite cliche of a Halftime stalwart, saying EBAY's performance puzzles him, and "I gotta tell ya, I think that there must be some sort of whispers out there about Apple and WWDC."

Guy Adami said you shouldn't chase SODA, but it's a buy below 70.

Steve Grasso said TSLA is range-bound from 85-110, and advised, "basically be careful."

Guy Adami said, in a rare chuckle, "I think Gap goes higher."

Dan Nathan said the TIVO story used to be that it had "serious patent claims," but that doesn't look so true now, and "at some point very soon, this thing's gonna be trading at cash, and it probably gets acquired, I don't know." (This writer is long TIVO.)

Tim Seymour called 74 resistance in YUM.

Steve Grasso said "I would still be a buyer" of LULU. Dan Nathan agreed the stock has "caught its mojo back" and could even break out. Guy Adami said if you want to short it, now's not the time. Nobody seemed to believe it's "game over" as Simon Baker did/does.

Adami's Final Trade was LMT. Tim Seymour said EWZ, Dan Nathan said XLU and Steve Grasso, closing with a Brag Trade about lightening up before the recent selloff which was "more luck than skill," suggested backing off, "I think we're gonna fade again."

Incredibly, Judge takes seriously guest’s suggestion of July tapering

So, someone's writing algorithms on Halftime Report transcripts.

(If "Pete Najarian says 'It's goin' a lot higher,'" then "buy buy buy")

Judge Wapner interrupted Mike Santoli at the end of Friday's Halftime Report to observe that AAPL had gone from about $2 down on the day to $3 higher since the conversation started.

Oh. Boy.

Santoli said the stock is "kind of just convalescing after the fever broke," but Judge got so enamored with the momentary AAPL activity that he nearly let time elapse without Final Trades.

Pete Najarian had about a half-dozen reasons in favor of MCD, saying Don Thompson's doing a great job, they're talking about expanding store hours and expanding the breakfast menu, margins, dividend, 2allbeefpattiespecial...etc.

Simon Baker grumbled that there's a "lot of headwinds against them" with same-store sales coming up and basically struggled to identify anything except a bearish guess.

Steve Weiss had totally prejudged the case and asserted, "I think McDonald's is a do-nothing stock" that will move with the market.

Jon Najarian said TIVO put buyers had been scooping up the $11 strike, a sign they knew this was coming they think it's going lower than what it traded during the show. (This writer is long TIVO.)

Paul Richards opted to parse the Most Overrated Jobs Report of All Time, suggesting, "I think it might've been 15,000 too good ... Come July 31, the Fed could start to taper."

Yeah. End of July tapering.

Sure.

Was that for real?

Sigh.

Judge not only let that go but tried playing stock market, asserting the Dow would've been down 200 points if the jobs numbers were terrible.

Pete Najarian's Final Trade was HD. Simon Baker said MKTG, Jon Najarian said JAH and Stephen Weiss said AAMRQ.

In the middle of the day, Judge twice says ‘at the end of the day’

Yesterday Guy Adami advised Fast Money viewers to fade what he expected to be a 90-minute rally in stocks Friday morning.

Friday's Halftime crew was having none of that.

Steve Weiss told Judge Wapner, "I don't think we're gonna have a major decline in the averages," maybe 2-3%, because "it's a rational market" evidenced by steel and BHP Billiton being down.

Jon Najarian said the employment data came through with a higher-end number the market liked, somewhat validating the notion of a selloff if it had been under 100,000. Simon Baker asserted, "I think you continue to buy the pullbacks."

A little more cautious, Pete Najarian suggested rotating out of stocks and into options to minimize or better handle risk.

Steve Liesman said that if we're looking for signs of an economy standing on its own, Friday's performance of stocks and rates rising is indicative of that.

In a show preempted about a half-hour by the president's remarks, Judge warned up with some political analysis with John Harwood, then twice said "at the end of the day," referring to one hedgie who told him the bounce down to 1,600 a day ago was "healthy."

More from Friday's Halftime later.

[Thursday, June 6, 2013]

Guy: Expect market to rise on open, then pull ripcord

Guy Adami, who has tried to call a daily market direction in about his last 2 weeks of Fast Money appearances and has basically been wrong every time (contrary to what it may seem, we give him a lot of points for trying, as others don't), actually on Thursday's Fast Money predicted a rising market Friday morning, from which you should "fade that first hour and a half," which is a bit like trying to predict whether "Hangover 4" is going to be any good before it even happens.

Jon Najarian asserted that the market would view a jobs number under 100 as "extremely negative," but a number over 140 as "great."

Adami grumbled about expectations in this economy; "we've lowered the bar considerably."

Karen Finerman astutely asked guest Austan Goolsbee if, as a former member of the Obama administration (the guy who tells Canada that our candidates don't really mean what they say about NAFTA), he is merely appearing on a show such as this to set expectations low for tomorrow's number.

"I'm not spinning it one way or the other way," Goolsbee actually claimed (and you thought it was about hope and change) without explaining why in the world he was on this program, before adding, "I think it's gonna be a tough summer." (Mike Tomlin should hire this person to address the media at the opening of the yinz's training camp.)

Jon Najarian, who might actually run into Goolsbee at a civic/charity event, stressed that he wasn't being political in asking Goolsbee if health-care uncertainty wasn't stalling hiring. Goolsbee said he didn't take it as a political question but asserted that if it were really a big problem, "Companies would probably hire more people on a part-time basis."

Should’ve asked Michael Dubin to help clean up Kathy Griffin

Somewhere a while back we saw a story where someone pointed out that every time strangers ran into a certain famous comedian (we can't remember who), they always tried telling him a joke, which must get really obnoxious after a while.

But then again, Kathy Griffin was supposedly taking part in a serious discussion about women's empowerment in the business world that aired on Thursday's Fast Money, and proceeded to sling the b.s. like Barbara Billingsley in "Airplane," so not a whole lot of sympathy is in order.

Barely letting Karen Finerman get a word in, Griffin said that when she hears women say there's no sexism in business, "I don't know what these crazy (bleep) are thinking."

Griffin also claimed, "I'm extremely risk-adverse (sic)."

After the clip, Karen Finerman gushed about this conversation; "she is a savvy businesswoman ... fantastic ... not at all what I expected," except all the great things Karen credited Griffin with such as knowing what the promoter's cut is weren't actually shown; basically Karen was just a prop in another routine.

Meanwhile, Fast Money welcomed Michael Dubin, who said 24% of men who use bathroom wipes keep them hidden, and without revealing his own conversion rate, said companies hope to get 2-5% from YouTube.

Mike Khouw reported a big buyer of weekly 75 puts in PG.

A day without hearing
‘Steven P. Grasso’

Guy Adami on Thursday's Fast Money made the JCP bull case largely based on the chart since April 9 and meekly added that the company might see margin improvement.

Bear Mike Khouw said margins can't go high enough for this company to make money, and the new pricing rubber-band is bound to anger more customers.

Karen Finerman said "No way" she can get on board the bull case here.

Khouw was accused of wearing JCP clothing by Adami, but Khouw said it's really Brooks Brothers.

Greenhill's Scott Bok told the Fast Money gang that there is talking in the M&A space (which is probably always the case) but not many deals, in part because stocks have been doing so great for a while that companies don't want to overpay. (The other reason, something about being in a 6-year funk of nervousness, didn't make much sense.)

"Hi it's Karen let me ask you something," said Karen Finerman, who wondered about GHL's own business activity in this kind of market. Bok asserted "our business could handle far more activity" with the people they've already got, and that when more deals happen, they get more efficient.

Guy Adami said you can play GHL on the long side; "I think you trade it against 45 bucks."

Does Doc not realize that AAPL is a ‘2nd-half story’?

Guy Adami, evidently unaware that Americans want their junk food and don't care about the ramifications, decried some of the fat-laden offerings of DNKN and questioned if the stock is getting long in the tooth, though Jon Najarian said he likes SJM for its coffee-spread potential.

Adami said "I think Home Depot's in their sweet spot," and said AFL "feels like it has room up to 60 bucks."

Adami, who finds Kathy Griffin funny, said you can get long SODA at 69 or 70 and made GPS his Final Trade.

Jon Najarian suggsted INTC might be the biggest story of Apple's WWDC (but Judge insists Tim Cook had a signature moment in front of Carl Levin) and said he would rather see a cheaper iPhone than a trade-in program.

Najarian said the massive put buying in EEM convinced him to try a "short spread on the put side ... being long those 40½, short the 38½ puts." His Final Trade was MAS.

Mike Khouw said to continue to avoid BKS, and sell GHL calls. Brian Kelly's Final Trade was SLV.

Karen Finerman scoffed that PAY had another "recurring kitchen-sink-sort-of-quarter," and said "we're out of Wal-Mart" but she wouldn't short it, and wouldn't short Amazon, which can hurt WMT. Finerman's Final Trade was M.

Let’s get this straight: The market’s afraid the Fed is going to rip away the punch bowl while deflation rears its ugly head

We're not stock market pros around here, so we can't opine that the stock-market selloff — the one that happens every year in May and, depending on how Greece is behaving either goes deep into June or July — of the last couple weeks is any more ridiculous than the stock market gains of the first 5 months that delivered 17% in 2013 … even though nobody's making any sense about it.

Stephen Weiss said on Thursday's Halftime Report that there's just "too much uncertainty" when there's no more or less uncertainty than in January (when everyone buys this stuff). But he asserted, "I've got my buy list though," like everyone does.

Josh Brown said there's no reason to buy this dip; "what's the rush," and in a bit of understatement said of tomorrow's report, "we wanna see how the market reacts to that number."

Stephanie Link said Cramer was selling "Emersons" (sic) and CBI with gains, and opined that a better-than-expected jobs number is good.

Jon Najarian contended, "Now we really need to get a good number," and if it's bad, this selloff of the "cream" or "froth" actually "turns into a milkshake very quickly … I'd much rather see that hot number."

Steve Liesman challenged Najarian, saying it sounds like they're saying "down on bad" and "down on up."

But Liesman listed the consensus numbers and opined that the "risks are to the downside … you guys are all going to have to get adjusted to the new regime."

Stephen Weiss said that not too long ago the Fed was thinking "We're in danger of a runaway equity market."

That's correct, "danger" of a runaway market.

Judge Wapner said, isn't it true, there's a Fed put on this market "that's still there." Of course. So it's a guessing game, pick your S&P bottom, 1,600, 1,575, 1,550, 1,500, etc., and enjoy the wait.

Haven’t heard an update about long gold in yen terms for a long time

In a timely news development, the Futures Now guys happened to be on Thursday's Halftime Report shortly after major waves were occurring in the currency markets.

Jim Iuorio told Judge, "About 20 minutes ago, something happened in the yen," but then had to shift his focus to gold, saying a climb above 1,420 is an "indication of much higher prices."

Rich Ilczyszyn acknowledged, "I'm expecting prices to go a bit higher," but cautioned people "be very careful" because the gold trade could flip on Friday if things aren't in the "sweet spot" of 135,000-185,000 jobs.

Paul Richards, who recently botched a dollar/yen/100 call, later told Judge that the yen/dollar stemmed from a massive "unwind in real illiquidity," but Richards cautioned, "We could be back the other, 3% in 24 hours time."

Jon Najarian reiterated that a "bad number instead of being good is horrible."

Richards invoked Fast Money's Pre-Eminent Cliche, saying, "At the end of the day I think the market's gonna be fine tomorrow."

Billy, don’t be a hero ...

Judge Wapner almost found a taker on Thursday's Halftime Report for buying the dip, as Alison Deans told the crew that stocks will be fine because there are still not enough people in stocks, but even Deans cautioned that "the market could pull back a total of 10%."

Deans suggested industrials, tech, regional banks and consumer discretionary and said real growth will kick in by year-end; there's "some cyclicality to these markets."

Judge Wapner interrupted a discussion of Sodastream to point out stocks were falling through S&P and Dow 50-days.

"I think you just stay where you are," said Stephen Weiss.

"This is a Rubik's Cube," said Josh Brown who advised viewers "allow this selloff to run its course" and avoid "trying to be heroic here."

"Sellers are now more powerful than buyers," Brown said.

This time they didn’t bring up that sentiment indicator that Judge will never get them to explain exactly what it measures

TD Ameritrade folks are just about as regular fixtures of the Halftime Report as Pimco folks are on the rest of CNBC; Fred Tomczyk and Bob Pisani discussed retail investors and Tomczyk said, "Slowly they're starting to get back into the market," but then (gulp), added, "The average investor is not well-educated," something TD Ameritrade is trying to change.

Meanwhile, ETF watcher Todd Shriber said some folks maybe aren't forward-looking enough in dividend ETFs, but "I don't wanna put it in the context of a warning."

Shriber's top pick is TDIV, "a play on tech dividend growth."

Herb uses Google translate at 4:30 a.m.

Herb Greenberg told Thursday's Halftime Report that when he got on his computer at 4:30 a.m. he looked up the Israeli story about PepsiCo being interested in SODA.

"I did a translate of it on Google," Herb said, and found the story "very thin."

Greenberg said an analyst thinks such a Pepsi move would be much earlier than thought in SODA's growth stage, and so Herb thinks "it would have to be an appliance company."

Stephen Weiss, a big SODA fan, cited the penetration numbers and touted the product being embedded in the Samsung refrigerator.

Herb agreed; "Samsung is so excited about this," he said, adding a twist on Josh Brown's favorite, "I have to tell you."

HD debate offers zero catalyst whatsoever for either side

Stephen Weiss and Josh Brown argued on Thursday's Halftime Report over HD, and the best Weiss could offer for a bull case was that it's the "premier brand in the business," before adding the usual argument of these exercises, buybacks.

Josh Brown, the bear, offered multiple and the notion that "unfortunately this stock has become overowned" as his best arguments; avoiding HD being his Final Trade.

Stephanie Link said she'd love it in the low 70s, "I'm on Josh's side."

Link said of COST, "I like this stock a lot, we're buying it." Jon Najarian congratulated Karen Finerman for selling PAY about 3 or 4 months ago and correctly noted it's a "bad day to be long that one."

Stephen Weiss said of BKS, there's "supposedly still a bid out there… I would sell the stock."

Link said she likes VZ. Josh Brown said MRK "looks ridiculous right now." Jon Najarian said he'd want to buy LMT around 100. Steve Weiss said American and UAL are his preferred picks in airlines.

Stephanie Link's Final Trade was DRI; Stephen Weiss said THC, and Jon Najarian said EEM short.

[Wednesday, June 5, 2013]

‘If the Fed does nothing, this market screams right back to old highs’

Wednesday's Fast Money started out sounding like a bear-fest (that's what happens when Dan Nathan leads off the commentary), but Steve Grasso made the most intriguing comment that escaped follow-through.

"If the Fed does nothing, this market screams right back to old highs," Grasso said.

Karen Finerman, who in fact has been saying for more than a week that she is concerned about Ben Bernanke's testimony of late May, said Wednesday, "I don't feel like the market is completely cracking here."

Nathan tried to spin some elongated thesis about how "pillars" of the market are crashing and how HD has been a "very crowded name." Tim Seymour said that's the key, "very crowded," but then asserted something that would bolster Grasso's point, that the data show the Fed is "so far removed from being removed."

Grasso told Nathan that HD has fallen 5% over a couple of rough days "plenty of times" since November.

Nathan asserted that volatility "is likely to continue."

Seymour curiously was calling bottoms in TM, a great 2013 stock up until about 2 weeks ago, when it really started to suck (this writer is long TM), and given Wednesday's touching of 114, "I would be a buyer of Toyota on this news."

Seymour at first said the Nikkei down another 4-5% is suddenly a buy, but then asserted "I think Japan has made its correction, more or less," and later called the Nikkei a "good opportunity" right now.

Mike Khouw said "housing stocks just generally look stretched to me," said he'd avoid FAST, and pointed out a big buyer of January 25 puts in XHB.

Nathan late in the program predicted "1,550 this summer."

Everything’s bullish
to Ralph Acampora

Perhaps Wednesday's Fast Money gang caught a dose of it's-not-gonna-be-Joe-Terranova's-30-days-of-frustration from guest Ralph Acampora, who knows the Silver Linings Playbook from back to front.

Acampora said there's a "quality rotation" going on in stocks, and nobody notices that semiconductors are "on fire."

"I am enjoying this selloff," Acampora gushed. "I think it's long overdue."

He added, "I'd say the odds are that gold stabilizes here."

WHR debate offers little except chance to show off Melissa’s research

Steve Grasso said on Wednesday's Fast Money that WHR still has legs because of the "efficiency replacement" cycle, and said little more in the bull-bear debate.

Tim Seymour argued that "revenues were down" for WHR in Q1, and this is a "valuation call" for going lower.

Karen Finerman said she'd be leaning "toward the buy side," because of the "replacement cycle."

After a dozen ‘Steven P. Grasso’ references in 45 minutes it gets pretty old, but at least we were spared the ‘B.K.’s

Dan Nathan actually found something on Wednesday's Fast Money he sort of didn't hate, specifically JNPR, though he contended it "probably needs to consolidate a little bit here."

Steve Grasso, who made a nice "Take 2" recovery from his bungled tongue-twister on AMZN's "cloud space," said "I'd still be a buyer" of the stock.

Dan Nathan called TSLA "a tough short here." Grasso declared, "You cannot short this name."

Nathan said that when names such as GM get near the liquidation of the government stakes, "This is where you wanna own it."

Nathan said EBAY has to hold 50; "the technical weakness here is significant." He also said of MCD, "Global growth is weighing on this company."

Steve Grasso said joining the Nasdaq 100 is a "positive catalyst" for NFLX, which is still a "no-touch from the short side."

Grasso said "I wouldn't be a buyer" of P.

Grasso pointed out (multiple times), "I'm still long Southern."

Guest uses Karen’s mispronunciation as outlet to avoid directly answering the question

AEGR chief Marc Beer visited Wednesday's Fast Money and took part in an interesting discussion about his company's Juxtapid treatment for the small amount of people who have HOFH, which can tragically cause heart attacks in children.

Karen Finerman, attempting to ask a very good question about insurance coverage for this $295,000 treatment, asked Beer "who fits (sic) the bill here" when she obviously meant "foots."

Beer took that as an opportunity to say that "every patient who has this disease fits the bill."

Clearly, they don't all "foot" the bill. In the context of "fit the bill," Beer would be talking about eligibility, which is not in question.

Anyway, Beer went on to say that the insurance companies are very understanding about the benefits of this, and basically said that patients unable to get coverage will be taken care of in some way.

Translation: To the general public, everyone who needs it will get it; to investors, we're not going to be taking losses here, but it's not worth pointing out that either the insurers or the government will ultimately get a tab.

It's a little-known disease, and we wish the best for the patients and for Beer's researchers. Dan Nathan called the stock "a no-touch here," but Steve Grasso contended that it "technically it looks like late in 2012 where it just took off."

Steve Grasso said he likes TIF more than COH but "I can't buy it at this level."

Mike Khouw told viewers regarding DNKN, "I probably wouldn't chase this stock," and his Final Trade was selling WHR calls.

Tim Seymour said to "buy this weakness" in RBS, and made CBD his Final Trade.

Karen Finerman said she still likes GOOG. Steve Grasso said he's "waiting for lower levels" to buy GOOG, maybe 830-815, and if it doesn't get there he wants it to go much higher first. His Final Trade was WHR.

Karen Finerman's Final Trade was to sell VIX spreads. Dan Nathan suggested long VIX calls but said he'd sell on the next uptick.

Accidental late hit, $50,000;
double-murderer/armed robbery thug, bust in Canton

Dan Marino showed up on Wednesday's Halftime Report with what figured to be fluff, yet the Halftime crew responded with an unexpectedly impressive round of questioning.

Dan didn't exactly articulate the greatest responses, particularly on social media, but Pete Najarian and Judge in particular threw nice curveballs into the mix with questions on Roger Goodell and Twitter usage.

Mike Murphy fawningly asked about the fake spike, one of the most overrated plays in NFL history because even though it worked, it didn't work like it was supposed to (the CB is supposed to fall asleep, but he actually was covering the receiver). Marino said New Yorkers have to get over that one, and credited Bernie Kosar for introducing the tactic.

Marino said Denver is the team to beat in 2013.

Pete Najarian asked Dan to grade Roger Goodell. Pete could've prefaced this question with, "I know you've got a TV job working with the NFL so this answer will be 100% biased, but..."

He didn't. Whatever. Marino's pat answer was, "I know sometimes the players, all the players don't agree with what he's doing as far as fines, are concerned," but, "I think he's done an excellent job."

Pete could've gotten much more specific and asked, "Doesn't it seem like this guy who has never thrown an NFL block or pass is maybe going a little overboard in suspending and publicly denouncing certain guys who are just trying to do a very difficult physical job and/or guys who happen to be 2-time champions who sold countless tickets and jerseys who might be obnoxious human beings and got into a deplorable bar scrape that after immense police investigation for a tavern incident resulted in no case and the aggrieved party issuing a statement saying she did not wish for a case to occur.

And of course Dan would've answered that one by saying, "You sound like a fan of (so-and-so team)," and chuckled away that question like a busted screen pass thrown at the feet of the RB.

But no.

Speaking of which, one good question for Dan would be whether he thinks the NFL will take steps to reinstate the necessity of the running back, the rules so favor passing that it's getting to be like Arena Football.

Marino said he works for Corporate Resource Services, apparently because he knows somebody.

Rocky II, by Stephen Weiss

Stephen Weiss astutely said last week that this week will be rocky, and re-upped that on Wednesday's Halftime Report, predicting, "We're in for a rocky summer."

"The momentum has changed clearly," Weiss said, adding that the news has gotten negative.

Mike Murphy said that with the year 2013 has already been, "You're going to have a down month," and that if we hold 1,600 on the S&P, "We're going right back up."

Murphy added that people have been saying they want a pullback to get into the homeowners, and, well, "here's a pullback."

Japan has become the "risk barometer," said Enis Taner.

Pete Najarian lukewarmly claimed, "I still like some of the energy space."

Weiss advised Steve Liesman not to trade stocks, but told him, "Just be light for the economically sensitive stuff going into the summer."

Liesman said the June end-of-tapering scaremongering was overrated, and that with the Fed, "It's the Indiana Jones story," and "Indiana Bernanke" is trying to replace the "skull" with the real growth instead of Fed machinations.

Mike Santoli told Judge Wapner, "Steve Liesman kinda stole a little bit of my line," not about Indiana Bernanke but June tapering fears, which Santoli called an "overextrapolation" and added that with rocky markets for 2 weeks, "I think we're getting a lot what the Fed wants."

Another guest has mastered the pre-eminent Fast Money cliché

Pete Najarian on Wednesday's Halftime Report argued the bull case for BBRY, debates that we hoped had run their course by January but obviously haven't, saying the Z10 did better than expected that the company has "taken market share back in Canada."

Mike Murphy contended, "The industry passed them by," and there's no room for a 4th player.

Stephen Weiss ruled that Najarian won and said it's not because "Murphy beat me in golf last week," but that the Q launch in England was better than thought.

Jeff Kilburg said there seems to be a return to the jobs number's correlation to stocks and bonds. Anthony Grisanti said that if the jobs number prints "below 120," the 10-year could go "through 2% on Friday very quickly."

David Neithercut told Diana Olick that if interest rates rise because of economic growth, that's great, even in the housing/apartment space, and said the notion that apartments will suffer because more renters will start buying is "really overblown."

Herb Greenberg grumbled that JOSB has a big inventory problem but the stock has some kind of resiliency.

Citi's Steve Bodurtha said he favors "hedged strategies" right now and a yen play, though conceding U.S. stocks face a possible "interim correction."

Bodurtha said the Nikkei is volatile, but "I think it's still gonna have a great 2013, at the end of the day."

‘No way’ Pete is buying the dip

Pete Najarian on Wednesday's Halftime Report touted CVX-XOM-heavy XLE, and opined, "I think Chevron's going higher."

Najarian called DG "still an opportunity" around 50, likes DAL the best in the airline space, thinks there's still upside in the JNPR/INTC tech space, but said "no way" he's buying dips in the general market right now with the VIX elevated.

Najarian's Final Trade was YHOO.

Enis Taner said people don't like that the CRM deal was all cash and said 40 is key resistance. Taner said WY is affected by the hit to lumber prices. Taner called AMGN "very good fundamental value" but observed, "Technically it's a little bit broken." His Final Trade was long ZNGA.

Mike Murphy said there's a lot of negativity priced into JOY and he likes it at 52. He said CLF is actually "very interesting" and "right on its support level." Murphy called TKR "a name you can own here" and made T his Final Trade.

Stephen Weiss said groceries are a plus for AMZN, but the valuation's too high for him. He thinks IBM is a "hold," and made short BHP his Final Trade.

[Tuesday, June 4, 2013]

$60-$80 crude

We couldn't help but think of Fish's declaration on the Halftime Report a year or two ago that we'll never see sub-$70 oil in our lifetimes once Renee Haugerud told Tuesday's Fast Money that the "correct range" for oil will be 60-80.

Haugerud said not to jump the gun on the Fed, "Tapering could take a little bit longer than people expect ... at least through the end of this year," but still asserted "more downside" for gold, because "we still think the market is too long," and it would really take a massive selloff in the dollar to get it going.

Louise Yamada cautioned that the gold chart is such that "there is the potential that it rolls over again."

Stephanie Link recommeded DD.

Yamada: S&P 1,500 possible

On the (nearly) all-female edition of Tuesday's Fast Money, Louise Yamada said "we're due for a little bit of a rest" in the S&P's 2013 march, perhaps all the way down to 1,500 or 1,550.

Karen Finerman said she's a little more cautious now on the notion of the Fed removing the "punch bowl" (haven't heard that term much since about 2010) and that tapering "may be closer than we fear," and said the data needs to be somewhere our drives at the CNBCfix.com Spring Golf Outing absolutely NEVER did go on Monday (Sunday yes, but not Monday), which is the "middle of the fairway."

Erin Gibbs, the least comfortable of this panel, said a couple times that the taper talk is "a little premature."

Stephanie Link said the data has been flat-out "uninspiring."

Rebecca Patterson said in the Treasury market, there are a "lot of shorts out there today."

Chris Mortenson, crown jewel

Karen Finerman and Stephanie Link conducted a debate on Tuesday's Fast Money that amounted to, Is DIS a table-pounding buy today, or maybe in a couple months.

Finerman said it's got barriers to entry that other companies can't match and that ESPN is the "crown jewel of the company," and so it deserves a high multiple.

Stephanie Link said those things are true, but "this is a valuation call," and it's "priced for perfection."

Erin Gibbs was asked to declare a winner. She pointed to Link, and said Finerman. (That's a good one.)

Louise Yamada claimed she was agreeing with both, saying the stock is "due to pull back ... right now it's a little extended."

At the end of the day (Drink), all-female panel has at least 1 Fast Money cliché down pat

Erin Gibbs on Tuesday's Fast Money agreed with Jeff Gundlach that AAPL "could go to 500."

Stephanie Link and Karen Finerman both like GM, and Link touted F also.

Karen Finerman scoffed at TSLA's price; "it's mathemetically impossible to come to a valuation like this."

Link suggested VZ, ETN and MMM, if halfheartedly.

Rebecca Patterson said she's underweight materials and overweight consumer discretionary and tech and said you can classify that however you like.

Erin Gibbs said, "We like the REITs" and named AVB and BXP.

Stephanie Link waffled a bit on CRM and said she likes it long term, but "I think it's a bit rich."

Rebecca Patterson said of the washout that's been happening in Japan recently, "A lot of that appears to be rebalancing by the pension funds."

Louise Yamada chipped in, "We're very bullish on Japan."

Karen Finerman said, "I like the banks." Stephanie Link said that "at the end of the day," the market until recently hasn't had confidence in banks' earning power.

Nobody mentioned
Paul Tudor Jones*

Ovascience chief Dr. Michelle Dipp visited with Tuesday's (nearly) all-female Fast Money crew to talk about something we know utterly nothing about — fertility treatments.

Karen Finerman asked whether this treatment is covered by insurance. Dipp said there are 15 states in which it is covered in some form, but "most women are paying out-of-pocket."

Meanwhile, Alexandra Lebenthal conceded that the muni market will likely track Treasurys, so as far as rising rates, there you go. Lebenthal said Puerto Rico is one place she has "major concerns."

Louise Yamada, very busy Tuesday, said the MUB and muni rally in general is "getting long in the tooth."

Rebecca Patterson, who seems to think people are making too much of rising rates, asserted, "Rates are going up slowly; equities are going to be fine."

Stephanie Link touted SWK and said, "It's very attractive at 12 times forward estimates."

Karen Finerman said that in real estate/housing, "I still like Realogy," and is inclined to buy more under 50.

Louise Yamada's Final Trade was to beware the "rising rate cycle." Stephanie Link said ADI. Rebecca Patterson suggested the Europe "catch-up trade this summer." Karen Finerman said RLGY calls. Erin Gibbs' Final Trade was unintelligible, apparently was PUB but we don't see a symbol for that (unless she was referring to drinking in general).

For whatever reason (whatever happened to Stacy Briere Gilbert?), Mel Lee had to summon a male for an Options Action update; Scott Nations reported sellers of DG August 46 puts.

Fair enough, but why did Jon Fortt and Josh Lipton have to read headlines; surely Sister Golden Hair and Seema Mody and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera could've made an appearance for this program.

Sallie Krawcheck, in a taped interview, told Karen Finerman that some on Wall Street view women as a "niche," and "that's a heckuva niche."

Melissa Lee praised Karen's book again but this time didn't say it's not about "Let's blame the men for all of women's challenges. Totally not that way," which was kinda cute. (*The headline on this post is just a necessary news observation that must be made, we have NO idea about ANY of that stuff or what's going on or who's right or who's wrong, please don't blame the messenger, sorry for bringing it up, etc.)

Halftime Report crew gets an education in Banking 201

Josh Lipton, The Guy Who's Obviously Going Places at CNBC, reported on DG's quarter on Tuesday's Halftime Report and even invoked Stacey Widlitz, who undoubtedly was wearing phenomenal clothing (seriously, not a joke) somewhere and told Lipton that DG and WMT results are a sign of lower-end struggles.

Josh Brown said even great companies like DG have bad quarters; "I think it's a great stock," Brown said.

Guest Matthew O'Connor, referring to his "Banking 201" report, told the gang his top picks in banking are JPM and MS, and told Stephen Weiss that C has upside but not as much upside as JPM. And he told Judge that JPM and MS are his top picks, and not superregionals as Judge said. But he does also like USB and FITB.

Simon Baker said, "I still like Goldman Sachs."

Jon Najarian lamented that he dabbled in Affymax, one that "probably shouldn't have been on our radar anyway."

Watch $1,353 gold

Josh Brown said at the top of Tuesday's Halftime Report that "this feels like a turning point for the market," then contended, "Beneath the surface, this rally is a lot less encouraging."

That put him at odds with Stephen Weiss, who likes to argue with people/criticize their assessments, who rightly pointed out that Brown's focus on advance-decline data doesn't really mean anything; "can't look at it that short-term."

Joe Terranova said he's staying with his gold position, staying with his Apple position, and "just waiting."

Jeff Kilburg contended that gold is in a "coiled pattern" and rather ambiguously told Jackie DeAngelis, "We're focused on the gold market moving up," but looking in particular at that jobs number.

Anthong Grisanti declared that for gold, "1,353 on the downside is the big number," and 1,422 is the big number to the upside.

Joe: CRM ‘washed out’

Joe Terranova made the case on Tuesday's Halftime Report that Marc Benioff knows what he's doing with this acquisition, that CRM is buying growth, and "I just think the stock is completely washed out."

Stephen Weiss scoffed, "I'd say the acquisition was misguided," calling it a "ridiculous multiple" and said it would've made sense to buy it with stock but they used cash, and that growth is a headwind for this company.

Simon Baker made a stronger bull case than Joe did, saying "I think I'd go with Joe" because we're going to see MSFT and ORCL do just what CRM is doing. Josh Brown, though, said "I'm with Steve Weiss on this one," in part because there's a "massive double-top" in the stock.

Baker managed to include a "Jeff Boozus (sic)" reference.

Weiss about to buy NWS

Even though it's a pain to keep track of it all, we've gotta hand it to Judge for presenting an impressive item count in barely half a show after the Jeff Gundlach interview on Tuesday's Halftime Report.

Josh Brown said CP will be a "tough one to hold" if Bill Ackman unloads.

Simon Baker said he owns GM, it's "cheaper than Ford." And he said to get long PCLN.

Joe Terranova said that between AMZN and VIA, "I don't wanna own either."

Terranova said BBBY looks to be having "a technical selloff," and if you're interested, wait until after earnings, and play it long.

Stephen Weiss said "I'd be a seller" of FCX. And he would sell any pop in TSLA.

Josh Brown said CLVS has had an explosive week and may not be a buy here, but down the road "looks very interesting."

Brown endorsed FSLR for those who want a solar play with his favorite punch line; "I gotta tell you, the negative here is that it's up huge."

Simon Baker said demand is not slowing for MNST and made a veiled reference to Josh Brown's recent decription of the company's products.

Joe Terranova said he's not buying the purported double-bottom in CLF.

Kate Kelly said Morgan Stanley wealth management is apparently standing pat with SAC.

Terranova's Final Trade was LNKD. Josh Brown said DD, Simon Baker said SKX because "shoes are hot," and Steve Weiss said NWS.

Gundlach: Real estate is
‘like the gold of 2011’

Jeff Gundlach, easily one of the best of CNBC's guests, spent a good chunk of time with Judge Wapner on Tuesday's Halftime Report and immediately opined on rates.

"I think rates go a little bit higher, but not very much higher," Gundlach said, pointing to "quite a bit of support at about 2.40."

Gundlach suggested 2.20 is a good place to start buying, all the way down to 2.40.

He said the Nikkei is due for a correction, but "I think it's a buying opportunity in the mid-12,000s."

He said he bought AAPL at 405 and a little higher, and that "Apple seems to be forming a base ... I think Apple goes to 500 bucks."

But, he asserted, "I'm not so sure that we're ever, ever going to see, uh, 700 again in Apple."

Gundlach actually revealed that despite the notion that he shorted CMG, he actually hasn't, because it didn't get to his target, "never got to put the short on at 380."

Notably, Gundlach suggested real estate is "like the gold of 2011."

More from Tuesday's Halftime Report later.

[Monday, June 3, 2013]

Pete and Mike Murphy
crushed the INTC call

You know things are boring in the stock market when MSFT and INTC grab the lion's share of the attention on Fast Money, which is what happened Monday courtesy of Rick Sherlund and Pete Najarian.

Unfortunately Mel Lee, despite looking great with new hairstyle, didn't exactly clarify what Sherlund was talking about, which apparently was something about how the company claims to be taking steps in devices and services to "position better for the cloud," but the bigger issue being there's agitation in progress, which Sherlund apparently thinks will all be good for the stock.

Yet the screen indicated he only has a neutral rating and 38 target, and he conceded that on a fundamental basis the stock is "pretty uninteresting right now."

Karen Finerman wondered about the chances of ValueAct prompting change vs. the Gates-Ballmer enterprise, and the value of securing 1 board seat. Sherlund said, "1 seat gets you, uh, an inside voice."

Meanwhile, Pete Najarian, who to his credit has knocked one out of the park on INTC for months (though Mike Murphy has been the big bull since April), said at the top of the program that it's finally doing what people said about mobile and buybacks, etc., and then ran roughshod over Guy Adami in an INTC debate later in the show.

Adami said it's been a laggard that has benefitted from the catch-up move in markets, and that the margins are lower than the Street wants, and he's not so sure about the "seamless transition" to a new CEO.

Pete said that by transitioning to mobile and tablets, "you (sic) can absolutely explode for Intel ... it's goin' to 30."

Adami insisted, it's a question of "can they get into mobile quick enough."

Karen Finerman said the valuation is not stretched, dividend is good, so "I gotta go with Pete."

Pete's Final Trades were MSFT and INTC.

One stock that’s even better than HPQ

Honestly a year ago we never thought we'd be talking about BBY 2013 like it's AAPL of 2004-2011, but that's kind of how it's turned out, even though Melissa Lee led the Fast Money gang in carping when the supposedly in-over-his-head CEO was named.

David Magee said on Monday's Fast Money that the stock is "still not expensive" and has a "major 2nd leg ahead of it."

Karen Finerman asked Magee how he gets to his $35 price target. Magee said it's based on 2015 earnings of $2.85, and a "low teens multiple."

Pete Najarian sounded enthusiastic about the stock, apparently because of its Samsung deal, and said the next stage is to "shrink some of these stores down."

Steve Grasso tried to sound poetic and claim he's always had a "kind reflection on Best Buy." Mel Lee carped about it still being a showroom and insisted, "I go to whoever has the best value proposition."

Adami: SODA has ‘upside left’

In an eye-opening day for the S&P 500, it was surprising that only Guy Adami managed to offer a useful broad-market opinion on Monday's Fast Money, pointing out the S&P "reversed rather strongly" around 1,620, and then predicting, "I think the next couple days should be up days."

Steve Grasso got to handle a couple of Internet dogs, saying you can't short ZNGA this low, but not to buy until it reaches $5, and also that he prefers AAPL and GOOG to P.

Guy Adami said the valuation for SODA is "not as ridiculous as you might think," and that the stock still has "some upside left."

Adami said DLTR's doing great, but "I wouldn't chase it on the back of this though."

Pete Najarian said FFIV has taken a beating in the first half of the year, but "I think it's time" for gains in the 2nd half. Karen Finerman said an article about regulation of payments shouldn't be a big deal to EBAY.

So much ‘At the end of the day,’ Guy and Mel don’t even say ‘Drink’ anymore

Barbara Ryan told Monday's Fast Money that BMY is working because its cancer fighters are "game-changers" and extending lives afflicted by some of the hardest-to-treat forms.

Melissa Lee pointed out that an analyst calls BMY overvalued and a sell. Ryan said, "At the end of the day it's about the net present value of the future sales of these products," and this field is potentially $20 billion revenue annually.

Pete Najarian endorsed BMY, saying "I think it's goin' higher."

Brian Stutland reported that there were big sellers of PFE October 26 puts.

Simon Hobbs got an interview with Marriott chief Arne Sorenson, just as Judge Wapner once did for his Marriott nighttime special (see, Marriott was only so-so, but CNBC is evidently cutting back those kinds of interesting programs in favor of more reality TV tripe that's getting canceled after only 2 episodes, so there's your future of business television), and seemed preoccupied with room service and how much it really helps a hotel.

Sorenson said that the "first few months have been comforting" this year after sequestration and fiscal cliff battles, etc.

Karen Finerman said "I like Hertz" in the space. Guy Adami said that when he orders room service, he gets "French onion soup."

Karen Finerman called DG "still actually not so expensive ... attractive here."

Guy Adami reiterated that TSLA may still have a blowoff top, and "I don't think it's a short yet." Pete Najarian said he would do it with put spreads, and appeared to tell Melissa Lee that he would be interested in putting on that trade right now.

Karen Finerman said she is "still married" to GM.

Melissa Lee aired a clip of Karen Finerman interviewing Susan Feldman of OneKingsLane as part of Karen's book promotion.

Melissa said "personally" what she likes about Karen's book is that it's not, "Let's blame the men for all of women's challenges. Totally not that way."

Karen agreed, and said, "It's a lot about how women get in their own way," and how they can avoid doing that, and once again we'll hold the breath and say that's kinda cute.

Steve Grasso, apparently thinking the Nikkei somehow won't keep going down 500 points a day, made NKY his Final Trade but said it must hold 15. Karen Finerman said FL, and Guy Adami said CERN, and praised Karen's book passage on her ultimatum for her husband, which this site broke a while back when Karen mentioned it on the Web Extra (how many of those have been done recently).

Maybe Joe should’ve said 29, to be on the safe side

Those looking for a return to robust stock market gains in June after the troubles of late May won't be terribly encouraged by Joe Terranova's stark prognostication on Monday's Halftime Report.

"I already think the month of June is going to be a month where the institutional money is looking for exits," Terranova said, predicting "30 days of frustration" on the always-sensitive-to-morning-trading Halftime Report while the S&P 500 showed red on the screen.

Stephanie Link predicted "increased volatility" in stocks, but Jon Najarian shrugged that he has seen "no evidence" of data that would prompt quick Fed changes.

Steve Liesman, however, revealed that the central bank may indeed be fidgety, "I'm just feeling this nervousness at the Fed to QE right now."

Dr. New World insisted "the Fed needs to give me proper guidance" and that the market has "lost confidence" in the Fed's message.

"I never claim to be highly intelligent. I just claim to want to make money," Terranova said.

Pete isn’t available to call AAPL a 2nd-half story, so Joe does it for him

Josh Lipton, rapidly gaining more air time (lessee, gotta do a post soon on "CNBC's Most Vulnerable" to figure out which show(s)/time slot(s) Josh might be bound for), told Judge Wapner on Monday's Halftime Report that the AAPL stock story might be changing, for several reasons, that Tim Cook impressed people, "big investors are believers," the product cycle, and the ever-popular inverse head-and-shoulders pattern.

Joe Terranova said he thought Tim Cook had a great "performance," and Joe got long the stock because he thinks it "is washed out," and because he thinks Pete Najarian is right, it's a "2nd-half story."

Jon Najarian said it makes sense that P gets hurt by AAPL and now GOOG music services.

Najarian said there has been "institutional buying of out of the money calls" in INTC. Mike Murphy said the Street has underestimated INTC, and he thinks it can go higher.

Najarian crowed (again) about how he makes money in MSFT; "I just sell those out of the money calls for about 70 cents." Moments later, Murphy endorsed the approach as the way to play MSFT.

Murphy, stung by FB's pain, blamed Street sentiments in calling it "the most unloved stock out there ... I think you can own it here."

Stephanie Link said she prefers CSCO to FFIV.

Just as Joe Terranova saluted Pete Najarian's "2nd-half story" of AAPL, Jon Najarian issued a shout-out of sorts to Joe by making long LPX his Final Trade.

How many times/ways can Judge tell a guest he’s ‘really’ surprised at his call

Adam Jonas went on Monday's Halftime Report to tout $109 for TSLA, his top pick in the auto space, a choice that seemed to amaze Judge Wapner.

But it seemed like the call had less to do with Tesla bullishness than dislike for other names in the sector, which Jonas said is seeing "pretty disturbing developments ... deflationary pressure ... falling used-car prices ... capacity growth in North America."

Jonas admitted he got out of HTZ too early around 18, though he's bearish on it now. Mike Murphy asserted, "I would much rather own a Ford than a Tesla." Joe Terranova struggled with the pronunciation of "conviction."

Jon Najarian, not using the "bankruptcy" term this time, reiterated that "Fisker went out of business," but he thinks TSLA would be a "much better buy" in the 70s.

Stephanie Link said she likes F, BWA, TRW and JCI.

For once, someone has not actually prejudged the bull-bear debate

Stephanie Link on Monday's Halftime Report practically backed out of her bull case for DG before even making it, stressing it is "not a play on the quarter" and acknowledging "it is up a lot."

But she said its "growth rate is impressive going forward," and the private equity overhang is lifting.

Mike Murphy, as the bear, noted "4 analysts upgraded the stock into the quarter ... I think you can buy this stock under 50."

Joe Terranova refreshingly admitted "I don't follow Dollar General much," and so he actually found the discussion "enlightening," and concluded, "Stephanie made the better points."

Joe buys gold

On Monday's Halftime Report, Rick Rule, echoing what is heard just about every day in the last few weeks of Halftime Report/Fast Money, claimed gold is "due for a technical recovery if nothing else," citing Treasury comparisons and Jim Grant's "return-free risk" contention.

Rule conceded stocks are a fine alternative, a "place for that in every portfolio," and actually said platinum and palladium are his top picks in the metals.

Dr. New World, who ran roughshod over his fellow panelists Monday in the Commentary Content Department, revealed, "I bought gold. I bought gold this morning."

Terranova contended at one point, "I think gold in the month of June might be the best performing asset to buy," and made it his Final Trade. But he stressed that nobody really knows why it goes up or down, so try not to overthink it.

Joe: ‘Good spot’ for TM

Every time Kate Kelly appears on the Halftime Report, usually there is news involving Stevie Cohen.

Kelly said on Monday's Halftime Report that SAC has only returned 6% through mid-May, but as for Cohen, "It doesn't look like there's very much solid evidence against him," at least in the Martoma case.

Joe Terranova said "I don't like JPMorgan right here at 53" and suggests MS instead.

Japan watcher Robert Horrocks said it's "incumbent" on him to outline the Nikkei's moves and said he thinks it's taken its daily 500-point pounding a hit since late May "on the back of comments made by the Fed," and that there are some structural improvements Japan still needs, but there are "good quality companies" there with healthy prospects.

Joe Terranova refreshingly admitted his TM-to-150 bungle but said Monday, "This is a good spot to take a position." (This writer is long TM.) Stephanie Link said Cramer is "slowly picking at the DXJ."

Jon Najarian credited Stephen Weiss for being correct on SODA. (Weiss will certainly appreciate that.)

Mr. New Land said names like BBY tend to peter out on upgrades; "I don't like the story here."

Stephanie Link suggested MRK will go higher, but she wouldn't chase WFM. Her Final Trade was COST. Mike Murphy's Final Trade was CWH.

Back to CNBCfix home