CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Halftime Report/Fast Money Review Archive — Sept. 2025]

Jim actually seems to think any number of ‘very talented people’ could get the DIS job

Asking Jim Lebenthal about DIS on Tuesday's (9/30) Halftime Report, Judge finally admitted (after this page has harped on it for literally years) that succession is "the biggest issue hanging over the whole story."

Jim agreed it's "a very big issue," though he doesn't think it's "make or break on the stock." Jim even claimed "there's some very talented people behind Mr., uh, Iger," then botched a few of the names.

Judge cracked, "Don't mention names if you don't know the names." But Judge didn't have the brass to tell Jim that the issue isn't whether the people "behind" Mr. Iger are talented, the issue is that neither the current DIS CEO nor the board trust any other human being in the world (probably not even Brian Niccol given the still-regular SBUX stumbles) besides the current CEO to run the company, which is why we'll be hearing about a 3-year extension soon.

Meanwhile, Josh Brown bought PL, which has something to do with satellite data. He also bought JOBY and ACHR.

Amy Raskin bought more V. She's keeping her IONQ position small. Amy bought more WMB (Zzzzzzzzz).

Joe Terranova yet again said SPOT is the "equivalent" in music to NFLX in streaming; he said the SPOT management announcement "feels very similar" to when Reed Hastings left the reins to Greg Peters and Ted. (This writer is long SPOT and NFLX.) Joe suggested SPOT is in more of a "time correction" than "price" correction. (That's a nice way of saying it's been a dog for months.)

Judge coulda just said ‘Ah, we know what you’re going to say anyway’

Judge opened Tuesday's (9/30) Halftime Report asking Josh Brown to opine on NVDA (as if nobody knew what Josh was going to say). But Josh's sound wasn't working, so it was a Shields & Yarnell routine, and the camera cut back to Judge, who didn't realize the camera was cutting back and was seen pointing something like "what the heck" and then Judge realized he's on camera and said "Oh, sorry."

Judge felt so sheepish about this image, he even repeated it. (Sully would've uncorked a couple of awesome punch lines, but that's Sully.)

(Note: This page does not look to capture screen grabs of CNBCers in goofy poses. Quite the opposite, in fact. In this particular case, we're posting it because 1) it's kinda hilarious, and 2) Judge poked fun at it by re-creating the pose, which affirms that this was a newsworthy event, so it's fair game.)

Mike restored, Josh said NVDA remains the most obvious way to do an AI trade, although there are some "next" NVDA's out there if you want to try to look.

Amy Raskin said she's been trimming NVDA for a while, and "every sale has been a bad sale so far."

Amy questioned how much upside is left with a $4.5 trillion company. Judge said Brad Gerstner says in a podcast that the upside from here is a $10 trillion market cap.

Joe pointed to ORCL giving back a little bit since its huge gain a few weeks ago. Josh tried to stress that the market's not just being carried by only a couple of stocks.

Joe again tells Jenny not to take his comments personally (a/k/a Weiss’ greatest hits)

Monday's (9/29) Halftime Report was basically a group of folks grudgingly admitting that you have to stay long.

Jenny Harrington, echoing her recent comments about everyone she knows not liking this market, said maybe the market's done a little too much. Joe Terranova made the mistake of saying "you" could've made Jenny's points a month ago, prompting Jenny to cut in that she indeed made the comments at the end of August, prompting Joe to say "again, this is not personal," the 2nd time Joe and Jenny have had this kind of exchange in a week (see below).

Steve Weiss was again talking up the people living "paycheck to paycheck," one of his favorite observations which curiously, is always the same observation no matter the decade or the president. Weiss was also mentioning the possibility of China trying to "annex" Taiwan.

Bryn Talkington marveled at the "stickiness of Robinhood."

Joe said he and Josh Brown (who wasn't on Monday's show) "both look like heroes" for buying EA even though they bought for entirely different reasons than an LBO.

Jenny said she made a big return in SBLK because of its "huge, huge, huge" dividends even though the share priced isn't much different now than when she bought it 4 years ago.

In other stock discussion, Joe implied Jenny only cares about charts when they indicate her stocks are good.

Joe suggesed that despite the Morgan Stanley catch-up upgrade of APP, there is still skepticism "embedded in the stock itself."

Weiss said during Final Trades that he thinks bitcoin will get going again.

Weiss: Shutdown ‘will resolve itself’

The Dominator, Dom Chu, was guest hosting Friday's (9/26) Halftime Report and, after some CNBC news updates, asked Steve Weiss to opine on new tariffs and a possible shutdown.

Let's give credit where it's due — Dom gave Weiss an uninterrupted platform to make a statement, and Weiss made a series of eloquent remarks about both subjects.

Weiss announced, "I've been doing this show from Day 1, hittin' on 16 years. And maybe this is the 12th forecasted government shutdown. And guess what — the market's a lot higher than at any point during those last 12 years."

Weiss said it hasn't happened where the president refuses to meet with leaders of the other party, but it's "not surprising at all."

"This will resolve itself," Weiss assured.

Weiss pointed out that drug stocks are up despite tariff threats and that Donald Trump goes "back and forth" on the subject. "The market at this point doesn't take his pronouncements seriously ... I think it's kind of business as usual." Weiss also suggested the Supreme Court "may do away with all the tariffs."

Weiss also asserted that companies have used "tariff levels as a pricing umbrella to raise prices." Weiss said what we've had recently in the market isn't even a "correction."

A few things here ... we highly doubt the Supreme Court will do away with all the tariffs. However, Weiss is exactly right about shutdowns and about companies figuring that since consumers are expecting higher prices, they might as well raise prices.

As for Weiss "doing this show from Day 1" ... that statement, we're kind of skeptical of. The archive here, which only started in mid-2009 (even though the site launched in 2008; we originally were just deleting previous days' accounts), first lists Weiss as appearing on either Fast Money or Halftime on May 5, 2010. We even called him "author Stephen Weiss" (snicker).

Now, the origins of what constitutes "Halftime" are a little debatable. The regular Fast Money (spun out of a segment of, we think, On the Money) first aired in evenings, then got Larry Kudlow's late afternoon spot, but there was an interest in having Fast Money panelists opining during the trading day, so a 10-15-minute "Halftime" edition was carved into the end of Power Lunch, with Mel hosting. Then the Halftime segment expanded to a half-hour, sharing the hour with The Strategy Session, and Judge came aboard, and eventually Halftime got the whole hour.

It's hardly "Day 1." But Weiss has been around for at least 15 years and 4 months. Close enough.

Weiss says there’s a bubble (but mostly in the private markets)

Steve Weiss on Friday's (9/26) Halftime Report was also taking up the concept of bubbles.

Weiss pointed out that if you've been a "panic seller" in the market, you've missed out.

Weiss said there has been a lot of foreign dollars chasing the AI trade in the U.S., then he raised the question himself as to whether there's a bubble and declared "unquestionably yes," but "I don't" see the bubble popping.

Weiss explained that the bubble is "more acutely in the private markets than in the public markets, without a doubt."

Guest host Dom Chu bluntly asked Jim Lebenthal if this is 1999-2000. Jim said it's 1997 and said "1997" about 3-4 times.

Brian Belski briefly joined the crew remotely and said, "I believe that 'bubble' is probably the most overused term in our industry," that it happens when everyone's raking it in, and "I don't think everybody's making money."

Brian said M&A and IPOs in 1999-2000 was "frivolous." Belski pointed out how tech is much more a part of the market mainstream now. "I think 2- 2025 is setting the table for Goldilocks," Belski said, not the first time he's given that kind of extended outlook, saying this year could be the "table setter for Goldilocks for the next 2 years."

Dom asked if the market needs lower rates to keep going. Jim said, "No, of course not!" Jason Snipe said "Definitely not." So the Fed is using rate cuts to make an already good economy better. Weiss said it's a question of "what's the neutral rate." And right now, we're "above" the neutral rate.

Jason said he'd "largely agree" with Ken Griffin about the delayed tariff impact because there was "a lot of inventory build" ahead of time.

Jim said there's "2 halves" of the population, and if you're in the upper half, you've had "one heckuva market rally," and if you're in the lower half, "you're not feeling great, but you are employed." Jim stated, "This economy shows no sign of slowing down."

No new stakes sold in NFL teams, apparently

Stephanie Link dialed in to Friday's (9/26) Halftime Report to say she unloaded FCX. So she bought ANTO-GB, a stock no viewer has ever heard of. Stephanie also bought TER.

Guest host Dom Chu said DAL was reiterated buy with a 72 target at UBS. Jim Lebenthal of course owns it and talked it up again, as he does about once a week (but already had done this week). Steve Weiss wondered how airlines get multiple expansion. Jim said from balance sheet improvement. Weiss said balance sheet improvements "tend to be cyclical."

Jason Snipe said COST had a "double beat." He said it's adding customers under 40, but 1/3 of its products are imported.

Weiss said getting baseball's opening day is "one of the levers" NFLX can pull. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Dom asked Jim about XOM being up 4% for the week and how does the energy sector look. Jim rattled off a variety of energy stocks.

TaylorMade CEO David Abeles sat in at Post 9 in athletic gear and talked up the Ryder Cup.

Mike’s back for more

In today's CNBC/Versant, we're at the point where NVDA could surge $100 in a day (it didn't this week), and every CNBC show is going to lead with the story of someone buying half a percent of some 1-2 pro football team.

We thought we got it out of the system a day ago when Ozanian reported on the Chicago Bears (see below).

But Thursday, he was back on Judge's Closing Bell, and then Morgan & Jon's Closing Bell Overtime, to discuss how the New England Patriots are now apparently worth $9 billion.

So 1) if you're an investor and want to buy, you probably have to wait for another opportunity, and 2) if you're a fan, you just have to hope Rhamondre Stevenson stops fumbling the football.

Ozanian gets the same question on every show (Wednesday, Fast Money, Cowboys; Thursday, Closing Bell Overtime, Patriots), which is, how come a team that isn't very good can be worth more than most others (after the questioner recounts how bad the team has been recently). Ozanian tends to answer that NFL teams share most of the revenue so valuation has a lot to do with monetizing the stadiums.

Meanwhile, on Closing Bell, Tom Lee indicated that despite what Ken Griffin said, it's not like how things got post-1998; "Nvidia to me is still a bargain at 26 times." Tom said this could be a time when we're "possibly topping," but it's "really difficult" for anyone to sell at the top.

Whatever happened to Carl’s Day of Reckoning promised in 2016?

Judge announced at the top of Thursday's (9/25) Halftime Report that "Rates are an issue" (Zzzzzzz) at least since the Fed cut.

Josh Brown said the market is "vulnerable" because it's fueled by tech enthusiasm and ORCL is talking about a new era of debt levels.

Josh also said the QQQ on Thursday would be making its 102nd straight day of closing over its 50-day. (We think that's indeed what happened.) (This review was posted overnight Thursday-Friday.) Judge said "I'm glad you bring that up," because the longest such streak since 2017 was 107, so we might be getting to the point where it's bound to end. Josh cautioned that people do "wild things" in a market like this.

Judge said Ken Griffin is talking about seeing "echoes of the dot-com bubble."

Joe Terranova said he likes Josh's point on ORCL, which is "where you get the echoes, Scott, of 1999."

Judge said Rothchild initiated ORCL with a sell/175, saying the market "overestimates" ORCL's future cloud revenues.

Bill Baruch said he trimmed ORCL but is just "raising some cash here"; ORCL he said is at a 41 multiple instead of historic 19 and is "growing into new muscles."

Judge said there were "analysts literally left stunned" by ORCL's report, and Joe said the stock "went parabolic." Josh pointed out there was a big "run-up from the April lows" and said it wasn't a "mystery" that the company was doing well.

Jim Lebenthal declared, "We will eventually be in a bubble in AI. We are not there yet." Judge opined, "Maybe all bubbles are not created equal," and that a "historical precedent" may not work here. Jim said he wanted to "dance with that," and that if there's a difference with previous bubbles, it's that the earnings are coming through now.

Judge admitted maybe it's a "fallacy" to draw comparisons to 1999. Jim said he doesn't agree with Ken Griffin. Josh said he doesn't think Ken is talking specifically about ORCL, rather, we're seeing "the same stuff we saw in 2021." Josh mentioned "SPAC." (He didn't mention NFTs and digital drawing copyrights.) Josh suggested IONQ and OKLO might be the types of stock activity Ken is talking about.

Joe said of ORCL, "When stocks go parabolic, there is never usually a good outcome to that."

Bill sorta takes both sides of owning PLTR

In the category of Big Winners, Judge on Thursday's (9/25) Halftime Report asked Bill Baruch about PLTR and its "7th straight quarter of double-digit gains."

Bill said he thinks it has a 230 forward multiple (the screen said 245). Bill said it's a "long-term holding" but is only a 1.75% position.

Judge brought up retail investors and what they might be doing. Josh Brown said there are different kinds of retail investors, Robinhood investors may be one thing and Schwab investors may be another.

Judge said Ken Griffin predicts 1 more cut this year, and that Ken expects tariff inflation is still "coming." Joe Terranova noted there's still pressure to the downside on the dollar.

Bill trimmed MU, saying it's doing great but a lot of good news was "priced in." He also trimmed TSLA and CCJ. Josh pointed out how CCJ is linked to the AI trade. Bill trimmed FCX and said the big mine problem sent "shock waves" through the industry.

Jim Lebenthal bought more DAL, a stock he's always bullish on.

Judge told Santoli that Ken Griffin has "no, uh, filter" (snicker).

Matteo’s and 388

Josh Brown on Thursday's (9/25) Halftime Report said he bought PSX, suggesting a breakout is coming, even though he was kind of lukewarm talking about it the other day; he said 4 directors were buying stock over the summer.

Judge then turned to Joe Terranova to recount, for some reason, Joe's laborious experience recently with refiners. Joe said he kept PSX and VLO, then went on to describe the clash of wills between PSX and Elliott. Jim Lebenthal said Elliott "had an absolute home run in Marathon Petroleum 5 years ago."

Josh recently bought EA, which Joe already owns. Josh said he and Joe golf together and "we both eat at, uh, Matteo's and 388." Joe cracked that Josh looks at the JOET to find the "best stocks in the market."

The crew chuckled about auction prices for famous tennis balls.

Joe sold TW and BR. "About 5 weeks ago, I got greedy," Joe said, explaining he lost about 12% on those names buying personally. But TW is still in the JOET.

Judge said CME got a Citi upgrade to buy. Josh isn't long but thinks it "looks great."

AMZN may have done a settlement, but Josh joked that nobody really cancels Prime.

Joe said a day ago that ‘Everything we do is about speculation’

Judge on Thursday's (9/25) Halftime Report said Reuters reported that "an AI-selected stock basket outperformed the U.K.'s top funds."

And you can imagine that the Halftime crew of money managers had some thoughts about that.

Josh Brown shrugged, "Everyone's using ChatGPT." Judge protested, "This isn't looking something up; this is using AI to actually make your portfolio, and it beat the U.K.'s top funds."

Josh pointed out that the endgame is that everyone adopts the same tactic and so the advantage becomes "completely nullified."

But Joe Terranova said "it opens up the opportunity for the retail community." Joe said the "institutional algorithms" pick up on what retail is seeing.

Jim Lebenthal pointed to the chart Judge was showing and noted the size of the drop in the ChatGPT chart in April and indicated that in selloffs, these types of programs suck. Judge said, "You gotta defend your turf."

Jim's Final Trade was C, as it often has been recently.

Stop the presses — the Chicago Bears are now worth $8.9 billion

Honestly, we can't fathom CNBC's bizarre interest in purported NFL team values.

But Ozanian was at it again on Wednesday's (9/24) Fast Money, explaining what the minority interest in the Chicago Bears means to the valuation.

We can't figure in the slightest how this supposed knowledge — what an NFL team is worth, on paper — matters to virtually anyone. If you're a fan of a team and the valuation is less than you thought, are you going to root less hard at the next game?

Or if you're a fan and you want to buy the team, does Ozanian's reporting convince you that it's affordable? (Even though it might not be for sale for decades, if ever?)

Furthermore, Ozanian's numbers are really based on nothing more than the last sales price. It's like high-end real estate — a property going for $30 million probably means a better one nearby will go for more, but not necessarily.

Earlier in the day, on the Halftime Report, Judge said Alex Sherman had a scoop that the NFL might renegotiate its media deals "as soon as next year," for those waiting with bated breath.

Alex said Roger Goodell thinks the NFL's current deals are "leaving money on the table." And that media companies might be interested in paying more money to extend NFL rights to keep Big Tech biggies out of it for longer.

A couple hours later on Power Lunch, Sully told Alex that the NFL "must know" that AAPL, AMZN and NFLX will offer a "stupid high" number.

In other sports news, CNBC maintains its recent obsession with the Golf Channel (Versant thing), as Todd Lewis reported on the Ryder Cup from Farmingdale, but Todd's mike partially went out at the end when he was talking about what a big sports event this is.

Dom Chu said this will be the "biggest Ryder Cup in history." Dom even said Rao's is opening a pop-up.

‘Party on for the next 2 years’

Judge opened Wednesday's (9/24) Halftime Report noting Jerome Powell said a day earlier that stocks seem "fairly highly valued" and that Ed Yardeni is calling that comment Powell's "irrational exuberance moment."

Judge asked Joe Terranova if that terminology is correct.

Joe waffled like L'eggo my Egg'o, first stating, "Not sure that he wanted it to be an irrational exuberance moment because the irrational exuberance moment was followed by many years of price appreciation."

Judge cut in, "That's part of the point; does it- does it even matter if it is."

Joe elaborated, "Chairman (sic actual title is just 'Chair') Powell has done an excellent job as Federal Reserve chairman (sic)," but as to whether the market is highly valued, Joe will turn to the market itself. Joe said it's "obvious that there are some extremes when you're talking about valuation."

Shannon Saccocia said Powell's comment is an "acknowledgment" that they're cutting into a "reaccelerating economic environment."

Judge said Bloomberg is claiming a "frothy and frisky rally in profitless tech grows as the Fed eases."

Jenny Harrington said there's places of froth and places of no froth. Jenny's been in California and Rhode Island in the last 2 and a half weeks. "Absolutely nobody feels good," Jenny revealed, at least the "almost 20 clients that I met with. ... Everybody has that sense of froth."

Judge said Krinsky is predicting some high fliers will crack. Judge and Jenny quibbled over the definition of "speculating," and Jenny even mentioned "Greater Fool Theory."

Joe stated, "Everything we do is about speculation. That's what the capital markets are." Joe said "there's probably a correction coming in the intermediate term" but "it doesn't mean it's 1999!" (Which makes us wonder when or if Judge will ever revisit Weiss' frequent "intermediate term" warning from back in April and May.)

Jenny said she's been telling clients, "I think it's party on for the next 2 years," because of growing earnings and an administration that's interested in supporting asset prices.

Much later in the show, Santoli correctly referred to "Chair Powell."

Joe says Jenny is taking his ‘you’ investing comments personally when he wasn’t talking about Jenny specifically

Judge asked on Wednesday's (9/24) Halftime Report if AI power stocks are extended. Shannon Saccocia was heard to say, "If you're dogmatic about valuations Scott, you are missing the point on some of these areas."

Joe Terranova pointed to Tony Pasquariello's "wonderful snippet" about not fighting the market, which is favoring AI names. Joe said, "Do you really wanna fight the secular tailwind that is building for the sector?"

"No that's why I own them," said Jenny Harrington.

"You're taking it personal; I'm not talking about you specifically," Joe said.

"Yeah yeah," Jenny said.

Judge wondered why Joe was talking about Constellation when GE Vernova was up a lot more.

Judge is pretty good at pinning Joe down on JOET rules

Apparently now China stocks are back "in," according to the discussion on Wednesday's (9/24) Halftime Report.

Joe Terrranova admitted, "I screwed up the China trade ... got out way too soon." He said he should've recognized that people were still "skeptical" as technicals improved.

Judge wondered why China names aren't in the JOET. Joe explained that "a lot of those names have issues" as far as determining actual metrics. Judge asked if those names are allowed in the ETF. Joe said that based on the ETF rules, they wouldn't "qualify."

Jenny Harrington said big banks don't pay "high enough" dividends for her. Judge said big banks are at record highs.

Joe indicated gold and silver, and apparently copper, are going higher (although FCX wasn't higher Wednesday).

We really want to hear more people on CNBC talk about how much AI SPENDING there’s going to be ...

Judge on Wednesday's (9/24) Halftime Report tried asking Joe Terranova about chip equipment companies doing buybacks.

Joe pointed out that Berkshire Hathaway isn't doing it. Judge pointed out that they're talking about chip equipment names. Joe insisted Berkshire is "important to mention." Joe said buybacks aren't the reason for owning the chip equipment names; it's about the AI buildout.

Judge also said UBER and SCHW both have announced buybacks. Jenny Harrington said it's "not surprising" for UBER, a little more surprising for SCHW, but in a "beautiful use of AI," she looked up buyback info and found there are "so many out there."

Jenny surprised Judge by suggesting buybacks aren't much of a catalyst. Jenny also pointed out that sometimes companies get credit for announcements of buyback programs even if all the stock doesn't get bought.

Sully stumps Kristina on a college nickname

After the A Block on Wednesday's (9/24) Halftime Report, Judge brought in Angelica Peebles to discuss the 8-year-old Tylenol post that's now circulating.

Judge said as people saw it, "We were wondering if it was even real. Because sometimes you just never know." Angelica said, "Kenvue is not denying it here."

Judge ran out of time for Final Trades but did manage to get in a soundbite from everyone.

On Power Lunch, Kristina Partsinevelos reported on the retirement of Loyola (Chicago) University's 106-year-old Sister Jean. Sully said "she's 287 years old in TV news anchor years," then told Kristina "I'll give you $100 in bitcoin right now if you can tell me the nickname of the Loyola University sports teams."

Kristina guessed, "The Suns (snicker)? The Phoenix Rising (snicker)? I don't know." Sully pointed out it's "Ramblers." Kristina complained, "You don't even have a hundred dollars in- or a hundred bitcoins. You don't have any."

Mag is up to 10 now (a/k/a parables of parent-teacher conferences)

Tuesday's (9/23) Halftime Report was deftly guest-hosted by Frank Holland.

The only thing is, it was kind of a boring day in the markets, panelists didn't have much to debate (so much for that "controversial" U.S. government investment in INTC that Larry Kudlow doesn't seem to care for), and the last 20 minutes of the show were preempted by Jerome Powell remarks.

Nevertheless, Joe Terranova said the market seems to be "vacillating" between the "Mag 10" and the "490-plus." Josh Brown pointed out that money managers have to stay in the big stocks and aren't going to try to trade every nuance in market momentum. Joe said his point is that it doesn't have to be a "binary choice."

Jim Lebenthal wondered if the strength of the Mag 7 doesn't just extend to the rest of the market.

Frank cited a Bain report on a projected 2030 AI funding shortfall (Zzzzzzz); Jim said 2030 is a "long way away." Jim said he wants to avoid the "parable of the grasshopper and the ant." Jim said he doesn't know what inning the AI trade is in, other than it's not the 9th inning.

In the category of Josh's Best Stocks in the Market (sic last 3 words redundant), Josh said VLO is "No. 1" in the energy sector, then touted MPC and BKR and halfheartedly mentioned PSX and CVX, to the point we wondered how they could possibly be included under the category of Best Stocks in the Market. Joe said Josh's review of these energy stocks reminds him of "parent-teacher night" when Joe was in school.

As Frank prepared to cut away to Jerome Powell's remarks in Rhode Island ("She came from Providence — the one in Rhode Island ...") (That's not what Jerome Powell or Frank Holland said; that's what Don Henley said), Jim Lebenthal said the Fed is generally "not proactive," but "hopefully they'll get it right this time." (But what was the "last time"?)

Joe predicts $1 trillion IPO

Much of Monday's (9/22) Halftime Report was devoted to Jon Fortt's interview with Jensen and Sam to discuss the NVDA-OpenAI partnership (Zzzzzzzz).

Jensen told Jon the deal is "additive" to forecasts already shared with Wall Street. Sam mentioned "curing cancer" at least once. (Show us the cures, please.)

After the interview, Judge said the mention of "additive" was "almost like a, de facto upping the guidance right here on live television, sort of a, of a statement." Bryn Talkington said we're in a "very special moment of time."

Sarat Sethi said he "bought low" in ORCL and is "trimming it back now." Joe Terranova said ORCL is in the JOET; "don't fight it."

Pointing to OpenAI, Joe suggested a "trillion-dollar IPO" is "coming."

Bryn said it's "not '99" but "'96."

Joe: Seems like cash has been sitting on the sidelines since the Great Financial Crisis

Judge on Monday's (9/22) Halftime Report said David Kostin hiked his 12-month S&P target to 7,200. And Tony Pasquariello apparently says not to chase the market nor step in front of the "mega cap tech freight train." Joe Terranova said that's exactly the "disposition" everyone has right now.

Stephanie Link marveled about the amount of buybacks and called it "really material."

Sarat Sethi said fixed income spreads are the "tightest that they've ever been," so people will stay in equities.

Judge suggested there's a lot of cash on the sidelines, evidenced by a WSJ article. Joe took issue with the notion of cash on the "sidelines," suggesting "it seems as though that cash has been sitting on the sidelines since the Great Financial Crisis." Joe suggested, maybe "the world is just getting wealthier."

Joe also suggested a "chase" into year-end.

Bryn Talkington trimmed IONQ, which Judge said is "up 79% in a month." Bryn said it's gone "completely vertical" and that she's in it to make money and thus is trimming, but would buy more if it pulls back.

Joe again said NFLX is in a "pause" since the end of June and once again said NFLX and SPOT are "trading with a very high correlation." (This writer is long NFLX and SPOT.)

For a Final Trade, Bryn suggested buying BMNR and selling the November 80 calls for $6.10. Joe's Final Trade was UBER, which reached the $100 level that he predicted, oh, within the last couple of weeks.

How might the Jimmy Kimmel situation affect the Iger ‘succession’ plan

This page has long been skeptical about The Wall Disney Co.'s stated intention (numerous times over many years) of conducting some sort of typical succession process for its CEO. (Hit PgDn going back basically forever.)

Which basically relates to, There's nobody else whom company honchos (including the current CEO) really trust to handle this company, so while they say they want/need a succession, they really don't know what to do.

(One tip: Any company that has to make the succession into a big process clearly kind of dreads that succession.)

Right at the moment, there's a crisis at ABC.

There could be an argument that whatever the outcome, someone will be ticked, so now's the perfect time for a transition, have Bob make whatever polarizing decision that will be criticized somewhere, and then he can just step down and take the criticism with him and the company with someone else can immediately pick up where it left off.

But there also could be an even stronger argument that "OMG ... this is gonna be a tumultuous 3 and a half years, and we need the steadiest hand possible steering the ship." And then we end up with James Gorman announcing another 3-year extension with a promise/vow to keep looking ...

We'll see.

‘There are going to always be winners and losers in any situation’

Friday's (9/19) Halftime Report, guest hosted by Frank Holland as Judge presumably returns from the West Coast, was chock-ful of opinions on a range of stocks.

Permabull Stephanie Link has decided, "We're set up really well into the end of the year."

"Inflation is relatively tame," Jason Snipe observed. Jason expects more of "the price action that we've, we've already seen so far this quarter."

Frank suggested a lot of economic spending is by the "top end" related to the "AI revoluation." Frank then drew a stark portrait of the economy, stating, "I think if you just walk around, you can see people on Main Street ... businesses are shutting down; restaurants are slower. I mean, you can see it when you go out." Stephanie said, "There are going to always be winners and losers in any situation."

Stephanie actually called AVGO "a little rich" and wouldn't buy it now.

Stephanie bought more COF.

Stephanie bought COIN, kind of a curious name for someone who until buying AMZN years ago always professed to be a "value" investor.

Stephanie called UNH a "great 2026 story."

Kevin Simpson said the Baird target hike on TSLA from 320 to 548 is "a little bit generous," but TSLA and Waymo and Zoox are "changing the way we think about mobility."

Stephanie touted cybersecurity in general, and Jason touted PANW and the Cyberark deal.

Jason and Kevin are long AXP. Kevin said AXP a day ago raised its platinum card fee by $200 a year, and he doubts any card holders will even "consider" switching to a different card.

Shortly after Halftime, on Power Lunch, Eamon Javers told Sully that the White House says the notion of Scott Bessent being both Fed Chair and Treasury secretary at the same time has never been considered.

Kevin notes the last time gold had a year this big, inflation was actually kind of a lot worse

As is typical, Friday's (9/19) Halftime Report included a lot of Kevin Simpson call-writing.

Kevin wrote covered calls on AAPL, a 250 strike that expires in 2 weeks, for "about a dollar and a half." Kevin also wrote covered calls on NVDA but said it's "anybody's guess" as to whether INTC keeps moving short term.

Kevin in a "covered call 101" said he wrote a 335 covered call on JPM that expires in 3 weeks and brought in $1.40. "It annualizes at a 6% option premium," Kevin explained.

Kevin wrote calls on TMUS and LLY.

Kevin, who's long AEM, was asked by guest host Frank Holland about gold. (This writer is long AEM.) Kevin said of gold's spot price, "Why can't it go to 4,000," and pointed out that this is gold's best year since 1979, though inflation was "13%" back then, so "where that similarity starts and stops I'm not exactly sure." Kevin thinks AEM's run can continue; "I like the name a lot."

Jenny says gold ‘entirely dependent on other people’s behavior’

Judge on Thursday's (9/18) Halftime Report replayed Jeffrey Gundlach saying a day earlier at DoubleLine HQ that 25% in gold is "not excessive."

Jenny Harrington, who could play Jessica Chastain in a movie, chuckled, "C'mon!," saying her response was, "Really."

Jenny explained, "I would personally never put 25% of a client's portfolio into gold," partly because "gold doesn't generate income" and that gold is "speculation" and not "investment."

Jenny then curiously said that gold is "entirely dependent on other people's behavior and what they want to make that share price go to."

Well, that's a curious comment ... "entirely dependent on other people's behavior" ... isn't the valuation of any asset dependent on people's behavior? Or are stocks somehow guaranteed to trade in some kind of P.E. ratio range?

Note that Jenny simply referred to "gold." Jenny's comments kind of made "gold" sound like a single stock. Neither Jenny nor Jeffrey (we think) specified exactly how to be long gold. You can buy collector coins, gold bars, jewelry, or use ETFs. Or play the miners. Or maybe there are other ways.

Joe Terranova said the JOET has NEM and that gold has momentum. Joe mentioned the lower dollar and rate cuts as tailwinds; "that trend is not over."

‘Usually 1 year out of maybe 10 where small caps tend to do well’

On the second day of his West Coast swing, Judge was at One Market in San Francisco on Thursday (9/18), hosting the Halftime Report from that little studio that can only accommodate about 2 people on screen at the same time. (This time, Judge didn't have any panelists/guests with him at One Market.)

Josh Brown stated, "Small caps and financials are really the playbook." Josh said the Russell hasn't had a new high for over 900 days, the "2nd longest streak in the history of the stock market."

Josh also talked up HBAN and declared there's been "no multiple expansion" in financials.

Joe Terranova said that aside from not fighting the Fed, you don't want to fight the calendar either; there could be a "possible chase for performance."

Joe praised the JOET for taking an overweight position in financials in January 2024 (which doesn't help anyone right now), which apparently is now 35% of the holdings.

Malcolm Ethridge acknowledged Joe and Josh's points about financials and small caps but said he doesn't necessarily want to own banks that are "below the Big 6."

On the other hand, Judge said Jenny Harrington's "favorite" and "only" banking name is COLB, which we're not sure we've ever heard mentioned on the show. "The big banks just don't fit our strategies," Jenny explained, saying they don't have the free cash flow yields that Jenny's shop requires.

Josh said 7% mortgages have been "crippling" to the housing market for 4 years and that 29-to-31-year-olds have been "locked out of that market." Josh mentioned RKT, HD, SHW as plays on an unlocking of the mortgage market and said the XHB's 10% YTD gain so far is "nothing" compared with where it could go. Malcolm is also long RKT and called it "especially attractive" given the deals it's making.

Joe said there's strong momentum in DHR.

Malcolm shrugged that he doubts we'll be talking about small caps "knocking the cover off the ball" over the next month. He said, "It's usually 1 year out of maybe 10 where small caps tend to do well." Josh conceded there's been "numerous false breakouts," but this time, it's a broad breakout, and there are times small caps outperform the S&P.

Ways to lose $18 billion

Julia Boorstin on Thursday's (9/18) Halftime reported that the hot new META product is Ray-Ban glasses.

Jenny Harrington said that on a "personal note," she doesn't want everyone walking around wearing those glasses, and she said, "Meta lost $18 billion last year in reality labs."

Josh Brown bought EA, saying it technically looks "great" and that there's "exciting" fundamentals. He said EXPE is "shaping up for an entry."

Joe Terranova said WMT will be a "clear leader in agentic AI for ecommerce." Jenny called ZBH a "great place to be" without being in the "nosebleedy" parts of the market.

Josh said LYV "repeatedly" faces complaints when people get shut out of hot tickets but that the company still does a great job.

Josh's Final Trade was CRWD. (This writer previously was long CRWD but had no position on Thursday, unfortunately.)

Jeffrey says the new guy’s interest in 5 cuts this year is ‘a little bit disturbing’

Jeffrey Gundlach told Judge at DoubleLine on Wednesday's Closing Bell that it's the "37th time" they've done a post-Fed interview.

Jeffrey observed that there's a range of opinions on the Fed. "The new guy wants 5 cuts between now and year end. I think that that's a little bit disturbing for, uh, the inflation outlook," Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey and Judge talked a bit about gold; Gundlach said gold "almost certainly" will close over $4,000 this year. Jeffrey said, "I don't really think that bitcoin is, uh, is a very good investment." Jeffrey predicted a rate cut "at the next meeting." Late on Closing Bell, Joe Terranova pointed out the dip, and bounce, in the S&P late in the afternoon.

Who’s going to be the next DIS CEO? (a/k/a Or should we just assume Bob’s getting a 3-year extension) (cont’d)

On Wednesday's (9/17) pre-Fed Halftime Report, Joe Terranova shrugged off the Lyft-Waymo deal.

Steve Weiss called it "nothing more than competitive tension," which apparently (if we understand his remarks correctly) means affecting the "leverage" of UBER with Waymo.

Weiss went on to stress that he doesn't think LYFT is in the same league. Guest host Frank Holland said he's got "both apps on my phone," and he takes the cheaper one. Weiss said "I never look at Lyft" except in L.A., because in general, "the time for the ride is much longer." Joe said Wednesday's LYFT move is "nothing more than a trade." (We should note that Steve Grasso in recent months has touted LYFT as a catch-up trade.)

Weiss yet again made the case for NFLX, even regardless of what Paramount/SkyDance/Warner do. (This writer is long NFLX.) Jim Lebenthal yet again made the case for DIS, stating "streaming is profitable." Weiss stressed that NFLX doesn't have to deal with theme parks and cruise ships.

Joe said WMT is "on its way to a trillion-dollar market cap."

Jim said ABBV has been one of health care's winners; "You can buy it right here."

Jim said C should go to 1.2 or 1.3 times.

Boredom strikes Jim

Guest host Frank Holland on Wednesday's (9/17) Halftime Report (Judge was in California at DoubleLine) initially went to Steve Liesman and asked if there's a chance of 50 basis points (even though nobody really believed there was). (This review was posted late Wednesday afternoon.) Steve didn't respond but motioned to someone that "I just lost" apparently his connection.

So Frank turned to Joe Terranova at Post 9. Joe said "I think you get 25 basis points," and there could potentially be 3 dissents.

Reconnected, Steve Liesman said 50 is not "where the Fed is going."

Liz Thomas offered, "The dot plot itself probably starts to look more dovish."

Frank asked Steve Weiss, what if there's a "hawkish cut." If so, Weiss predicted a "knee-jerk reaction down" but then "it's off to the races."

Weiss said, "This market is a market that's unconcerned with valuation or fundamentals. It's only concerned with direction and feeds off direction."

"You don't fight the Fed. Pure and simple," Weiss concluded.

Despite his gripes, Weiss eventually said the market "looks OK."

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal declared he's "never been more bored in advance of a Fed meeting."

Joe apparently was questioning why Jim wasn't cheerleading more for a broadening into small caps. Jim said Wednesday's Fed meeting "isn't the substenance (sic pronunciation) (apparently meant 'sustenance')" to lift any segment of the market higher.

Weiss cracked, "I'd just like to agree with Jim on something — I wasn't bored until he spoke."

Liz warned, "The most dangerous time to trade is between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Eastern time" on Fed decision days.

Not just ‘James,’ but ‘Xavier’

Jim Lebenthal told guest host Courtney Reagan on Tuesday's (9/16) Halftime Report that a "lot" of the presumed rate cut is "probably priced in."

Stephanie Link said the Fed "probably should ease" even though it's "from a position of strength in the economy." (On Fast Money, Courtney Garcia said, "Realistically, the Fed is cutting into a really strong economy." Dan Nathan though said he's not so sure it's a "strong economy.") Of course, the 4th quarter will be "quite strong," Stephanie said.

Permabull Stephanie said, "If we sell on the news, I'm buyin'," as if anyone would ever think otherwise.

Stephanie at one point said "grinded." According to Merriam-Webster online, the past tense of "grind" is "ground."

The audience could hear Josh Brown, but Courtney apparently couldn't, so while Josh was saying "James Xavier Lebenthal" for some reason (he pronounced it "Ex-avier"), Courtney said "I don't think we can hear you" and cut back to Stephanie.

Moments later, Josh said everyone knows there are always "pockets of euphoria" in a market such as this, but "earnings have kept pace with the gains" on average.

"It's just really hard to paint the bearish picture here," Jim said. "Can an asteroid hit the earth? Of course it can," Jim admitted.

Taking a page from Steve Weiss, who wasn't on the show Tuesday, Stephanie talked up QXO and "rock star" Brad Jacobs. Josh talked up RKT.

Courtney said Jim should take a "victory lap" on C. Jim said "there's more to come" from C.

Josh said sometimes downgrades happen, and there is still a cloud over LYV, but he's staying long; "I think the stock trades higher."

Finally addressing a subject that Judge promised a week ago, Jim said of ADBE, "I'm sticking with it for now," adding "it may very well be bottoming here."

Josh almost sang the Jardiance theme song before making the case for JNJ.

Joe basically tells you that TSLA went up because it went up

The A Block on Monday's (9/15) Halftime Report, guest hosted by gorrrrrjus Courtney Reagan, ended a few minutes earlier than usual.

Immediately after, Courtney asked Joe Terranova about making TSLA his Final Trade on Thursday. (Note: It was a good trade.)

Joe explained, "I said, 'It is a trade.'" Joe said Monday he wanted to "walk through" what he was seeing, though he said Steve Weiss "is gonna cringe during this."

Joe said he has "respect" (snicker) for Weiss' "strategy" and demanded "respect" for his own approach, at least "for a moment."

Weiss chuckled, "As long as it's only for a moment."

Joe said that "trend-following systems" are real and a "powerful effect" and noted that TSLA "gaps above 340" on Sept. 4, which was a "trigger signal." Joe said everyone then looked to the May 29 high of 367, leading to the breakout; "this is a classic momentum move."

Joe said Elon Musk made his big new purchase on Friday, "after all of this actually unfolded."

Joe said TSLA also had 3% short interest, largest in the Mag 7.

Bryn Talkington has also made a lot of noise about the stock and was on Monday's show. Weiss admitted "Bryn's been great in the stock" and that he lost their debate about his shorting the stock a while back (we can't recall exactly when) but he said it's a "cult stock" with fundamentals "atrophying" and the "valuation makes zero, zero sense."

Bryn said she "couldn't agree more" with Joe's technicals. Bryn said the "geofencing" with robotaxis is getting bigger.

Vote of confidence for Gemini

Steve Weiss, whose typical excuses for why the market's going up generally include 1) a new class of investors who buy every dip or 2) the market goes up 90% of the time in general, was asked on Monday's (9/15) Halftime Report by guest host Courtney Reagan about Alphabet.

Weiss said investors are "buying momentum ... that's just the trend in the market; the market just goes higher. Earnings don't mean much."

Weiss said the "controversy" over whether Google has AI seems to have "subsided."

Bryn Talkington though said it's "more than just momentum" for Alphabet. Bryn suggested Gemini is going to be a "real contributor" to Google. Weiss said Gmail has only recently started increasing pricing.

Joe Terranova suggested the antitrust ruling "is a massive clearing event" and the reason for the momentum. Weiss pointed out there were "nice moves before that."

Courtney said she couldn't believe they went 13 minutes before mentioning NVDA.

Asked about MSFT, which brought him an argument with Judge last week (see below), Weiss said the stock's a "permanent compounder" but has times where it lags, "and you just have to fight through them."

Weiss is actually wondering if Tim Cook is ‘going to survive this cycle’

Joe Terranova on Monday's (9/15) Halftime Report was back to talking about "equal weighted," a subject he hasn't mentioned for weeks or months.

Steve Weiss was talking about AAPL not "innovating," which he admits he's talked about "for years" and was "disagreed with" but now he says it's the "main narrative."

Weiss even wondered, "Is Tim Cook going to survive this cycle, or are they gonna bring in somebody. In the meantime, they continue to lose creative people," and he thinks it's "overvalued."

Ted’s only 61

Mike Santoli on Monday's (9/15) Halftime Report was asked about Donald Trump's idea that companies should report twice a year, not every quarter.

Santoli said it's an "interesting" idea but not one the world is "clamoring for." Shannon Saccocia suggested it would be a reversal of a trend toward more transparency. Steve Weiss impressively pointed out that such a policy change would hurt HOOD by reducing the amount of heavy trading events around stocks. Joe Terranova suggested that maybe some entities, the Fed, for example, actually gives us too much information. We hadn't thought about that, but that's a tremendous point. Weiss said he's been advocating for the Fed to "say less."

Weiss is "glad" that BAC is addressing succession issues.

Joe said NFLX since June 30 has been in a "corrective, uh, type of behavior," and that SPOT has had the same kind of "pause" and at some point, there will be a "refresh" and resumption of bull trend. (This writer is long NFLX and SPOT.) Weiss noted NFLX sold off on the Paramount news, but it's a "permanent compounder." He said he'd like to see a "succession plan" for NFLX.

For Final Trades, Weiss predicted FTAI goes "above 200," and Joe said UBER will get to $100.

Weiss: NFLX only having a ‘momentary dislocation’

Judge late in Friday's (9/12) Halftime Report said NFLX is down 5% on the week and attributed it to the Paramount/Warner Bros. activity and said Barron's is suggesting a potential Paramount/Warner Bros. deal can hurt NFLX. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Steve Weiss said you "can't dismiss it completely," but there's room for more than 1 streamer and NFLX will "always be on top."

Weiss said it's more of an issue for "all the other streaming services." He said NFLX is having a "momentary dislocation."

Kevin Simpson said he agrees and sees this is as a "buying opportunity" for NFLX and he wouldn't sell.

A little later, gorrrrrrrjus Laura Martin opined on The Exchange about Paramount/Warner and didn't really directly address the impact to NFLX but indicated this would be a great move for both Paramount and Warner, up to $24 a share; she said there's lots of overlap.

Judge could’ve just showed a chart comparing Nasdaq 100 to Russell 2000 (any time frame), would’ve saved a lot of airtime

We really wanted to hit the delete button here.

But because we took a few moments to transcribe the mind-numbing dialogue about small caps on Friday's (9/12) Halftime Report, we figured we're sort of obligated to post it.

Steve Weiss told Judge he'd "stay big" in the market because "the smaller caps, they're gonna be hit a lot harder by a slowing economy, and that's what we're seeing."

Judge then wondered why the Russell is up "5% over the last month" if the economy is slowing.

Weiss first said, "Well these are new markets," and then got around to saying small caps and stocks that may be considered junky, "they're the last ones to move."

Judge protested, "Well you just said small caps are the last ones to move. We- we both know that generally speaking, small caps are the first ones to go in, and the first ones to come out. So- but they're not the first ones to go in because they're not goin' in! They're up 5% over the last month!"

Weiss insisted, "The dynamic's in this market unlike any other cycle."

Judge said if there's a 50-point cut, that's a big bang for the buck for small caps, so there could be a "rotation." Kevin Simpson pointed out we've already seen a move in small caps before the (apparently upcoming) cutting has happened. Rob Sechan said that if they're "cutting in a benign scenario, small caps will continue to run."

Well, here's the deal ... regarding last ones in, first ones in, etc. ... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ... we don't know what time frame either person is talking about; are they talking about small caps doing great for 5 weeks or small caps doing horrid (relatively speaking) since 2023.

Yes, Judge has a point that maybe small caps are the place to be, right now, if there's a 50-point cut. Kevin has a valid point that it may already be priced in.

Kevin: 50 basis points would be ‘a little bit scary’

Judge opened Friday's (9/12) Halftime Report by continuing his theme of the expected rate cut possibly being a "sell-the-news event."

Steve Weiss explained, "It's gonna turn on what the narrative is." Weiss said that if there's a "dovish" 25-point cut, the market "goes up."

Bryn Talkington said she doesn't expect a "rip-roaring rally," but "what's been working will continue to work."

Judge asked Rob Sechan just how the rate cut can be "priced in" if the market's climbing to new highs daily. Rob said there's "a little bit of positioning there."

Despite the recent gains in the Russell 2000 cited by Judge, Kevin Simpson said to "stay big." Kevin said that a 50-basis-point cut would be a sell-the-news event because the market might find it "a little bit scary." Weiss agreed with that but said it would "spook the market" for only a "very short term," then it would keep going up.

Wonder if Ozanian has recalculated/updated his NFL team purported franchise valuations

Steve Weiss on Friday's (9/12) Halftime Report declared MSFT is "the most hated, except periodically Apple, of the Mag 7."

Judge wondered, "Why is it one of the most hated. Why does that make sense ... The stock's up more than 21% year to date, so it can't be that hated."

Weiss said to look at how much AAPL is up off its lows, but then he acknowledged that giving the "most hated" label to MSFT "may be an exaggeration." (But then who else in the Mag 7 deserves the label?) But he said MSFT is used as a "source of funds."

Rob Sechan unloaded half of his ADBE stake, though after it bounced a bit after earnings, he wondered if he made a "mistake." He said he doesn't have a lot of stocks in the portfolio that he can take losses in, so maybe ADBE helps in that regard. (Because if you save $500 in taxes while your account value drops $1,000, that's apparently a good tradeoff.) Judge promised he will "press" Jim Lebenthal (who wasn't on Friday's show) on Jim's next appearance as to whether Jim is bailing on ADBE.

Judge says Joe’s 2012 book is ‘probably still available’

Kevin Simpson on Friday's (9/12) Halftime Report bought more HD and made a joke about "Boiler Room." Rob Sechan said the "skies are clearly clearing" for that stock.

Rob said Al Michaels (who was advised to buy HD a day earlier by Josh Brown) did a "great job" of calling the Packers-Commanders game. (Maybe so, but that game was an incredibly dull pro football game. (Zzzzzzzz))

Rob bought more NRG and said there's "more room to run." It was also his Final Trade.

Bryn Talkington bought more KKR.

Kevin wrote covered calls on half of his AEM position, 3 weeks out; he got a little over $3 for it and apparently the strike price is around 160. (This writer is long AEM.)

Kevin bought more CME and said he's hoping for another special dividend.

Kevin also bought more IBM. Steve Weiss said he was just looking at that stock. Rob said it's up a lot since Rob bought it, but it's getting "pricey." In terms of a stock approach Weiss mentioned Joe Terranova's book. Judge quipped, "You should check out the book — it's probably still available."

Whew — Judge isn’t able to ask Joe for the 1-month return on UNH

Judge on Friday's (9/12) Halftime Report said UNH is having its "6th positive week" and is up 35% in a month. (Whether that means since Aug. 12, or the beginning of September, we're not going to bother to look up.)

Rob Sechan sold UNH; he credited Stephanie Link and Steve Weiss for buying it at the lows. Rob said he's owned it "a long time and experienced a lot of pain." Rob cautioned, "There's still risk in this company."

Steve Weiss conceded those risks and said it's "definitely not cheap," but he still owns it because he thinks Steve Hemsley is straightening things out.

Déjà vu with Al Michaels (except for the CLF part)

Superstar Halftime Report guest Al Michaels joined during the 41st minute of Thursday's (9/11) show and told Judge, "This is an annual treat for me. ... It's my favorite show on television."

A sensational comment, and a class act.

Al acknowledged the Super Bowl rematch on Sunday on another platform but said Thursday's game "has to be the next-best game on the schedule." (Um, we hope not.) (Because that game really stank.) (This review was posted overnight Thursday-Friday.)

Al happened to say, "I'm gonna say that this is our best schedule ever, at least at the outset."

Well, we're pretty sure that's what Al said last year. So we checked this page's archive from September 2024.

We didn't actually mention Al talking about a great Amazon Thursday night football schedule last year, so maybe it didn't happen. But we did note that 1) Judge asked Al about NFL team values (a really strange CNBC obsession) (more on this topic later) (Mike Ozanian right at this very moment is probably recalculating his 32 estimates in real time), and 2) that Al asked Josh Brown about the FAS.

Two things that coincidentally also occurred on Thursday.

(Last year, Al also carped about CLF ... which he had also carped about in 2023 ... but not on Thursday.)

Judge pointed out that Al bought EBAY last time on air when Josh Brown recommended it. Al said he was ready to buy a new recommendation from Josh. Josh suggested HD and said that, out of the Dow 30, it has "the most significant amount to gain from the 30-year mortgage rate falling." (Steve Grasso actually said the same thing on Fast Money.) Josh thinks the "ice age" in housing is "over." Al said he bought more but has owned the stock "since Arthur Blank was running the company."

Al then brought up the FAS. He said Josh called it a "day-trading stock" but he's had it for 15 years," and the graphics crew showed a chart. Al told Josh, "Josh I want you to buy some FAS now." Josh said "I'm gonna skip the triple leverage ... but I appreciate the counter-recommendation. Thank you, my friend." (This writer owned FAS into this year but has no position now.)

Judge brought up NFL valuations and asked Al if Al would "marvel as well" about NFL team valuations. Al said the San Francisco Giants in 1975 "sold for 8 million dollars."

Judge thinks Jim may have ordered the A5; Joe says Jim wasn’t at the Hunt & Fish Club

Joe Terranova, who had the "Men in Black" look going in terms of attire on Thursday's (9/11) Halftime Report, opened the show stating, "I think the message today is that what's more important to the market is the labor statistics than the inflation report itself." (Zzzzzzzzz)

Joe pointed out Thursday was a "direct opposite" of Wednesday's trading, that instead of just AI stocks surging, it was the whole market on Thursday. (Thankfully, neither Joe nor Judge nor anyone else said, "What a difference a day makes!")

Joe mentioned the "Fin 5" and identified all 5 banks. (Tip: We're guessing at least one of them is trading BELOW. TANGIBLE. BOOK.)

Josh Brown opined that, if the Fed is "sitting on the fence" as to whether to do 25 or 50, there's now more rationale for the latter.

"This is a rate-cut rally; there's no question about it. It's not about AI today," Josh explained. Judge, though, stated, "Well it's kind of- it's about kind of everything."

Jim Lebenthal acknowledged he's been trimming and raising cash but said "Don't anybody cry for me Argentina, my stocks are doing just fine, there's more than Oracle in there."

But Judge pointed out that Jim was recently saying, "maybe it was 2 weeks ago," that stocks could correct 5-10%.

Jim admitted, "I was wrong."

"I was gettin' at that," Judge said to chuckles.

Jim asserted, "This is getting fully priced in, I think, 50 basis points."

Judge said he's heard from others that "you could get a sell on the news" if 50 basis points happens.

Jim argued "there is definitely a K-shaped, uh, economy goin' on" and cited "jammed" steakhouse crowds "to the gills" as well as air travel.

Judge said Jim is "livin' large" and cut in, "Did you say I'll have the A5, is that what you told them? ... Make it the 10-ounce."

Joe jumped into the steakhouse conversation, stating, "Disappointing — he wasn't in the Hunt & Fish Club, I know that."

Jim chuckled to Judge, "Welcome back."

Jim marvels at tofu costing less than the filet mignon

On Thursday's (9/11) Halftime, Phil LeBeau reported on a DAL exec talking about a continuing slump in the "main cabin" revenue.

Phil suggested a dip for airline stocks might be in the cards given that this is the slowest time of their year.

Jim Lebenthal, who always trumpets whatever Ed Bastian says, called DAL's stock move a "head fake by the market" and pointed out that DAL "guided to the high end of their prior guidance range."

Jim stressed that the "front of the cabin" is where the money is made, and Sarat Sethi agreed. But Judge told Jim, "You can't cite TSA lines and all that stuff to try and make a bullish case on the airlines and then when there's a dropoff in the main cabin, try and argue that it doesn't matter. You know what I'm sayin'?"

Jim protested after talking about the tofu being "a lot less" than the filet mignon at the restaurant he ate at Monday, "You're saying I can't. I'm saying I can, and I am. This is the argument: That where the money is made is the front of the cabin."

Jim also said the front of the cabin has been "physically extended a lot more."

So here's the thing: Jim is correct that he can make the argument that airlines are doing great even if things are slow in the "main cabin."

But Judge has a point, that Jim often cites robust TSA numbers, but how does that jibe with trouble filling the "main cabin"?

Judge thinks someone shorting stocks might as well learn while they’re young

Late into Thursday's (9/11) Halftime Report, Judge said HOOD has a "new slate of features" including letting users short stocks.

Joe Terranova said it's a "catalyst" for shareholders. But Joe said, "In terms of shorting stocks, it is just not my strategy. I don't believe in shorting stocks," and if he wants a market short position, he'd do it by mini-S&P or mini-Nasdaq futures.

Judge sort of said in a mocking voice that "some people" will complain about whether the "younger cohort" should be shorting stocks. Judge said, "The other part of me's like, 'Well, I mean, if you don't learn now, when are you gonna learn.'" Judge said "people like Steve Weiss" employ stock shorting "on a regular basis."

Joe seems in disbelief that Jim is buying ONON

Jim Lebenthal, who on Thursday's (9/11) Halftime Report said he got out of ONON at 58, said he's "building a position" in it as it has pulled back.

Josh Brown said he started trading ONON a couple years ago but "somehow, uh, found a way to lose money on this thing." Josh said it's a "tough category" to invest in and mentioned how fashion goes in and out of style.

Jim agreed it's not a good chart and insisted he's only got a "very small position."

At that point, Joe Terranova put on his glasses to read to Jim ONON's declining revenue growth. Jim countered that EPS growth rate is better.

Joe stressed, "Revenue growth ... so why are you bringing up earnings." Jim said "Joseph" twice and said Joe wrote a "great book" (there's a review on this site) but that Jim's approach is "buy low, sell- sell high."

Jim also said the risk of fickle fashion has "gotten smaller" as the company has gotten bigger.

Judge then told Joe that companies can't be expected to maintain high level of revenue growth; "look at the megacaps; you pick those apart too?"

Sarat Sethi chimed in that ONON is a "brand." Jim agreed and said it's not a "fad." Judge scoffed, "I don't know too many people arguing that it's a, a, a 'fad' at this point either."

Joe: Beware of midterms

Looking a ways into the future on Thursday's (9/11) Halftime Report, Joe "Men in Black" Terranova stated, "Markets don't like midterm election years," so that's something to think about "later in the fall."

Josh Brown cautioned about next week: "You might not like the rhetoric that comes along with the cut."

Judge said DA Davidson is "unimpressed" by AAPL's recent strategy. Sarat Sethi said AAPL stock did what it typically does heading into an event; "It ran up into it," then experienced a little selloff.

Josh suggested KLAR is one of many companies in the buy now, pay later space and there might be "cheaper" ways to play it.

Joe sold MPC but kept VLO and PSX. (Zzzzzz)

Someone bought ORCL at 139 ... but someone else bought it at 86!!

Guest host Frank Holland on Wednesday's (9/10) Halftime Report called ORCL "just amazing."

Joe Terranova said the "natural reaction" to a gain like ORCL's "is to automatically think you can take the other side" in anticipation of "some form of mean reversion."

But Joe said it's an AI market, so "You should not be outthinking yourself" and don't try to short it.

Joe went on to take a victory lap on the JOET adding ORCL in July 2024 at 139, which doesn't really help anyone with a decision now. Joe said "parabolic moves are very tempting" or sometimes "scary," but it's probably best to "take a step back and observe for a little bit."

Jason Snipe declared, "This theme is alive and well."

Frank called Jim Lebenthal a "paragon of patience." Jim said he bought ORCL at 86 "2½ years ago," a recollection that doesn't help anyone now. Jim said that rather than "just pounding my chest," he wants to "draw a conclusion," which is that he doesn't see a pullback "anytime soon."

For those looking to duplicate Jim's great trade, Jim said, "I do think Cisco Systems looks like Oracle 2, maybe 3 years ago." (We think it was around 10 years ago that Jim was saying CSCO was the MSFT of 5 years earlier.)

Joe then delivered an ominous message, at least it should've been ominous to certain other panelists who weren't on Wednesday's show. "Quite candidly, if you haven't participated, you're kinda sitting on the sidelines for a party that's been going on for the better part of the last 2 years, and you might've just missed it."

Joining S&P apparently bad for TTD

Jim Lebenthal on Wednesday's (9/10) Halftime Report said he's not going to sell AAPL, though he "really" doesn't think it's going to do anything like ORCL did.

Joe Terranova said he's got a "modest position" in AAPL but not "extreme excitement" (snicker).

Joe actually said "there is the potential for an end-of-year run-up in small caps (snicker)." Jason Snipe said "no doubt about it," there'll be some kind of small-cap run-up.

Joe also mentioned one of his favorite recent topics, regional banks. Later in the show, Joe listed CFG and RF as perhaps the top regional banks.

Joe praised HOOD for its "very strong team around Vlad" though it still has the "stigma of being crypto-oriented."

Joe said not to buy TTD; "It's almost as if that inclusion in the S&P 500 was the worst possible thing that could happen for that company."

Joe said NEM is managing its business a lot better as gold rises, and has "multiple tailwinds." Jason said UNH has a little momentum behind it.

Joe gave a speech about buying insurance stocks during 2023, but he said it's now a "weaker environment for insurance companies."

Jason mentioned ETN is becoming sort of an AI play.

Judge seems to think that making ‘all’ of your decisions based on valuation is ‘the wrong move’

Judge, casual in golf shirt at Future Proof in Huntington Beach for the Halftime Report on Tuesday (9/9), said UBS "had a really interesting note today" that says "tech valuations, while higher, may not matter as much right now," and ... this is the biggest point ... "History shows that an elevated P.E. alone rarely dictates short-term market direction."

Then, Judge appeared to be making a point while maybe couching it by seeming to attribute it to Halftime panelists: "I can't tell you how many times you guys have said stuff like that, right. Valuation is not insignificant. But if you're making all of your investment decisions based on valuation, you're making the wrong move."

Well, first of all, the reference to "you guys" is curious, because 4 Halftime panelists (one of whom was at Huntington Beach) are obsessed with valuation and talk about nothing but. At least 3 others (one of whom was at Huntington Beach), by contrast, regularly point out exactly what UBS is saying, albeit in stronger terms.

So we're not really sure whom Judge was addressing with "you guys."

Judge followed up by claiming, "Valuations DO matter if everything around megacap tech for example starts to slow down." That's an equally curious statement. In that instance, it's not the valuations that would cause people to sell shares, it's the declining economic outlook that would cause people to sell shares.

Until Judge settles the issue of who on his panel is right and who's wrong about valuations, he should refrain from pronouncements indicating any kind of consensus on the subject.

Rick Rieder (kinda) claims he was misquoted, then basically repeats the quote

Judge on Tuesday's (9/9) on-location Halftime Report at Future Proof introduced Rick "open collar" (that'd be an interesting look for the Fed) Rieder, saying Rick "recently called the current investing environment one of the best he's ever seen."

Rick immediately protested, "By the way, I think that quote went crazy in terms of people repeating it. (Unclear, maybe 'they're' or 'you're'; Rick speaks kind of choppily) takin' a little bit out of context."

But then Rick went on to explain "why I think it's the best environment" and basically affirm his previous comment anyway, adding "There's so much to do" in this market.

Rick said the Fed will cut; he thinks it should "go 50" but he thinks they'll go 25.

Rick said it's an "unbelievable honor" to be mentioned as a possible Fed chief.

In a great question about the Fed, Judge asked Rick, "Have you had your interview yet?" Rick protested, "I cannot, uh, I can't- I can't talk about that." (Translation: We think that means the answer is "yes.")

In a curious word usage, Rick said Fed independence is "superior, in terms of importance," but there are "creative things that you can do." (Translation: Wall Street should trust me and the White House should like me.)

In still more curious word usage, Rick stated, "I always find it hard interpolating what the market is telling you." That sent us scrambling to the dictionary. There is an example where Rick's use of "interpolating" is a correct word, but the gut feeling here is that Rick kinda botched the terminology on this one.

5,000 at Future Proof (and about 4,000 trying to mug for the cameras behind Judge)

On Tuesday's (9/9) Halftime Report, Judge and Josh Brown were joined by Stephanie Link and Shannon Saccocia at Future Proof in Huntington Beach.

Stephanie said there's definitely a cut coming next week; the only question is how many more there will be.

Josh said there are "5,000 people here" at Future Proof, most in wealth management, and that the event's all outdoors.

Josh talked up EBAY but said traders may want to exit if it sinks below 86 and long-term holders may exit if it breaches 82.

Across the country, Leslie Picker conducted an interview with Jamie Dimon in a Manhattan construction zone.

Weiss calls market ‘kinda toppy’ but sees ‘no reason to sell’

Joe Terranova at the top of Monday's (9/8) Halftime Report said momentum is still "intact."

Joe acknowledged the seasonal arguments about September, but there's a "uniqueness to this September," which is that the Fed will be cutting rates while not in a "recessionary environment."

Joe said there's a "high degree of certainty" that there's a rate cut next week.

Bryn Talkington agrees with Joe that we'll get a rate cut. Bryn said earnings were up 11% vs. an expected 4%, and nobody's saying the economy's "struggling" other than a few retailers.

Bryn also said data centers are becoming a "meaningful part of GDP growth." (Well, they definitely are in the movie "Eddington.")

Steve Weiss said that we get daily info on the economy, "and lately, none of it's been good." Weiss said tariffs "aren't going higher" and may even be "taken off completely."

"What's really weakening jobs is AI," Weiss said, which he said "dovetails" with Bryn's comments on data centers, although it doesn't really dovetail.

Weiss claimed, "You've really got a bifurcated economy."

Weiss said the market is "kinda toppy," but he sees "no reason to sell."

Bryn predicted 1 rate cut, then "1 or 2 more," but she said we won't get to a full 100 basis points lower until there's an "all-clear" that tariffs were only a 1-time spike.

Jim thinks there’s more in GOOGL

Joe Terranova actually said on Monday's (9/8) Halftime Report that "regional banks are coming back into favor" and even that there's a lot of talk about "revival" of small caps, which he's "not gonna dispute" (snicker).

Jim Lebenthal said financials in general are "all working," and that he's been noticing at the NYSE that "IPOs have picked up." Guest host Frank Holland tried to convince Jim that some recent IPOs have traded poorly; Jim said the fact there's an IPO is business for Wall Street.

So many financial stocks were suggested by Jim, Joe and Bryn Talkington that it sounds like you can basically just throw darts at a board.

Frank said Wolfe is bullish on biotech. Jim talked up ABBV and VRTX. Joe again trumpeted VEEV but conceded if you're into valuation, it may not be the stock for you.

Frank said Goldman is rating gold miners a buy in Q4, which is months after Bill Baruch talked it up over the summer. Bryn owns FCX and said it could get to 52, but it's been "stuck" in the "45-46 range." (This writer is long shares in a couple gold miners not mentioned on Monday's show.)

Jim recommended GOOGL for Final Trade and said he thinks, despite already a big recent gain, it can keep going.

Frank said Judge and Josh would be at Future Proof in Huntington Beach on Tuesday. (That's the investor conference that's not boring like all the other investor conferences; there's mini golf.)

$25 T-shirts are fine

Stephanie Link on Friday's (9/5) Halftime Report started giving a lengthy analysis of LULU before arriving at a really significant point:

"No one really wants to buy a hundred-dollar T-shirt," Stephanie said.

That's basically true. Some people may actually WANT to buy such a shirt when it's a new concept, etc. But anyone who has bought a T-shirt over about, oh, $50, always ends up wondering, "Is this really any better than a $25 T-shirt?"

Stephanie said LULU has "missed the mark" on products, quality, reliability and pricing (other than that, it's doing great). And there's a lot of competition in this space; "There's just so much product out there."

Jim suggests Scott Bessent’s article may have been motivated by job-security concerns

On Friday's (9/5) Halftime Report, Steve Liesman reported on Scott Bessent's provocative article about Changes That Could Be Made to the Federal Reserve.

Steve told guest host Frank Holland, "This could be a context for action in Congress, Frank, when it comes to the Federal Reserve."

"I'm not happy to hear this news at all," said Jim Lebenthal, explaining that Scott Bessent "effectively kicked out, uh, Peter Navarro when Liberation Day went, uh, went the way that it did." But perhaps Scott "knows that he's got to at least appear to be singing from the same page in the hymnbook if he wants to stay in the Cabinet."

Meanwhile, Frank said a Wedbush analyst earlier in the day said Hock Tan is one of the "best salespeople on Wall Street," and Frank asked Stephanie Link if AVGO is so much higher on basically a sales pitch. Stephanie said, "If you know Hock Tan, he's not a sales guy. At all."

Jim suggested this is a "buy the dip moment" for NVDA. Malcolm Ethridge made the case for ASML. Stephanie Link bought SNOW.

Kevin Simpson said he backs the TSLA pay package with the jaw-dropping numbers in part because it will keep Elon "focused."

When was the last time we heard ‘soft landing’?

Jim Lebenthal on Friday's (9/5) Halftime Report said that a couple weeks ago, the market decided "bad news is good news." Jim said that "most of us hate" that kind of mindset, but "we are where we are," maybe even getting 3 rate cuts this year.

Jim thinks the market will be good into year-end but predicted "a lot of hand-wringing about stagflation" until the Fed meeting.

Kevin Simpson bought more HD and called it a "lower-rate play" and said it should work over the "next couple years."

Stephanie Link bought COF. Stephanie bought GEHC and mentioned an "oh by the way." Kevin called GS' move into T. Rowe "fantastic." Jim said LLY and UNH have weighed on the health care total return, but you can "pick your stocks in this space."

Jim, who in August sang a jingle on-air for Citigroup, coined a slogan for his Final Trade of C: "When life gives you lemons, make Citigroup."

When is that James Gorman deadline again to announce the DIS successor?

Josh Brown on Thursday's (9/4) Halftime Report said very few streaming companies are going to be profitable; he thinks DIS and NFLX can both work.

Josh then curiously claimed "nobody cares anymore" about DIS "succession issues" (probably because any day now, we'll be hearing that Bob's got another 3-year extension).

Judge said Wolfe put a 139 on DIS. Brian Belski suggested it might get to 130. Belski said YouTube and NFLX are the "monsters" and "huge winners" in the space, while DIS is a "value play"; he's "way overweight" the former 2 over DIS.

Josh touted MMM.

Josh touted EA and said it could be like RBLX and credited Bryn Talkington for staying with RBLX. Bryn explained that "it costs just a truckload to create a game. And most games are unsuccessful."

Belski apparently shuffled which of his portfolios owns LULU; apparently it's a "value" play.

Judge seems to think Bill’s tech trimming is a lot bigger deal than Bill thinks

On Thursday's (9/4) Halftime Report, Judge marveled at how early Tim Cook was arriving at the White House for some big tech meeting later in the day featuring the "who's who" of Silicon Valley.

Josh Brown said the execs were surely going to talk about how to not be Europe in the late '90s in its approach to tech giants (and notice how many of the Mag 7 now are based in Europe).

Meanwhile, Josh said AMZN is "one of my highest-conviction positions for this year"; he hung a 250/275 on it.

Bill Baruch said a lot of tech giants are growing into valuations, and AMZN has a 26 forward P.E. (those numbers are always subject to debate) and Bill echoed Josh's 250/275 for AMZN.

Bill said "many" portfolio managers are underperforming the index and will "have to chase." Nevertheless, Bill trimmed NVDA and AVGO, calling it a "positioning move."

Judge said it sounds like Bill is "gaming out" his own seasonal outlook. Bill twice stressed that "seasonally," this is kind of the "soft time of the year," and the Nasdaq "is building out a little bit of a head and shoulders."

Bill also mentioned, "From a portfolio management standpoint."

Judge cut in, "Everybody always says that. Portfolio management. I mean, of course it's a portfolio management standpoint. You run a portfolio; you're gonna manage it." Judge said it looks like Bill is raising cash "in a lot of different places."

Translation: Judge is trying to get Bill to make a bearish market call and not just claim his selling is routine. Bill's only making a mild trading/market timing call.

Bill clarified, "I think the year's gonna finish very strongly."

Josh said he doesn't see how AAPL will be one of the better performers of the Mag 7.

Bryn Talkington said she sold half her AAPL stake in December and bought back at 209.

Bryn says CRM around a low

Judge told Steve Liesman on Thursday's (9/4) Halftime Report that it would be a "surprise" if the Fed doesn't cut and if it doesn't, "I don't think the market's gonna take it very well."

Steve agreed that in terms of market expectations, "it's very much a done deal."

Brian Belski trimmed TXN and then gave a speech for an explanation, eventually saying he moved the cash into QCOM.

Bryn Talkington recently bought CRM around 245. Josh Brown said CRM is a "great company" but is "in trouble." Josh said there's "nothing wrong with Salesforce's products," rather, it's "lower head count" among companies that buy the services.

Bryn said CRM is doing well on many metrics and is getting "lumped in" to a narrative; "I don't think the stock at 241 has much more downside." Bill Baruch said CRM and ADBE have "growth by acquisition" in common.

Belski bought PANW, stating, "We love Palo Alto." (He said "love" about 3 times.)

Judge says Eddy Cue’s Google revelation was not insignificant

It was in the first minute of Wednesday's (9/3) Halftime Report that Judge mentioned the "so-called Eddy Cue (snicker) selloff" and pointed out GOOGL is up 37½% since then, then afforded Jim Lebenthal a victory lap for downplaying Eddy Cue Day months ago.

Jim was quite modest (he didn't have to be that modest) and said a "meaningful overhang" on GOOGL is gone and seemed to think the judge's ruling was kind of a no-brainer, stating, "the idea" that a judge would give Google "draconian" punishment for "monopolistic, uh, uh practice" given that in May, we were hearing about "competition eating Google's lunch," was "completely incongruous (pronounced 'incongress')."

Judge said Jim caught "a fair amount of grief" and mentioned "the Eddy Cue thing" again. Judge claimed Eddy was making a not "insignificant" (snicker) point.

Joe Terranova said the judge's ruling "lifts the obstacle" and "absolutely is a clearing event" and even "benefits the entirety of the AI halo" because Google can "spend more."

Jim did say of Alphabet, "This is going to be an AI beneficiary," and we had to wonder whether Jim has paid attention to some of the "AI" answers that simple Google searching seems to generate. (We're not sure "beneficiary" is as accurate as "perpetrator.")

Steve Weiss noted GOOGL "has always sold at a discount," then said "generally" instead of "always," which he conceded is "too strong."

Weiss said Gmail "is the dominant player" and that Google can "raise prices more now without the glare of antitrust proceedings on them." (We thought he'd mention the obvious, that the whole world watches stuff on YouTube and it's basically 1B to NFLX's 1A.) (This writer is long NFLX.)

Weiss said the stock "recovered from 165 to 200 before this, so you've got to believe some of it was discounted." Weiss also cautioned, "You still have the headwind of search share," which Weiss said will prevent the multiple from reaching the "extent" of META and AMZN.

Joe predicted we'll see the "valuation spread narrow" between AAPL and GOOGL, which right now are kinda close in nominal share price.

Judge seems to think Micah Parsons is the ‘best defensive player in the league’

On Wednesday's (9/3) Halftime Report, Liz Thomas suggested software is a "good opportunity," while cybersecurity is an opportunity for a "long-term period."

But Steve Weiss said the multiples in cybersecurity make Broadcom "look like it's being given away." Judge pointed out that Joe Terranova owns FTNT, CRWD, CHKP and PANW. Joe said said he's "observing the 30-day momentum constantly" because those names are in "correction." (When they were talking about ZM a couple weeks ago, it was all about 12-month-ago momentum.) (This writer is long CRWD.)

Joe called AVGO a "coin toss." Steve Weiss said he "never understood the valuation" of AVGO; he called the valuation "excessive." Weiss said, "I'd still rather own Taiwan Semi."

Jim Lebenthal said if ADBE doesn't "respond" or "move up" on its earnings report, it's the "final nail in the coffin" (snicker) for that stock.

Weiss said he's "very close to pulling the trigger" on buying BABA, which is "just so cheap." Weiss said David Tepper is "still there" in the name, though Weiss wouldn't break any news "that wasn't public"; Weiss said to "look at his filings."

Jim of course agreed with Mike Mayo's C upgrade; Jim said there's no reason it should trade below tangible book.

Julia Boorstin reported on the NFL criticizing Nielsen ratings. "It's always about the money," Judge shrugged.

Judge called Micah Parsons "the best defensive player in the league." Liz asked, "Where did he depart to?" Judge acknowledged, "Your Packers."

Judge should ask panelists to make a call on AAPL vs. AMZN

Jason Snipe's Final Trade on Tuesday's (9/2) Halftime Report was AMZN.

We mention that because, in a bit of a stock market oddity, AMZN and AAPL have been running neck and neck recently in terms of nominal share price.

AAPL closed Tuesday at 229; AMZN closed at 225.

Yes, we know those share prices are nominal; AAPL's market cap is about $1 trillion higher.

But it's a great comparison, and a great opportunity for Judge to ask Halftime panelists to make some calls: Which of these roughly $225 stocks will be the first to $250, first to $300, first to $200. Will either of these stocks hit $275 by year-end.

It would be a far more interesting conversation than the usual tired updates on who's buying/who's selling AAPL and those sellers constantly protesting that they don't dislike the stock; it's just "portfolio management."

Joe suggests AI thesis ‘maturing’

Joe Terranova must've been planning Burger King for lunch on Tuesday (9/2), because he uncorked a whopper of a market observation on the Halftime Report.

Joe stated, "The AI thesis might be maturing somewhat."

Judge rightly cut in, exclaiming, "That's a controversial statement in and of itself. Might be maturing??? People are talkin' about the 2nd inning!!"

Before Joe could answer, Jenny Harrington said, "It's still maturing."

Joe continued, "It's maturing if you correlate it (snicker) to ownership."

Judge mentioned chip stocks that are getting hit. Josh Brown said he still likes LRCX a lot but reminded viewers, "They're still cyclical."

Jason Snipe pointed to SNOW and stocks with AI themes and said "You cannot buy indiscriminately in the space."

Jenny says 7% would be ‘massive win’

Judge opened Tuesday's (9/2) Halftime Report noting "Yields are surging everywhere," a "significant story today," and Joe Terranova agreed.

Joe said momentum names are "working off some of the, uh, overbought conditions" and tech is being "targeted right now in this mild correction."

"Nvidia has not traded well at all since its earnings release," Judge observed, adding that it was an "AI-related selloff" on Tuesday.

Judge cut in to Josh Brown's commentary to report news of Anthropic funding and said "legitness" (sic) (snicker).

Josh pointed out that "other areas of the market" besides AI, including financials, have been working.

Jenny Harrington stated, "If we were to end 2025 at up 8%, or up 7%, I would consider that a massive win."

Jenny concluded, "I don't see how we go from up 10% on the year now to up 20%."

(Jenny's lookalike, Jessica Chastain, was on Jimmy Fallon's show on Tuesday night.)

Jason Snipe noted, "September is traditionally the worst month in the market."

Josh predicted a breakthrough for HBAN.

Jenny said "tariff noise" is affecting certain stocks.

Joe said the JOET owns NEM and that gold ownership now is "important."

Joe predicted private equity will "continue to have penetration into sports." Joe mentioned a stat that's been thrown around a lot lately, Jerry Jones' purchase price for the Dallas Cowboys.

Mohamed El-Erian claims Judge doesn’t like discussing equilibrium inflation rate

On Friday's (8/29) Closing Bell, Judge spoke with longtime CNBC guest fixture Mohamed El-Erian about Fed independence and exactly what's the biggest risk to the economy (which people seem to keep disagreeing on).

At one point, Mohamed told Judge, "The inflation arguments are twofold. One, they're transitory ... and the other view, which I know you don't like discussing, but we're getting evidence day in and day out, is what is direct equilibrium inflation rate (snicker) for this economy that is going through so many structural changes."

Judge responded, "Well, I don't know why you suggest I don't like discussing, I mean, just because I give you a counterport- (sic) (snicker) counterpoint to, to your argument doesn't mean I don't like discussing it. In fact, I want to discuss it further."

Amy says NVDA’s AI spending forecast total that Stephanie trumpets is ‘crazy’

Permabull Stephanie Link started off Friday's (8/29) Halftime Report with some total addressable market commentary about AI and said NVDA reaffirmed it sees $3-$4 trillion in data center/capex spending through 2030.

Moments later, Amy Raskin said, "I think that 3 to 4 trillion number is crazy. I don't think you're ever- that we're gonna get there."

Jason Snipe, apparently trying not to make any waves, only said "the guidance is very strong" in the AI space. Judge said, "Guidance is based on expectations, right. ... I have expectations my football team's gonna do great this year." (Editor's note: Judge is a Commanders fan.)

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said a lot of stocks have gotten above fair value, he's been trimming and hasn't put money back in "for several weeks."

At some point during talk about data centers, Stephanie offered an "oh by the way."

Jason affirmed buying ETN on the recent pullback. In yet another total addressable market reference, Stephanie said there's "2.4 trillion dollars of mega projects in the pipeline; only 17% have been started."

Eamon Javers said the Lisa Cook hearing ended with "no decision." Eamon expertly outlined several of the arguments and counterarguments made at the hearing.

Stephanie bought DECK.

Judge doesn’t give Amy the same grilling he gave Joe over whether financials are overvalued

Jim Lebenthal admitted on Friday's (8/29) Halftime Report that he trimmed WYNN, suggesting the stock may be "ahead of itself" with football season starting.

Judge brought in Contessa Brewer to tell us it's, according to Judge, "the biggest betting season ever." Contessa said, "Depending on where you're betting."

Contessa said "the biggest threat" to gambling providers is offshore sportsbook wagering considered illegal, and the legal books reportedly get a boost from states that crack down; "It really matters to enforce the law," Contessa concluded.

Late in the show, Judge said the GDX is having its "best month since 2020." Judge said BofA hiked its FNV target. Amy Raskin owns it and said it's been her Final Trade "a few times" this year and she still sees "more upside."

We'll give Amy credit for that, but no one called this space like Bill Baruch on July 9, touting a "tremendous supercycle" in gold miners, a candidate for Call of the Year. (This writer since then is long a couple gold miner stocks that weren't mentioned on Friday's show.)

Amy Raskin suggested financials are "getting a little extended" and unlike Joe this week, got no pushback from Judge. Jason Snipe mentioned BX and APO as names he likes.

Good day for CRWD to be sponsoring the CNBC ticker

The most interesting stock of Thursday (8/28) was not actually NVDA, but CRWD, which sank a day earlier in afterhours (and prompted curious stats from Steve Grasso) (see below) but was somehow roaring ahead Thursday morning. (This writer is long CRWD.)

Joe Terranova on Thursday's Halftime said, "The chart tells you everything about what is going on today." Joe said the morning low "went exactly down to that 200-day moving average, and it held. And what it did from there was it reversed higher. It's tracing out a very powerful technical signal right now. It's called an outside up week. That means you trade below last week's entire range. And now you are above last week's entire range. That's a signal of exhaution ... This might be an example of bad news and good price action."

Judge chuckled, "Maybe that's a sign of a pretty good market that you're in."

Josh Brown said Judge made a "great point," but as for CRWD's earnings, "I don't think that this should be characterized as a disappointment. They beat on the bottom line; they beat on the top line ... I think what people are saying is that they're surprised that they're not seeing higher upside guidance."

Josh recalled, "I saw it down 7% last night, and I laughed," wondering "what Muppet algorithm was programmed to sell this name afterhours?"

Judge said there have been "legitimate" questions about the cybersecurity space, noting the BUG is "having its worst quarter since 2022." Joe agreed that has to be part of the "narrative." Josh said after seeing the numbers the night before, he thought the afterhours reaction was a "clown show."

Bryn Talkington said the FTNT results early in the month sent "ripples" through the space about ARR revenue and caused a "growth scare." Bryn said, "Until that growth scare goes away, there's still gonna be an overhang," which is an opportunity to add longer term.

Steve Liesman wants Bill Pulte to call him, but Bill instead texts a scoop to Judge

About 18 minutes into Thursday's (8/28) Halftime Report, Steve Liesman delivered an update on Lisa Cook's legal action.

While Steve was delivering that update, Judge said he "literally" got "just now" a note from Bill Pulte and proceeded to read the contents: "Quote, in her filing, Miss Cook does not deny that these are her mortgage documents, so one has to wonder why she or Jerome Powell would want this to be a part of the Federal Reserve."

Judge said Bill "sent it to us only, so it's a CNBC Exclusive here."

Judge then observed, "There really isn't, uh, an explicit denial, uh, is there, in the- in the Cook response to, to all of this." Judge asked Steve for "more light."

Steve said, "There is not a detailed denial, but there is a denial Scott," as Steve protested "not having known we were gonna discuss this," he was trying to look up her statement on the computer.

Judge said "Nor do I ... I apologize ... I didn't wanna wait on the news."

Steve eventually said, "In the lawsuit, it- it says, 'Of the allegations made by the president, if she did them, dash, which she did not,' that is explicitly in one of the documents, but, I will tell you Scott, she did not detail how all this come to happen ... potentially a clerical error. But that is not the point of the lawsuit, I would point out," which is that "an allegation is not for cause."

Steve said Bill Pulte "has not responded to my questions; Bill, Bill call me." One of Steve's questions is whether Bill "ever talked to Cook."

Steve concluded, "Bill is probably right here that- that, in all of these documents, she doesn't deny these are her mortgages. But she does deny having done anything wrong here."

Judge pointed out the obvious, that "as an aside," there's a "cloud" that "hangs over the Fed" while the central bank's in an "especially critical time."

Steve agreed that's an "issue" but said "one of the points of the lawsuit is that she did not do these offenses while in office." (But she also "did not" do the thing alleged, according to what he also said.)

Steve then said there are "2 clouds," one is Lisa Cook serving on the Fed, "the other cloud is the ability of the president to make up any allegation he wants (well, um, if she filed 2 separate mortgage documents claiming a primary residence, how is he making it up?) and then fire somebody based on that allegation and not a proven fact. I would say those are 2 rather dark clouds, both of them, and I- I wonder if the 2nd cloud is the darker of the 2."

Steve said, "One has to wonder why Bill Pulte is so involved in the Federal Reserve."

Steve wondered, "Why isn't Bill Pulte- Bill Pulte a fine American — um, allowing Lisa Cook her day in court here. Now I acknowledge the other part, which is I think is a problem for Lisa Cook is (sic grammar), Why does not- she not come forward and tell us what her side of that story is."

Well, here's the deal. We get why Steve and others may be skeptical of administration motives here. But we don't get why it should be OK with people that Federal Reserve honchos (talk about the 1% of the 1% of the population) should be able to claim 2 primary residences.

Judge actually pretends that Brad might say something critical about the White House after going there recently to get his newly renamed ‘Trump accounts’ approved

After a Lisa Cook-centric A Block on Thursday's (8/28) Halftime Report, Judge said it's a "treat" to get Brad Gerstner on the show to talk about NVDA earnings.

Brad as expected sort of took a victory lap, knocking the "clearly wrong" reax to the Deepseek news and how NVDA just delivered a "banger quarter."

Brad said "I kind of laugh" about "some friends" at the end of 2024 "who said, 'We're gonna short Nvidia because they can't possibly grow this fast in '25.' "

After a lengthy speech about NVDA's China market and the Blackwell chip, Brad said NVDA has a "north of 50%" probability of selling chips in China.

Judge asked Brad if he's OK with the government "taking a piece of those sales." Brad admitted it's "an unusual tactic" but said the president says he's a "deal junkie" and Brad will "leave it to Jensen and the president, uh, to- to- to make that deal."

"I feel like you punted on me a little bit," Judge followed up, explaining that "this is the U.S government telling a private business, 'You can do busines in a market, but we're gettin' a piece. And this slippery slope that it may present itself (sic grammar)."

Brad said that as a shareholder, "of course" he doesn't want to pay 15% to the government, but as the president or "Howard Lutnick," it's a "hedge" in case this turns out not "100% good for this country."

Josh Brown asked Brad about AAPL-Perplexity stories. Brad said he likes Perplexity but isn't sure it gives AAPL the "solution they need." Brad called Siri "garbage" and said "it could be 100x better."

Joe Terranova asked Brad why he doesn't own PLTR; Brad said if you're in the business a while, "you make some big mistakes," and missing PLTR was "one of mine."

‘Wait it out till you get another administration?’

Josh Brown on Thursday's (8/28) Halftime Report noted NVDA's strong summer and said "I think it wants 200" and "will get it."

Judge said Seaport is "sticking with a sell rating" and $100 NVDA. Bryn Talkington admitted, "I don't know who Seaport is." Bryn pointed out NVDA's small concentration of huge customers.

Joe Terranova said, "The uptake on Blackwell is incredibly strong" and "the buyback story is remarkable."

Judge said TSLA has "quietly had a pretty good month." (He didn't ask Joe for TSLA's "1-month" return.) Bryn pointed out the stock getting hit when Elon Musk announced a new political party and Bryn decided at the time "I'm gonna buy more here at 293" and sell the August 22nd calls at 320 for $14. Bryn got called away and said that's a "great way to, to play the stock right now."

Judge wondered if vaccine makers are "investable, or untouchable." Sarat Sethi, who had a quiet show (like certain others, he never got a text from Bill Pulte), said vaccine businesses are "not investable," but other parts of JNJ and GSK are "very strong" even though the vaccine portions are "negative value" right now.

Judge incredulously wondered if Sarat's "investment thesis" on this sector is just to "wait it out till you get another administration?" Sarat said, "Science will tell you that some of this stuff does work."

At the end of the program, Judge said it was "an adventurous show, uh, to say the least."

Another curious government percentage is brought up regarding a cybersecurity stock

Guy Adami on Wednesday's (8/27) Fast Money said that the "level-ish" that CRWD was trading at (about 396) is a "pretty interesting level to dip your toe into CrowdStrike, I believe." (This writer is long CRWD.)

Steve Grasso, however, brought up "the percent of revenue that the U.S. government gives to CrowdStrike" (that's the exact quote), which Steve said is 68% and for Palantir is 55%.

Those who witnessed Malcolm Ethridge's analysis of PANW on the Halftime Report a few months ago on 5/28 (see below in the archive) and Judge's follow-up statement that "I think we had some issues with what Malcolm had to say" know just how tricky Steve's statement is and would want to verify. It sounds like he means that 68% of CRWD's revenue is from the U.S. government.

Determining exactly what Steve meant via online searches is difficult. (AI didn't respond successfully to Steve's exact quote.) We did find an SEC filing that indicated that in Q1 and all of 2024, 68% of total CRWD revenues come geographically from the United States. We did actually get an AI result from Google saying the same thing, that Europe/Africa is 15-16%, Asia Pacific is 10-11% and others are 5-6%. The only way those numbers and Steve's numbers are correct at the same time is if 100% of the U.S. revenue is from the U.S. government.

From what we got from AI, in Q2, Palantir reported U.S. government revenue that would be about a low-40s percentage of total Palantir revenue, not 55%.

While the grammar would be off, Steve's CRWD comment could also imply that 68% of what the government spends on cybersecurity goes to CRWD. But that flies in the face of what Judge said 5/29 about Malcolm's PANW comment, that "50% of what the government spends on cyber goes to Palo Alto" (see how this all ties together?). Honestly, heads here are spinning already; we have no clue.

Steve's larger point was that CRWD needs to have a good relationship with the government, and that Guy's technical assessment is valid.

Sadly, guest host Sully — CNBC's Funniest Anchor and one of this site's favorite anchors of all time — never attempted to clarify/verify Steve's numbers. (#calltheControlRoom)

Bill Baruch on Wednesday's (8/27) Halftime Report said he owns CRWD and is "waiting and seeing" what happens but conceded "there's a lot of negativity going into it." (That negativity only got worse Wednesday night.) (This review was posted overnight Wednesday-Thursday.)

Joe Terranova said he owns CRWD personally and noted, "Cybersecurity is not trading well," but Joe said the market has held up and that's a sign of resiliency.

Judge tries to get Joe to say that bank stocks are overvalued; at least it’s better than asking for the ‘1-month’ return

About halfway through Wednesday's (8/27) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova probably prompted a few chuckles when he said the JOET's 35% exposure to financials is "obscene (snicker) to a certain point."

Joe went on to say that big names like JPM and GS are getting "a little bit stretched," which is why certain regionals have had strength.

Judge, inserting some hyperbole here, claimed Joe is the "first person I can recall" who has talked about "potentially too rich" bank stock valuations.

Judge scoffed, "As long as I can possibly remember, everybody's always like, 'Well they trade at such a discount to book, and blah blah blah.'" (That is an absolutely correct statement, and a hilarious one; kudos to Judge.)

After for whatever reason delving into 2006 P.E. ratios (he actually went that far back), Joe said a 15 P.E. for GS and JPM is "probably right about in line" even though moments earlier, he suggested they're a little "stretched."

Joe protested to Judge that he didn't say bank stocks are "too rich," rather just a select few that are "a little bit stretched."

Steve Weiss said he'd agree with Joe that in terms of price to book, those stocks are "gettin' up there," but it's a reflection of the yield curve and a "great environment" and there's "more room to run."

Joe claims to actually believe that Donald Trump’s feud with Lisa Cook should’ve been enough to sink the markets

Joe Terranova must've been having lunch Wednesday (8/27) at Burger King, because he uncorked a whopper on the Halftime Report when stating, "Where are we today after the news from yesterday. No one, including myself, would expect that."

Judge, puzzled, asked, "What's the news from yesterday."

Joe explained, "The news from yesterday surrounding the Federal Reserve."

Judge, flummoxed, asked, "Why."

Joe said, "Why what?"

Judge said, "Why would no one have expec- no one would expect where we are today given the news of yesterday. Why."

"Really?" Joe said. "We're- we're talkin'- we're gonna have the whole conversation about the independence of the Federal Reserve? Yesterday we woke up yesterday morning questioning the very independence of the Federal Reserve, and we expect the market to go higher on that?"

Judge demanded, "Do you still think the Fed's gonna cut in September?"

"I think the Fed was more likely to cut prior to yesterday morning," Joe said.

Judge said, "Some people think they're ... more likely to cut after the fact."

Joe said, "I think yesterday was a forced error (snicker) (that's what they call it now, apparently) on the part of the administration ... the Fed was already going to cut interest rates."

Judge said the market's "looking past the noise, focused on the cut."

Bill Baruch sided with Joe, stating, "I'm as surprised as Joe is," given concerns about Fed independence, but the market reaction has been "more muted" to these kinds of things. Judge said there's a "huge difference" between firing a Fed governor and, say, firing the chair.

Steve Weiss bluntly stated, "It wasn't new news yesterday," that Lisa Cook's name surfaced a week ago.

Judge concluded that the subject was a "worthy" tangent to go off on.

NVDA’s humdrum reax

Judge launched into Wednesday's (8/27) Halftime Report asking panelists to draw up what-if scenarios for NVDA's report after market hours.

Joe Terranova stated, "I will absolutely acknowledge that the bar is high" for NVDA, but even if it's not a blowout, Joe said the market won't roll over, rather, the rotation (snicker) will only "intensify."

Kristina Partsinevelos agreed with Joe about the importance of the China numbers.

Bill Baruch said of NVDA, "The bar might be a little high."

Steve Weiss said that over the last 4 quarters, NVDA makes its guides but has missed a couple times on the "whisper number." However, the stock has "bounced back very quickly" and "the future remains bright."

Kevin Simpson predicted NVDA will have a good report and go higher. (It had a pretty good report but didn't go higher.) (This review was posted overnight Wednesday-Thursday.)

Bill cautioned that this is a "seasonally weak time of year" and if there's a bad reaction to NVDA's report, we'll see "profit taking across the board," but that would set up a "really strong" Q4.

Later on Fast Money, Guy Adami said of NVDA, "The magnitudes of the beat are getting smaller." Danny Moses said he wouldn't short NVDA. Dan Nathan advised buying it for his Final Trade.

Bill warns of possible ‘heavy selling’ in COST

Judge on Wednesday's (8/27) Halftime Report noted a number of high fliers have taken a "breather" recently. Bill suggested it's due to "idiosyncratic things."

Bill talked up MU; "I love this name," but it moves "fast." Bill said it could "exceed 150" on its next move up.

Kevin Simpson bought U, a "speculative name" in software.

Joe said there's a "nice setup" to pick up DASH.

Bill touted AS and said it's got pickleball presence.

Joe predicted WELL goes higher. Joe said COST and WMT have "really struggled here over the last 30 days." Joe suggested the reason is "purely exhaustion." Bill said COST has a "head and shoulders pattern, potentially" and if it drops below 900, it could see "heavy selling."

Bill bought Berkshire (presumably the BRK-B shares) because he wants to buy it when it's "unloved." Joe said the BRKB momentum has been "broken" for 4 months.

Kevin bought JLL, a "one-stop shop" for real estate.

Weiss hung a 200 on FTAI for his Final Trade.

Josh predicts NFLX initiative by year-end to add user-generated content

On Tuesday's (8/26) Halftime Report, Josh Brown predicted "by the end of the year," NFLX will do something "either user-generated" or something with an incentive for YouTube creators to switch to Netflix. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Josh said, "YouTube viewership on a television set ... is 16% of all YouTube views. But accounts for 42% of total watch time."

No one seems to know if Lisa Cook is actually ‘fired’

Judge in his intro on Tuesday's (8/26) Halftime Report said Donald Trump is "moving to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook." That's interesting terminology, because the previous night, the headlines started off saying Donald Trump "fired" Lisa Cook, then it kind of got softened into "says he's firing" or "moved to fire" ... and no one, including Steve Liesman on The Exchange immediately after the Halftime Report, seems to know whether anyone is actually going to block Lisa from showing up at the office.

Meanwhile, Jenny Harrington said UBER "still makes sense for our disciplined growth strategy" despite its big return this year.

Josh Brown talked up SHAK again but said his favorite in the space is TOST, which will "power the payment function."

Josh said ORLY has one of the best long-term charts he's "ever seen." He said it's a "cannibal company" that's "eating itself" by buying back so much stock since 2011. Josh said he'd use a 50-week moving average, which is 86. He also touted SYF, HIG and ALL.

Brian Belski said ULTA is in "one of those sweet spots" of consumer discretionary and will continue to grow.

Malcolm Ethridge made BUG his Final Trade, saying the PANW-Cyberark deal won't be the last.

Perplexity, Zzzzzzz

Judge at the top of Tuesday's (8/26) Halftime Report said there's "yet another report" that AAPL is interested in Perplexity (Zzzzzzz); Steve Kovach joined the show to explain things.

Josh Brown said, "I think, if they do it, you get a new (sic redundant) all-time high in Apple the day they announce it." Josh said, "This is a case where buying it makes more sense than building it" and may be cheaper in the long run.

Jenny Harrington said there's "a lot of overenthusiasm" and said the market is looking "too narrowly" at NVDA and AAPL, though Jenny conceded she's "super excited" about AI.

Judge actually showed a comparison chart of Nasdaq returns after the "seminal moments" of the Netscape IPO and the Chat GPT launch. (Spoiler alert: The charts look about the same.)

Whew! Judge didn’t ask Joe for the ‘1-month return’ of the U.S. government sovereign wealth fund

Judge on Monday's (8/25) Halftime Report actually claimed that the government's interest in INTC represents a "brave new world" (snicker).

Steve Weiss said the move seems like a "hostage-ransom" type of situation. Weiss then referred to Kevin "Hassert" (sic). "This can only go one way, and that way is bad," Weiss said.

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said the "prior administration" also put requirements on the chip sector, including social ones, so "I don't think it's necessarily new" what's happening with INTC.

Judge insisted that whether you agree with the move or not, it's a "slippery slope."

Judge mentioned the term "free market capitalism," which was used regularly — basically 2-3 times a show — by Larry Kudlow when Larry was a CNBC fixture. (He's on a different channel now.)

Shannon Saccocia suggested there could be a "spillover effect" into health care or other sectors.

Joe Terranova bluntly stated, "So we have a sovereign wealth fund in the United States."

Weiss countered, "This isn't a sovereign wealth fund," but a "targeted approach."

Becky breathless

Late in Monday's (8/25) Halftime Report, Becky Quick actually dialed in with a News Alert; obviously, it had to deal with Berkshire Hathaway, or it wouldn't have been Becky dialing in.

Becky, who sounded out of breath, said Berkshire is "not in the market to buy a train company right now"; that's what she "heard from Mr. Buffett himself."

Judge tried to get Becky to relay some kind of market call from Warren. Becky indicated she knows his opinions on railroads, but ...

Weiss complains that everyone’s on the same side of the trade

Joe Terranova on Monday's (8/25) Halftime Report said bulls got a "perfect" setup on Friday. Joe said it's a question of carrying the "momentum" forward.

"I don't think Jackson Hole really could've gone any better," offered Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal. Jim said Q2 earnings were much better than expected. Jim cautioned though that September is a "treacherous desert" (snicker), which sort of invokes "Lawrence of Arabia."

Grandpa Steve Weiss' chief complaint (you knew there would be one) was that "everybody's on the same side of the trade." Weiss said there's now going to be a debate whether it'll be 25 points or 50 points.

Judge said a couple shops, including Lori Calvasina, are actually upgrading small caps (snicker).

Joe seemed to take offense at Judge's suggestion of a broadening or move to equal weight; Joe wouldn't let Judge declare a change in fundamentals but said he can live with the term "repositioning" (snicker).

Sam bursted the bubble

Steve Weiss on Monday's (8/25) Halftime Report suggested that Sam Altman mentioned the word "bubble" because "he doesn't want potential competitors to get funding."

Judge said, "Nobody ever partying in the bubble says there's the bubble."

Joe Terranova twice said "bursted" (snicker).

Shannon Saccocia said NFLX's successful singalong this past weekend is "indicative of their continued innovation." Weiss said, "They constantly add to their value proposition." Joe said the stock may find support around the 100-day; it's evidence that the world is becoming all about streaming. (This writer is long NFLX.)

Weiss isn't ready to sell FTAI.

Jim Lebenthal said BLK is a "buy right here."

Joe said NVDA's had such a good run, it needs to "blow the numbers out here" to send the stock higher.

Weiss compliments Kevin’s wardrobe

Kind of out of the blue on Friday's (8/22) Halftime Report and a surprise to this page, Steve Weiss said Kevin Simpson has gotten a "new wardrobe" and looks more "investment bankerish."

Weiss told Kevin he looks great and called Kevin "Gordon" and "Mr. Gekko." ("You can't come in here looking like this. Go to Maury Sills; tell 'em I sent ya.")

Weiss was remote and not at the NYSE, but the comment provided chuckles for the panel.

Much of the show, in fact, seemed to be relaying Kevin's entire portfolio to viewers. Kevin just bought META on a pullback and said it looks "lucky and smart" on Friday.

Kevin rolled down some ORCL calls. We didn't quite get it (the math was too difficult) but it was some kind of maneuver that apparently turned into a great trade.

Kevin trimmed JPM; he said it was "pure risk management."

Kevin sold HWM after making 30% in 5 months and said he'd buy it on a pullback. Guest host Frank Holland questioned why, if Kevin thinks it's going higher, he would sell it in the first place. Kevin said he has a "tendency" to be "nimble" and keep "dry powder." Frank said "gotta ask," can't "rubber-stamp trades."

Kevin wrote RBLX covered calls expiring next week that could net a $10 profit.

Kevin sold JBL to take profits and would "absolutely" buy a dip.

Kevin bought UBER and thinks it'll break $100. Weiss also bought more UBER because he didn't think his position was big enough. Jim "Gangbusters" Lenbethal said autonomous driving is a reason he likes GOOGL. (By the way, at least a couple folks on Fast Money, Steve Grasso and Tim Seymour, have talked up LYFT, a trade ignored on Halftime that's suddenly looking more interesting though a ways away from the Call of the Year race.)

Kevin again said of MO, he's "happy to be in the name." There's a trade that's really smokin'.

The Fed ‘can’t control inflation’ and ‘really can’t do much about employment’

Steve Liesman, who generally says the stock market is being too giddy about reading into Jay Powell's commentary, conceded on Friday's (8/22) Halftime Report that Jay Powell's speech was "maybe a little bit more dovish than uh, some- some had expected."

Steve said, "He did open the way up for a rate cut." Honestly, every day, there's a new percentage expectation of a September cut; we're tired of it already.

Guest host Frank Holland said he noticed the word "may" in Powell's speech, which Frank said gives Powell "wiggle room" to possibly not cut. Steve agreed it had a "bunch of caveats."

Later, Steve Weiss scoffed at Frank's mention of "may"; explaining, "of course they said 'may,'" because when has the Fed ever "definitely" declared what it would do.

Weiss stated, "The Fed is gonna cut," as it has, according to Weiss, come to the realization that "they can't control inflation." Weiss said the Fed "also really can't do much about employment."

Weiss mentioned "stagflation" twice. (But what about the "intermediate" term thing ... oh, more on that in a bit.)

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal first explained how Powell was talking about the balance of the labor market as demand and supply both shift, then said what really got Jim's attention was Powell's comment that "downside risks may increase quickly."

Jim said the speech was "much more dovish than I expected."

Kevin Simpson expects a September cut "for sure."

Jason Snipe cautioned that companies such as HD, PEP and WMT have talked about raising prices.

As for the market, Jim said it's "pretty likely that we will be higher by year-end," but "there's an awful lot of good news priced into this market." Jim said "the short term might be a little volatile; the intermediate term to year-end is likely to be, uh, rewarded."

Ah. There's that intermediate term again ... See, back on May 13 (check our archive), Weiss insisted he's bullish short term, but it was the "intermediate term" where Weiss believed "the recession comes into play."

That was 3 months ago. When did this "intermediate term" happen? Where was the recession?

Weiss: LULU pullback ‘overstated’

On Friday's (8/22) Halftime Report, Kevin Simpson said he bought more DKNG. Guest host Frank Holland suggested that kind of name is taking market share from traditional casinos.

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal of course made the argument for "hard-asset casinos" having "tailwinds." Jason Snipe sided with "hard asset" casinos over DKNG. Kevin mentioned the start of football season for DKNG. (That stock years ago had a history of accelerating in late August as the football season neared, but we're not sure that's a reliable timing mechanism anymore.)

Frank pushed Jason Snipe on whether he'd buy PLTR. Jason said he'd buy some of the "hyperscalers" that have pulled back a bit. Jason stressed that it's early in the AI trade. (Yes, those "facts" people get from Google Gemini are definitely early-stage facts.)

Jason bought ETN, always one of Stephanie Link's favorite stocks.

Steve Weiss again talked up the Brad Jacobs/QXO story. Why doesn't Brad start an AI company and dethrone Nvidia. Weiss said he's been looking at LULU and thinks its demise is "overstated."

Jim talked up AZN and DAL at the end of the show.

In the show's most impressive moment, Jim sang a commercial jingle — "Citigroup, the Citi never sleeps" — for his Final Trade of C; "I'll only do this on a Friday in August."

We did catch Thursday's (8/21) Halftime but didn't have a chance for a write-up; basically it was just Josh Brown and Jenny Harrington marveling at how much they agreed.

Bryn calls CRM ‘Uber in the 60s’

Asked about his AAPL moves on Wednesday's (8/20) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova first made a mini-speech about "one of the benefits of this show is we're actually active in the marketplace ... if you disagree with what I'm- uh, what I'm saying, listen, you have the ETF out there, go short it, go buy some puts, knock yourself out, have a good time."

Joe said his personal AAPL position is a "trading position" and he started buying at 206, "all the way up to 232," but now he's seeing "exhaustion" around 235-236, and in the near-term, it was time to "ring the register" and cut the position in half.

Kari Firestone suggested getting back in at 210, which Kari said is the 100-day. Bryn Talkington said she added at 210 or 215 and isn't sure it'll get back there; Bryn said AAPL had an "excellent earnings call."

Bryn bought CRM and called it "Uber in the 60s" and said it "easily" could climb "15 to 20% after earnings." Bryn said if DELL gets back to the "low 100s," she'll buy it.

Kari said CRM hasn't had enough to show for its AI spending, but that's starting to change. Kari bluntly said that AI has had an impact on ADBE's operations (despite what Jim Lebenthal has been saying) (Jim's "not gonna die on this hill" with that stock). Bryn said ADBE has a "terrible" chart.

Joe said he redeployed his former AAPL cash into TW; he also bought CBOE and BR. Joe said his recent refiner trade "has not worked out."

Joe briefly explained how TJX acquires inventory "on the cheap" and how it's a rare apparel name that's expanding margins. Joe said he's been to a TJ Maxx and it's a "phenomenal (snicker) store."

Bryn said "Target's woes benefit Walmart." Kari said it can take "years" for a company like TGT to turn things around.

Joe said AMZN's interest in groceries could be a "competitive threat" to WMT.

CNBC apparently didn't have any staff to spare for ETF Edge, so guest host Frank Holland had to do the honors.

Joe, Frank immediately disagree on significance of profit-taking

Guest host Frank Holland opened Wednesday's (8/20) Halftime Report telling Joe Terranova that people wouldn't be "profit-taking" if they thought there was more to get.

Frank asked Joe if there's "significant change in sentiment." Joe said profit-taking could be "motivated by some catalyst" (translation: it doesn't necessarily mean people think the market's going down).

Joe predicted the market is "ultimately (sic redundant) gonna get a reluctant cut."

Joe said momentum peaked Aug. 13 and was maybe a "temporary top."

Kari Firestone bluntly predicted Jay Powell won't be "dovish."

Frank said a CNBC strategist survey has the median S&P target at 6,500 and the average at 6,392, "basically where we are today," so there's not a lot of "optimism" among strategists.

Bryn Talkington suggested "exhaustion" in the market and said that "gravity" works against names such as PLTR. Bryn said tariffs are "absolutely" showing up in PPI if not CPI.

Joe yet again suggested a rate cut is needed to get a market broadending. Joe pointed out the VIX is only at 16.

Liz: Market ‘overestimating’ chance of a September rate cut

Judge opened Tuesday's (8/19) Halftime Report describing Bloomberg's story on options traders buying puts for a Nasdaq "disaster" trade. (Wonder if those buyers have read IT'S NOT AN OPTION!!!!!!.) Joe Terranova, always seated immediately to Judge's left, said he's not sure he likes the term "disaster."

Joe claimed that the AI trade — just on Tuesday — was "unwinding" for a day.

Josh Brown pointed out how recently hot IPOs have pulled back, and Josh cited a WSJ article stating that if a novelist dreamed up a hot IPO called Bullish at the apex of the market, the editor would say, "It's a little bit too much."

Judge said he wonders if Powell's Jackson Hole speech "holds the key" to the "disaster" trade or anything else to do with the market. Liz Thomas claimed there will be "a lot of action before Powell even happens."

In the show's most provocative comment, Liz Thomas said the market is "overestimating the chance of a cut in September."

Liz doesn’t see a ‘ton of upside’ for gold before 2026

Judge on Tuesday's (8/19) Halftime said UBS raised its gold target to $3,600 by end of March. Gold has not gotten much mention in recent years on the Halftime Report. (This writer is long a couple gold miner names, though no specific companies were mentioned in this discussion.)

Liz Thomas said gold "started to kind of stall out" in the spring. Liz opined, "I don't see a ton of upside for gold maybe between now and year-end," though it's "had an incredible run," but we've "squeezed a lot" for now.

Meanwhile, Joe Terranova said he wants to be "humble" (snicker) about the fact that HOOD is going to be "susceptible" to the price of crypto.

Josh Brown stated, "I will not sell any of my shares in Rocket (RKT) right now."

Josh delved into biotech stocks and said he wanted to focus on GILD, which has had "huge gross margin improvement."

Judge pointed out that WMT's year-to-date return is "double Amazon's." Joe said he knew that.

Jim Lebenthal, who had a quiet show, talked up CRH, what Judge and Jim labeled an "under the radar" winner. Jim said it's "twice the size" of Vulcan and Martin Marietta Materials.

On Fast Money, Guy Adami recounted the Cleveland Browns' efforts over the decades that fell short of reaching the Super Bowl.

Jim thinks Jay Powell could get fired if there’s no September cut

Monday's (8/18) Halftime Report was commercial-lite as Judge remained fixated on the dignitaries arriving at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

When the conversation did shift away from Eamon Javers' updates, Joe Terranova said he's "not sure" we'll get from Jackson Hole what we got a year ago, which was apparently a clear message about cutting. Joe said there is a "risk" to the market of possible "elevated" volatility.

Judge said with a straight face that Evercore ISI is actually suggesting a "7 to 15% pullback (snicker) into October," depending on what happens with rates and other things.

Shannon Saccocia said her view is that 50 basis points in September is "definitely not the base-case scenario."

Shannon actually said "last week, we saw a really nice rebound in small-cap (snicker) stocks."

Jim Lebenthal said the Fed should do a 25-point cut in September, partly because it's politically "wise."

Judge wondered "what more" Donald Trump could say about Jay Powell. Jim said, "He could actually take action" and that Jay Powell could be fired if there's no cut, as the Fed's on the "thin edge" of independence.

Steve Weiss said the market is "clearly set up" for a rate cut. Weiss predicted Powell's speech will be about Fed independence and "giving it back to Trump" and won't have "hints" about September decisions.

Joe said the market needs more than a "reluctant cut" to get a broadening.

Joe differs with The Strategy

At the end of Monday's (8/18) Halftime Report, Judge asked Steve Weiss about UNH.

Weiss said he bought in the last 10 days because it looked like "something was going on." Weiss said he thinks it can get to 325, then it needs something else, and without the Buffett angle, it's "dead money."

Weiss said his recent UNH buy was intended as a trading position, but now he's going to "stay there."

It was a great short-term call. However, given that Weiss has generally been buying this stock on the way down basically all year, we can't be certain that it was a savvy trading call vs. a broken clock eventually being right.

Judge said Tony Pasquariello is standing by his call of large cap stocks outperforming. Jim Lebenthal admitted he "threw in the towel on small caps (snicker) a couple of months ago." Jim predicts that owning cyclical large caps outside the AI space will get him "the same bang for the buck" as he'd get in small caps.

Weiss said he's sticking with Mag 7 because big companies have the money to hire in a tight labor market (it's tight, he said, because of immigration pressure), while smaller companies don't have those resources.

Jim again defended ADBE but again admitted, if it doesn't work, "I'm not gonna die on this hill," the 2nd time he's used that expression recently.

Judge said Evercore ISI dropped its CRWD target. Joe Terranova said he owns it personally, while the strategy "moved away from it." (This writer is long CRWD.) Joe then talked up VEEV with a lot more enthusiasm than he showed for CRWD.

Weiss said he doesn't mind the government taking stakes in companies such as Intel "in lieu of grants."

Judge said CLF is finally having a good quarter; the screen text said it's up 36%.

Lee Cooperman is being reminded not just of 1999, but late 1999

Judge can never resist saying "new (sic redundant) record" and did so at the beginning of Friday's (8/15) Halftime Report; Rob Sechan said the market is "almost unstoppable" before immediately relaying an anecdote.

Rob said, "I'm lying in bed last night at 10:15. And my phone rings. And it's Lee Cooperman. Calling me. ... The legend ... He says, 'Listen, I'm having one of the best years of my life on a relative basis. Stocks are doing great. Easy to find great things to do. However, this reminds me of late '99."

Rob said Lee "went on to read me something that he calls 'God's plan' from Warren Buffett that he wrote in November of '99."

Rob added, "While we're in a great time now, we don't know what the pivot point out might be."

Jenny Harrington suggested Rob was doing a "humble brag."

Rob conceded "there's a lot of good news," but we have to be "mindful of valuations" (snicker). And exactly what stock direction is Rob inferring from valuations?

Rob concluded, "For now, I think it's more of the same, because of momentum."

Brenda Vingiello agreed there are good things, but other things (such as inflation) "complicating the story."

Judge bluntly asked Josh Brown if there's a "euphoric" reception to market broadening. Josh, who was not at the NYSE but participating remotely and was talking through a robust round of applause at the NYSE for service members, said it's a risk-off day in the market and the only reason the Dow was up was because of UNH.

Finally, "I don't see euphoria, Judge," Josh stated.

Weiss’ UNH buy (the one a week ago, not all the ones in the past year) suddenly looks like a Call of the Year candidate

Jenny Harrington on Friday's (8/15) Halftime Report said there seems to be a "leadership shift" in the market, pointing to the directions of AMAT and UNH.

Jenny shrugged that UNH was surging on just a "little thing," which Judge questioned. Stephanie Link then dialed in to rattle off (seemingly) 15 positives about UNH including "oh by the way" (Stephanie also was on Closing Bell and mentioned "oh by the way" in regard to something else) and "kitchen-sinked the quarter" but it was hard to hear Stephanie over someone speaking at the NYSE floor.

Josh Brown shrugged, "A lot of people who are really excited about UNH today were equally excited at 600, 550, 500, 450."

Stephanie said, "Not me."

Josh said that what Berkshire did "probably puts an end to the credibility problem" for UNH, but the amount of position for Berkshire is simply a "rounding error." But Josh said after UNH earnings fell off a cliff this year, it "probably doesn't get worse from here."

Judge said he gets the Berkshire-size point but that Berkshire won't buy what it thinks are "ongoing dumpster fires."

Stephanie said the new CEO is "going to fix it."

Kinda hate to say it, but Weiss on Monday (hit PgDn a few times) (he wasn't on the show Friday and Judge didn't mention him) was just talking about buying UNH again, that day and the previous Friday and Thursday; this time, it actually paid off with what appears to be 25% in a week.

Small caps are the ‘pain trade’

Judge on Friday's (8/15) Halftime Report said DA Davidson upgraded CRM.

Rob Sechan said CRM dominates its space but faces "macro headwinds and restrained IT spend." Judge argued "Let's get real," CRM hasn't been affected by macro headwinds and IT spend, it's been affected by AI spending. Brenda Vingiello said the data that CRM's got would be "incredibly useful" for AI.

Jenny Harrington talked up LAMR, another new Berkshire stake.

Josh Brown said he bought LRCX on Friday under $100, for a trade.

Rob said he's sticking with AMAT but cautioned that LRCX isn't cheap.

Rob called small caps the "pain trade" and said it's not time to buy yet.

Judge said TGT got a downgrade from BofA. Brenda said she bought it in March as a "turnaround story" but cited ongoing headwinds including 4 days of Amazon Prime Day.

Josh talked up PTC from his "best stocks in the market (sic last 3 words redundant)" list.

Judge told Jenny that JBLU's recent gain seems to have everything to do with Spirit and not anything to do with what JBLU is doing. Jenny said she wouldn't rush out to buy it, nor is she selling it, she's "letting it sit here."

Josh said RKT is "quietly" becoming one of his "better holdings."

Judge hectors Joe over ZM’s inclusion in the JOET, then makes Joe’s dubious explanation sound like A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Late into Thursday's (8/14) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova happened to mention that owning ZM in the JOET, which apparently began early in the year, has been a "complete struggle."

Judge rightly questioned, "Why is it in the ETF, which- which is on momentum and quality."

Joe said "We're ranking 1 through 125, and literally, it was right at the bubble."

Judge said, "I'm sorry," but given that Joe acknowledges it's "terrible," how does it stay in a momentum ETF that just got rebalanced. (That was a great question by Judge; we'd wonder the same thing.)

Joe explained, "We're using different timeframes. 12 months is really important to us. And over the last 12 months, the stock is up 26%" despite not working shorter term.

Judge said Joe's response "quite honestly was an outstanding explanation, and I mean every bit of that."

Or put another way: It apparently likes last year's momentum more than this year's momentum.

Judge, Shannon take issue with each other’s comments

Things got a little chippy early on Thursday's (8/14) Halftime Report as Judge decided to talk about small caps (snicker).

Shannon Saccocia told Judge, "We have been fairly constructive (snicker) on small caps, and we felt like lower interest rates were just one of the many catalysts that could potentially propel small and midcap stocks to perform better in 2025," as Shannon also mentioned the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Judge said he'd "take issue" with the notion of "many catalysts" because rate cuts are the "only thing" that have made small caps work recently.

Shannon said, "And I take issue with your questioning the transmission (snicker) potentially of things coming out of the One Big Beautiful Bill."

Judge said small caps didn't get "totally ignited" when the bill got passed. Judge said the belief in a cut from the bad jobs report is "the only thing that started this trade."

Shannon said she'll concede there's "additional overhangs in that universe that I don't disagree with you on." Shannon actually predicted "more clarity (snicker) on health care policy."

Joe Terranova offered, "Small caps don't have the earnings growth that mid- and large-caps do."

Bryn Talkington said small caps are "somewhat of a broken sector" or "broken asset class" that doesn't look "anything like" it did in the '90s, '00s. '10s.

Kevin Simpson shrugged, "I see no reason to own small caps, ever."

Guy Adami seems to think UNH call that was a bust may still pan out

On Thursday's (8/14) Fast Money, Leslie Picker reported on Berkshire reporting a stake in UNH.

That prompted Guy Adami to revisit his massive-bust suggestion on July 28 that UNH might surge on its earnings report; Guy said that day, "Anything just on the margins that's encouraging, and this stock goes up 25, 30 dollars tomorrow."

It closed $282.12 on July 28.

On Thursday, Guy recapped his call (he correctly said it was 7/28) and admitted the stock "traded down to like 238, or something like that" (its lowest close afterwards was 237.77, so basically correct though intradays were a little lower) and offered that the "bet" by Berkshire and others is that "they'll get through this difficult patch," so, "It should trade back to 325 on this news."

OK, fair enough across the board. The thing is, even if it does somehow get to 325 in the near future, Guy's 7/28 call was still a massive bust, because he was making a trading call that night, yet you could've bought the stock $40 cheaper within days.

Likewise, on Halftime, Steve Weiss has been buying this stock constantly and by Friday can probably claim some gain for this week, but his constant interest in buying this name for months is ridiculous.

How come the guys who buy options used to have to explain on CNBC how long they planned to hold the options?

The PPI report got a lot of attention on Thursday's (8/14) Halftime Report, as Joe Terranova opined, "I think it takes 50 off the table," but he sees 25 in September, though that might be "all you might get in 2025."

Bryn Talkington said that a 50-point cut "would signal something's wrong." Bryn said today's Fed doesn't want to do the shifting of the '70s and '80s from cut to hike and back.

Kevin Simpson bought MCD, apparently because analysts have upped their price targets. Judge tried to conduct a debate about fast-food/restaurant (those terms were debated) stocks, but no one was really interested.

The panel took up DE's slide. Kevin said the problem is grain prices. Joe questioned whether it's a mix of crop prices and tariffs, in which case it may take a while to get through this; "there's definitely a tariff effect on- in agriculture."

Kevin bought HAS. He also bought MO; "I don't wanna get involved with the smoking or the nonsmoking," but it's a "perpetual compounder."

Bryn said VNOM and FANG are high-quality companies in the "penalty box" that just need a "catalyst" for the stocks to start working.

Joe cautioned that WMT could have one of those great earnings report/bad price action.

Judge somehow seems to think that owning AAPL is like having ‘Gekko on a loop’

On Thursday's (8/14) Halftime Report, Kevin Simpson was gloating a bit about AAPL.

"We bought it at 177 in April" (which doesn't help anyone now) and apparently at 209 "3 weeks ago," so if it gets called away at 245 in just a couple weeks, "I'll take the win."

Sounds like he already is.

Joe Terranova said AAPL is a "momentum tsunami" and "ultimately it blows through 240." Judge for some reason wondered if Joe has "Gekko on a loop; you know, greed is good and, and all- all is well."

Seriously? Owning AAPL is a sign of "greed"?

Joe said he worked with Fish for 18 years and Mark would say there's maybe a little "exhaustion" in the name.

Kevin praised Judge and Joe for a "great conversation" on AAPL a day earlier with Cramer (see below) (who knew that Jim would have time to talk stocks at Post 9).

Kevin bought META. Joe predicted AMZN would "blow through 242."

Bryn Talkington said she bought BMNR at 60 and sold September 75 calls for $9.

Judge again delved into his AI-killing-software theme and cited UBS' note as bolstering his case. Bryn said it's more of a "narrative" or "thesis" than a "reality." Bryn said she's "definitely" looking at names such as ADBE; "I don't see any of this happening yet" or even "remotely happening soon."

Judge claimed the IGV "looks to be in jeopardy" (snicker). Bryn said it needs to "base out."

Joe acknowledged the JOET owns a lot of software names but said software's had a "false start."

Joe said CSCO gave "cautious guidance." Judge said show producers "reached out" to Jim Lebenthal about CSCO; Jim apparently said he wasn't doing anything with it.

Judge said Mizuho seems to think XYZ might be the "comeback kid" of 2025. Joe said he'd like to believe that, but if so, don't give him a price target of 88. Joe said the stock "has a lot to prove."

Imagine that: Joe just happens to bring up a subject that Cramer apparently wants to talk about

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (8/13) Halftime Report said he's "trading AAPL" by buying more.

That would barely be enough to get any kind of mention. Except Joe said that Cramer won't like it. That prompted Judge to say Cramer may think Joe is "smart" (which was a lead-up to something).

Joe said his target is 240 before interest wanes, but he'll keep a long-term position. Judge suggested Cramer might want to take up the empty seat at Post 9.

Sure enough, Jim did, extending the A Block past the 30-minute mark. (He's already got a couple shows; what's another.) Joe tried giving Jim a speech about why Joe bought AAPL. Jim was more interested in his own outlook for the stock. Jim said AAPL is "still the best product." Judge made a car analogy and wondered if AAPL has the "best engine," er, "AI," to compete with AI wunderkinds. Then Jim gestured dramatically to knock the short sellers in AAPL. Killjoy Judge kept trying to suggest that maybe AAPL does have AI headwinds.

Rick probably should’ve said ‘We need ZIRP again’; would boost his chances

Judge opened Wednesday's (8/13) Halftime Report with a clip of Rick Rieder (in open collar) from Closing Bell a day earlier saying the investing environment is the "best ever" (Judge's term).

Judge asked Joe Terranova if Rick is right. Joe said, "Yes he's right." Josh Brown praised Rick's "versatility of thought" (snicker). Josh pointed out that biotech was actually up, as were homebuilders.

Judge noted that after appearing on Closing Bell, Rieder is suddenly mentioned as one of 11 Fed chair candidates. In something of a lapse, no one on the Halftime panel pointed out that the person most likely to get the job is someone who looks good on television.

Joe actually noted with a notable amount of seriousness that momentum was underperforming on Wednesday, and if momentum is "going to roll over" in the next 30 days (a concern Judge seemed to downplay), would the market "struggle" to make new gains.

Kari Firestone bought TSM, one of Weiss' favorite names. Sarat Sethi defended CRM, but Josh pointed out how the stock is tied to employment; "not the best environment" in recent months.

Judge asked Jim Cramer to opine on Kari buying ORCL and selling ADSK. Jim did wonder if ORCL might get "overstretched, cash-wise." Kari predicted earnings growth over 20%.

Judge said Brinker's a story, "in and of itself" (snicker).

Josh said CAVA is dependent on people going to the office to work. Josh said Chili's is in the suburbs where people live and not reliant on office workers eating there.

Joe said there's some AMZN news affecting DASH.

Josh talked up "new names" KLAC and LRCX among his best stocks in the market; he likes the latter better.

In Final Trades, Josh called TOST a "screaming buy in the low 40s."

Judge thinks ADBE might be a ‘scooter’ in the automotive age

Judge apparently is so devoid of topics for the Halftime Report, he's bringing up previous days' Greatest Hits.

Somehow, on Tuesday (8/12), Judge and Jim Lebenthal ended up discussing ADBE again (sigh).

Jim said the rally could broaden into "unloved names." Jim said ADBE is at 15 times forward earnings (of course, the CNBC Control Room probably has a different number, but Judge didn't offer one), which Jim said is "distressed" for a software company.

Jim suggested that CSCO a year ago had the same sentiment. Judge suggested ADBE might be a "scooter" in an era of automobiles. Jim said "maybe" it is, but he doesn't think so.

Late in the show, Judge brought up CMG. Stephanie Link said, "Last week, I think we spent 20 minutes (actually 10; we checked) on the A Block on it." Stephanie said there are easier comps for CMG in the 2nd half of the year.

They didn’t say his name (but it was another Eddy Cue day)

Tuesday's (8/12) Halftime Report did another dive into Alphabet as well as the software sector.

Brian Belski bought more Alphabet and almost mentioned "Eddy Cue" (Belski mentioned the moment of Eddy's big revelation but didn't actually mention Eddy's name.)

Joe Terranova stated, "It looks like the AI catalyst is back once again."

Joe said it's "baffling" that CRM has gone from 20% revenue growth to "less than 10%." Stephanie Link said, "They can't monetize AI."

Jim Lebenthal argued that the rally was broadening Tuesday from the Mag 7. Judge wondered why it has to be "binary." Jim said they're talking about software stocks trading like they're going out of business; Judge argued they're simply "losing the race." Jim said "existential" was being thrown around regarding Alphabet 2 months ago.

Stephanie suggested there's opportunity in cybersecurity, especially FTNT and PANW, because a lot of names "have really fallen out of bed."

Sounds like NFLX really did make a bid for golf rights

In the second half of Tuesday's (8/12) Halftime Report, Judge actually mentioned "Versant," regarding the extension of golf rights through 2032. (Remember how Versant is going to make money packaging CNBC and MSNBC for other entities aside from NBC.)

"Congrats to Mark Lazarus of course (of course) and- and his team," Judge said, while interviewing USGA CEO Mike Whan. Judge asked Whan if Netflix made a bid. Whan only said there was "interest across the board" (which sounds like a "yes").

Tuesday's Halftime was, to its credit, chock-ful of stock commentary. Stephanie Link said that if TGT did hire an "outside person" to replace Brian Cornell, that would lift the stock.

Brian Belski bought some more LULU and predicted a "major turnaround."

Belski bought more OKLO, "a big momentum name." Joe Terranova said the JOET added ULTA at the end of July.

Belski bought more GS. He predicted an "amazing" banking cycle, which people have been predicting for literally years.

Belski converted his PH stake into FDX.

Jim Lebenthal said there's "enthusiasm" returning to airlines.

During Final Trades, Belski noted he's "humbled" to be on the panel.

What happened to the soft landing?

Judge on Tuesday's (8/12) Halftime Report suggested a September cut is regarded as a "lock." Joe Terranova agreed. Stephanie Link said 50 basis points "is a stretch in a big, big way." Brian Belski said "I don't think there's a chance in you know what that we get 50."

Jim Lebenthal argued that the "equal-weight S&P 500 goes down, unequivocably" if Powell is hawkish at Jackson Hole.

Santoli said, "The rate-sensitive stuff is flying."

When was the last time you heard someone on CNBC say ‘soft landing’?

Joe Terranova at the top of Monday's (8/11) Halftime Report admitted this quarter so far hasn't been "flat to lower" as Joe predicted.

"I think there's a lot of people chasing the market right now," Joe stated.

Judge reported a BofA survey that says "91%" of global fund managers think U.S. stocks are "overvalued," but it's still the most bullish survey since February, as people keep buying the market anyway.

Liz Thomas said the S&P is in the "93rd percentile of valuations" of its own history since 1995.

Jim Lebenthal said we'll "probably have some trickiness" through the end of the quarter.

Joe compared people thinking the market's overvalued to thinking one's home is overvalued, "I'm not gonna sell my house; I have to stay in my house," and likewise, "91% of the general public just can't move into cash."

Steve Weiss stated, "Valuation alone never dictates that a correction is coming." (So, um, what does it dictate then?)

Weiss again pointed to "the new investor base that is used to V-shape recovery."

Liz Thomas said it would be "easy" for the S&P 500 to dip to 6,100.

Jim suggested, "Any dip is likely to be shallow and quickly bought."

Whew — Judge didn’t ask Joe to tell us NVDA’s return in the past ‘month’

On Monday's (8/11) Halftime Report, Eamon Javers reported on how NVDA and AMD have to pay the U.S. government 15% from their China chip sales.

Judge said it's not about the chips but the "precedent" that's being set here.

Judge asked Steve Weiss if there's going to be a "toll" for doing business in China. Weiss did not say anything about China "goin' after" Taiwan said NVDA has a tax rate of "14% vs. the corporate tax rate of 21%," so "I'd love them to pay more," but if it's a "penalty for doing business elsewhere," then he'd have an "issue" with it.

Joe Terranova shrugged, "They're being charged to acquire an export license" and it does set a "precedent."

A feisty conversation about ADBE circles back to Eddy Cue

What would've been a fairly humdrum conversation on Monday's (8/11) Halftime Report about ADBE got slightly combative when Judge objected to Jim Lebenthal's reasoning for the stock's performance.

Jim said ADBE has been outperforming on earnings and buying back stock; Jim conceded AI is "troubling" the stock, but so far, it's not showing up in the results.

Judge asked if those results wouldn't have been better without the impact of AI.

Jim said it's a "good question" but is "difficult to answer."

Judge pointed out that Jim just said that AI "hasn't shown up in the earnings," so "you apparently don't feel like it's a difficult question to answer."

Jim asked to rephrase his answer; "thank you for repeating it back to me."

Judge said, "That's why I'm here."

Jim asserted that "the AI impact is overly priced in."

Joe Terranova asked Jim what the "turnaround" is for ADBE. Jim pointed out sales have risen over 1, 3, 5 years.

Jim also pointed to his defense of Alphabet a few months ago. Judge brought up, yes, "Eddy Cue" and said the Google outlook was more "speculative" whereas the ADBE headwinds are "fact-based."

Jim said he doesn't think it's fact-based. But Jim conceded that if the stock just won't move, he'll be inclined to move on; "it's not a hill I want to die on."

Weiss still buying UNH

Apparently because he can't help himself, Steve Weiss on Monday's (8/11) Halftime Report said he was buying UNH (snicker) (this writer has no position in UNH) on Thursday, Friday and "a little" on Monday.

Weiss said he's "agnostic" as to the company (we think that means, regardless of the company's business fundamentals, the stock is due to bounce) but is hoping to capture a little momentum.

Weiss apparently was joking when he pronounced UNH fundamentals "a little worse" than those of AAPL. Judge questioned that comparison, then said it's "so rare" for Weiss to smile, "in and of itself (snicker)."

Liz Thomas said health care is something to look at with other sectors at all-time highs. Jim Lebenthal said health care is "not a falling knife" because it's select stocks that are driving down the sector's returns.

Jim's probably right, there might be some good ones out there, but the sector is always going to have so much government influence and, especially currently, a risk of being cut off from the spigot that we don't know why any of these stocks would seem attractive now.

Joe Terranova bought more AAPL (Zzzzzzzzz), citing the momentum factor. (It's not like he ever cites other factors, such as options activity.) (Remember those guys?)

Joe owns TKO and said it's having a "knockout" day after its "big deal" with Paramount. Apparently taking a dig at casinos, Joe told Jim, "This is the new entertainment. This is what the younger generation (snicker) wants." In response, apparently, Jim made WYNN his Final Trade.

‘Shaky’ heard about 50 times

Judge actually opened Friday's (8/8) Halftime Report with Dan Greenhaus, who typically is on Closing Bell and hasn't been on Halftime in ages. Dan says the market feels "shaky" (and he didn't mean 1970s Shakey's Pizza).

Jim Lebenthal insisted, "We have climbed the wall of worry" (which isn't to be confused with Phil Spector's Wall of Sound).

Kevin Simpson said he's on the "shaky, 100%" side. Kevin said he doesn't expect a 20% drop "by any means," but 5-8% would be a "great" buying opportunity.

Judge asked Steve Weiss if the market is really "shaky" in a week AAPL is up 12%, NVDA is up more than 5% and PLTR hit a "fresh high."

Weiss said, "It doesn't seem shaky to me at all." Weiss said there's "always" the possibility of a 5-8% pullback on any given day, week, month in the market.

Weiss tried to explain his non-shaky argument to Greenhaus, then basically punted and said Dan can evaluate the macro, because Weiss is "strictly bottoms up" (he said that twice) as an investor and doesn't consider it a victory if he's only down 8% in a year the market is down 10%.

Jim said PLTR could trade at 100 and still be expensive.

Kevin sold a 135 AEM call that expires next week; "I hope it doesn't get called away," but it's a way of hedging a stock that's had a big run. (This writer is long AEM.)

After the A Block, Dan Greenhaus was talking about the consumer and asked for a 5-year chart of RL; Judge stated, "5-year charts are irrelevant to this conversation." Weiss tried arguing with Judge that veterinary spending is "trending down," but Judge pointed to Elanco and Dan said spending on pets is "recession-proof."

Dan said incentives are "extraordinarily high" for homebuilders, but the "outlook for rates" has lifted the stocks this week. Jim bluntly stated, "I'm not so sure interest rates are coming down," at least on the long end.

Kevin Simpson sold ELF at 115 on Tuesday; he said under 100 it's "probably OK."

Judge called Weiss "Count D" during Final Trades. Weiss offered TSM.

Jenny says people ‘don’t feel good’ about making money this year

In case you were happy about your market returns this year, take a listen to Jenny Harrington.

Jenny on Thursday's (8/7) Halftime Report contended that her clients aren't "rah rah," actually "people are wary, people are uncomfortable" and "don't feel good" about making money in this market, but "the government's going to support this market" and "we know they're gonna back away from tariffs."

Stephanie Link wondered "what if they don't back away" and "what if tariffs actually work?"

Jenny said, "That's why you stay ... (here comes the big words) ... fully invested." But, "it's not rah-rah-rah."

Judge pointed out to Jenny that deregulation and "better growth" are "legit" and not "what-ifs." Jenny told Judge, "I would call this a digestion."

‘The UnitedHealth of Mexican food’

The big controversy in the A Block of Thursday's (8/7) Halftime Report concerned Stephanie Link's CMG buy.

(It wouldn't have been a controversy, except by the end of the discussion, Stephanie was trying to make this stock sound like "Citizen Kane," and Judge added fuel to the fire by twice asking for a rationale.)

Stephanie conceded CMG's turnaround will take time, but other restaurants are having same-store sales issues also. After Stephanie gave a lengthy list of reasons to buy, Judge actually twice asked "Why?," prompting Stephanie to re-recite most of the same reasons.

Judge wondered if maybe "the best days are behind this name." That brought a rebuttal from Jenny Harrington, who said that despite all kinds of other restaurants, for her 16-year-old and 18-year-old, "Chipotle's still No. 1 for that crowd."

Jenny, who had falling-mike issues throughout the A Block, nevertheless noted CMG valuation issues. Stephanie argued against every one of them.

Josh Brown agreed that CMG is the "go-to" for his kids "and all of their friends." But Josh said "It's a falling knife. It's the UnitedHealth of Mexican food."

‘Tough to see ... where the dips don’t get bought’

Josh Brown opened Thursday's (8/7) Halftime Report saying the economy is "not identical" to the market, and tariffs "Just really aren't, um, a powerful enough countervailing force to offset what's happening with the AI capex story."

Josh asserted, "It's tough to see a situation where the dips don't get bought."

Stephanie Link talked up ETN (probably her favorite stock of the last 6 months) and sounded in utter disbelief that anyone would ever SELL ETN. Stephanie also talked up ROK. Stephanie also bought UBER. Jenny Harrington and Josh speculated/debated over why UBER dipped Wednesday; too many reasons to list.

Josh said that contrary to current narratives about liquidity leaving the U.S., private investors worldwide are buying "record amounts of U.S. securities."

Josh has lots of spare time

After the A Block on Thursday's (8/7) Halftime Report, Judge brought up the government allowing private assets in 401(k) plans.

Josh Brown said he wrote a "3,800-word blog post about this on Monday." Josh asserted, "Most people don't need this."

Jenny Harrington pointed out that there are funds that provide private asset exposure. Josh said the 401(k) universe of dollars is so large that just opening it to private assets is a windfall for private equity.

Stephanie Link pointed out that "these are long-tailed assets; you're not getting your money back for a very long time."

Jenny said a family member had another family member pass away; the decedent was an "80+-year-old" whose portfolio was "loaded up with these private vehicles," and "they don't unlock for between 4 and 12 years," so the heirs "can't even access their money." Jenny said "I don't know why someone put an 80-year-old" into these types of vehicles.

Josh talked up TJX as one of his "best stocks in the market" (a feature that includes Josh's signature on the screen).

Jenny was pointing out how dividend stocks were going up Thursday.

Kevin Simpson joined remotely to discuss LLY. Kevin said that sensing volatility a day ago, his shop "covered a third of the position" in LLY when it was 750; they wrote a 1-week call in the money for $38; this morning he bought it back for $1.36. Stephanie talked up ELAN.

Jeremy Siegel opened Thursday's (8/7) Closing Bell saying he still likes the market but perhaps the market doesn't like Waller as much as Warsh for Fed chair, even though Jeremy thinks Waller has outstanding credentials.

Joe, Jason knocked it out of the park on AMD, an outside candidate for Call of the Year; Bill nailed gold miners

A couple months ago, this page was pointing out Steve Grasso's fantastic prediction that X would end up getting acquisition money (actually, Steve did NOT predict that the original Nippon deal would be waved through pretending there's different terminology; he predicted the president would come up with the same kind of money so that X wouldn't suffer a humiliating setback) dating back to last year and early this year with the stock in the 30s and pronounced it the leader in the clubhouse for Call of the Year.

But other calls are getting on the radar.

On June 25, Joe Terranova and Jason Snipe both picked AMD for Final Trade. Yes, the "Final Trade" is sort of anticlimactic and we often don't pay attention, but we did in this case because 2 panelists were suggesting it after it already had a strong bounce-back from April. The shares were 143 that day. Check out where they were last week. It's true, other than this Final Trade call, Joe and Jason weren't exactly pounding the table for this stock over the last 6 weeks, which would help its cause. But still a tremendous call by 2 people at the same time. (This writer did not have an AMD position at the time of the call and does not have an AMD position now but did own the shares after June 25.)

Then there was Bill Baruch on July 9 touting a "tremendous supercycle" for gold miners. He listed a whole basket but suggested there's a "3-headed horse race" led by AEM, NEM and B. All have big gains since July 9, especially the first 2. (This writer is long AEM and B but did not have positions at the time of Bill's call.)

Also, there have been several recent calls on niche aircraft companies (mostly linked to Josh Brown) that Judge has mentioned recently, and of course, there's PLTR; at some point we'll be looking up the various calls on each to figure out scorecards. (However, recommendations for those companies have often been accompanied by warnings about managing risk, so we're not even sure anyone for example has really been touting buying PLTR this year.) (This writer has had no position this year in PLTR or any niche aviation companies.)

Joe says people claim he doesn’t actually buy the stocks he says he buys

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (8/6) Halftime Report said he bought AAPL in the premarket and curiously added, "Yes all the haters out there will say no I didn't; trust me, I did."

Joe said he bought it because of "positioning" and "sentiment." Joe credited Malcolm Ethridge and Josh Brown for getting into the stock earlier.

Malcolm, also on Wednesday's panel, said AAPL is "trying just to make sure that they stay out of the ire of the president here." Though Joe was mentioning "positioning" a bunch of times, Malcolm said his interest is about the "sentiment."

Steve Weiss had a different term for what Joe and Malcolm are doing, calling it "chasing momentum."

Weiss said neither Joe nor Malcolm mentioned AAPL "fundamentals," stating that what Joe's doing and Malcolm to a lesser extent (because he bought around 190) with AAPL is "chasing momentum."

Judge countered, "Chasing momentum in a name like Apple? I don't- I- That doesn't make much sense to me. There has been no momentum in Apple," adding "Joe bought this morning" and "Maybe they're anticipating momentum returning" and "it doesn't feel to me like he's chasing anything other than a great opportunity potentially."

Weiss insisted, "Over the last 5 days, the stock has moved up. And it's moved up measurably," but "The fundamentals are still punk."

Joe said AAPL hasn't been up "significantly" in the last 5 days and said of Weiss, "We just have different strategies." In a nice gesture, Joe said, "I respect Steve's strategy" which is basically to buy UNH whenever possible.

Weiss said the announced buyback programs don't really matter; "It's when they buy back the stocks that matter."

‘Weiss in a nutshell’

Liz Thomas (apparently the Young is officially gone, a subject Judge brought up about 3 times) was back on the Halftime Report on Wednesday (8/6) for the first time in months.

Liz noted, "I think I went out on March 16," and had she just "woken up today," it would seem like the market's hardly changed since then. Liz said the market can keep going higher but needs "different points" of emphasis. "You want to be invested in U.S. tech," Liz advised.

Liz stated, "This has, again, been the recession that just never came."

Steve Weiss was back to his talk bearish/be fully invested routine, noting that Malcolm Ethridge spoke of tech CEOs having to be "diplomats," but Weiss stated, "Well guess what — so are the CEOs of other companies." Weiss then went on to say tariff buying has been pulled forward and "credit card balances remain high" so "there's a danger of being com- you know, complacent in this market."

Judge said, "So are you negative the market again? (sic grammar) Now I'm confused, Weiss." Weiss said ... "I'm fully invested till further notice." Weiss revealed that "70% of my exposure" is in Megacap Tech, but "I'm not complacent."

After the A Block, Judge said Weiss is trying to "refute" things. Judge brought up Weiss' interest in LDOS. Weiss said the CEO and company have been executing, and there's "a lot of upside here" and he'd consider adding on a pullback.

Joe Terranova talked up ETN as a data-center play and suggested not moving away from it just because it seems "everyone's appetite is full."

Judge again brought up AXON, saying it's in "meme mania" and "cultish stock activity." Joe got a little tripped up protesting that he doesn't want to define a "meme" stock. Joe said "it's momentum cult, for sure." Joe said to keep an eye on $800 as support, "because it should not go back below $800." Malcolm said AXON has been a "momentum stock" for 5 years.

Malcolm sold IRM and PLD. Joe said of PLD, "The ETF loves to buy this (snicker)."

Liz Thomas said "the next big catalyst I think is the Fed," but there's a lot of reports due ahead of the September meeting, and "if any of those reports come in hot, we're not gettin' the cut, right."

Weiss offered UBER as his Final Trade; Judge said that when Judge tried to mention earlier that it's one of Weiss' favorite stocks, Weiss tried to "refute" it. "If that is not Weiss in a nutshell, I don't know what is," Judge sighed.

Jim warns that stocks like PLTR have ‘pullbacks of 40% or more’

Josh Brown on Tuesday's (8/5) Halftime Report mentioned how evaluating stocks like it's the '80s or '90s causes people to miss certain hot names.

One of those is PLTR, which according to Joe Terranova posted "staggering numbers."

Joe said there was "skepticism" about the company with average price targets previously being 116, but now those targets have risen to an average 142 (as if anyone in the world thinks those targets are a guide to where the stock is going).

Josh admitted he "absolutely missed" PLTR and that for whatever reason, he worried about valuation all the way up. Josh said PLTR's commercial revenue rose at double the rate of its government business.

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal admitted it "feels uncomfortable" to have an '80s or '90s mindset while stocks such as PLTR are skyrocketing. Jim, who made references to clients calling him and complaining about buying certain stocks when they're at highs, asserted that stocks with a 10-bagger will experience "pullbacks of 40% or more."

Josh said you can still be comfortable owning stocks with those kinds of gains by managing position size. Judge hectored Jim over owning ROKU a while back.

Judge noted that AXON and LMND were on fire. Joe said AXON has got a "cult following" in the law-enforcement community. Joe said AXON, PLTR and APP are the 3 names that have put up the kinds of numbers that their valuations imply.

Josh said JOBY's in a "red-hot" sector.

Anastasia Amoroso said it's clear we're in the "early innings" of the AI boom, but be "mindful" of valuations, which seems to be the type of advice that Josh was just lamenting.

Judge said that anyone can categorize these stocks by any term they like; "meme," "cult," "low-quality," "high-beta."

Why would anyone be surprised that this market is higher than they think it should be?

Josh Brown on Tuesday's (8/5) Halftime Report said the "growth driver" for the stock market getting to 7,000 this year would be lower rates and a surge in the housing market, which would be a "game-changer"; aside from that, we're just hoping on a continuation of Mag 7 strength.

Joe Terranova asserted that the Fed telegraphing a cut in September "will stimulate the housing market."

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said "frankly I'm surprised we're not down more" on Tuesday. Jim said companies are "clearly" not hiring, but "they don't wanna lay people off."

Jim added, "I definitely think the Fed's gonna cut in September" and that the market's "accepting it now."

Anastasia Amoroso said this is a "quarter of adjustment" to tariffs and lower rates.

Is this Bill Bates’ office?

In a hilarious movie reference that seemed to go right over Judge's head on Tuesday's (8/5) Halftime Report, Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said he's gonna stick with VRTX (after suggesting Judge was playing dumb in pretending not to know who on the day's Committee owns the stock) and said nobody can know drug trial outcomes unless you're Bud Fox "dressing up as a janitor," which Jim said is NOT his "modus operandi" (snicker).

Judge said Joe Terranova recently added 3 refiners; Joe said he personally bought them and he thought Judge meant that the ETF added them. Judge accused Joe of getting "a little jumpy."

Josh Brown talked up D as one of his "best stocks in the market," again referencing the need for power for the internet.

Late in the show, Judge had to give way to Andrew Ross Sorkin in Aspen with Steve Mnuchin (and apparently, there were all kinds of former Treasury secretaries out there). Steve seems to think 10% across-the-board tariffs would be fine. Steve told Andrew he'd prefer to see tariff revenue go to "deficit reduction" (snicker) rather than, as Andrew suggested, "dividends" (snicker) (#checks) to middle- or low-income people.

Judge botched it, should’ve realized that ‘month’ for these purposes could be measured in several ways

Judge waited till the 14th minute of Monday's (8/4) Halftime Report to bring up ... yes ... JOET rebalancing.

The JOET bought AMZN, GOOGL and MSFT; Judge pronounced the middle one "Alphabot" (snicker) before correcting. Joe Terranova said the JOET owns "6 of the 7 megacaps" (meaning 6 of the 7 Mag 7, apparently) but dropped AAPL.

Jim Lebenthal suggested it seems like earnings reactions to Mag 7 names was based on fundamental reasons; Jim again brought up his favorite 5-7% potential pullback.

Moments later (sigh), Judge said TSLA is still in the JOET, and Judge told Joe he doesn't see any momentum there; "1 month (sigh), it's negative."

Joe responded, after trying to give a speech, "1 month, Tesla, 1 month Tesla is actually- I don't believe it to be negative."

Judge insisted, "It's negative by 2.3% over 1 month" and demanded to know where the momentum is.

Joe countered, "Over the last year, Tesla is up 55%." Joe seemed to think it's higher over 1 month and said they've got an "issue" over the data.

Judge demanded, "What do you mean, you disagree with me" and asked the "control room" to verify that TSLA is "down" in the last month. Judge actually stood up at Post 9 to gesture while wondering, "Are we talkin' past each other?"

Joe said "I think we're disagreeing on this." Joe said TSLA ranks 5th in the Mag 7 (for "momentum," apparently).

After the A Block break, Judge admitted there's "conflicting stuff all over the place." (No, it's as simple as defining what "month" you're measuring.)

Finally, Judge rather clumsily said that a viewer pointed out something Judge should've been cognizant of, that if the TSLA 1-month calculation starts with the June 30 close (317), it's a different result than if it starts with the July 1 close (300). (There again, he still didn't specify whether the endpoint would be exactly 1 month (presumably 31 days in this case) or 1 month plus the first few days of August, where we are now.)

Given a 3rd try after another commercial, Judge explained that "Tesla is in fact down 2.3% over the last month if you use the closing price on July 3 ... to today."

Joe said a "1-month time frame" will show a "5% return" because "they are taking the opening price of Monday, July 7th, the 4th was a holiday, the 4th was a holiday, and from Thursday's close on the 3rd to Monday the 7th, Tesla had that big decline. That's the difference."

Joe added, "I guess it's how you define '1 month.'"

Judge shot back that "Most people would define it by the actual month."

Joe said MS has a "slightly better debt to equity ratio than Goldman Sachs" and that's why MS is in the JOET, but Joe owns GS personally. Judge said that sounds like an "anomaly" about "scoring." Joe said there has to be a "process" based on "rules."

Jeffrey Gundlach does not mention Mr. Magoo

Monday's (8/4) CNBC star had to be Jeffrey Gundlach, whose appearance on Closing Bell actually came several days after his usual appearance, the Wednesday of Jay Powell's press conference.

Jeffrey said that having a "rain check" this time was kinda helpful because of the new data emerging Friday.

Echoing a theme that everybody & his brother (including the president of the United States) seems to be making these days, Jeffrey said the data (pronounced DAY-ta) is "getting much less reliable."

Furthermore, the updates are always negative, Gundlach said, explaining that Joe Biden had 48 jobs reports in 4 years, "and 45 of them were revised lower."

In the revision, "almost half of it was from government workers," Gundlach said, adding, "Does the government not even know how many government workers there are? That just seems- it seems embarrasing, quite frankly."

Jeffrey said, if there's more concerning data by September, "People might be talking about a 50-basis-point rate cut."

Jeffrey said Powell sounded "hawkish," though Jeffrey asserted there's a "virtual certainty" that the Fed cuts, although he didn't specify when, and he's "skeptical" of 3 cuts in 2025.

Jeffrey said Jay Powell perhaps was reacting to the muscling of the president and was "laying it on ... a little bit thick" in his inflation comments.

Halftime Report panelist actually brings up possibility of government checks going out

Joe Terranova opened Monday's (8/4) Halftime Report NOT talking about TSLA's 1-month return but mentioning his own recent thoughts about the market being exhausted.

"We had a 3.3 correction from the intraday high on Wednesday to the intraday low on Friday. ... Maybe that's just good enough to work off some of that exhaustion," Joe said.

Joe said the question is whether a September rate cut is priced in. "I don't believe it is," Joe said.

Judge said Mark Zandi posted that "the economy is on the precipice of recession" but it's "tough" for the Fed to cut because of inflation. Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said he's "glad" that Judge asked him about Zandi, because his "first response" was that Zandi is "nuts," but Jim decided that Mark "has a point" and that we're "pretty close" to "going into contraction." Jim agreed "we're on the precipice."

Bryn Talkington questioned what happens to "all this tariff money" and even said there's talk of ... yes ... "checks out."

Jim is still talking about his down-5-7% possibility, pointing out, "The stock market does go down sometimes ... sometimes more than once in a year."

Bryn predicts PLTR higher

Bryn Talkington on Monday's (8/4) Halftime Report bought PLTR at 27 last year (which doesn't help anyone now) and still has a "small position" left. Bryn predicted it "marches higher tomorrow."

Joe Terranova said it's "very difficult" to find a company with that kind of growth, though "I understand the valuation is rich at 229 times" and "I understand the skepticism."

Bryn said HOOD feels like it's "taking a breather."

Bryn made TSLA her Final Trade. (But thankfully didn't ask Judge for the 1-month return.)

Bertha Coombs on the CNBC News Update actually reported newspaper expansion in the form of the New York Post opening an L.A. outlet.

On Monday's Fast Money, AEO came up, and Mel said, "What a great ad campaign. Everybody is talking about it, right? I mean, that's- that's what ads are for."

Not sure what Bill means by ‘home court advantage’ (in the category of Catchy Client Note Slogans)

Bill Baruch on Friday's (8/1) Halftime Report noticed that the S&P futures "hit an overnight high" on the META and MSFT reports, so the weekly chart with an "outside bearish reversal" will look "pretty ugly."

Bill said Jay Powell was "pretty much humiliated" by the presidential tour, and Bill shipped a note to clients saying that Wednesday was "home court advantage" for Powell and that it was his "opportunity" to "really kind of put his foot down (snicker) and price out the cuts in September." But Bill said the cuts are now priced back in.

Here's where Santoli, guest-hosting for Judge, had a bit of a lapse that Judge might not've, as Santoli failed to ask Bill to clarify what he meant ... because we wuz kinda scratchin' our heads ... Powell should've been defiant on Wednesday about not cutting? Because he had some kind of mystical "home court advantage"? Advantage of what? And now the data Friday seems to make that more likely?

Bill said Jackson Hole could be the place for Powell to "communicate transitions in policy."

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal wondered, "How much do we think the data (pronounced DAY-ta) is getting fuzzy."

Jim said, "The soft data I think is the most suspect. Like, who the heck is actually responding to surveys."

Jim harkens back to last year’s emergency rate cut demands (not by ‘sane’ people)

Friday's (8/1) Halftime Report was guest-hosted by Santoli, who probably didn't realize in advance what a talker the day would be, given the government's data recalculations.

Steve Liesman said Bostic said that if they knew about Friday's data on Wednesday, "we would've been thinking a little bit harder," presumably about cutting.

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal, who basically never flinches from bullishness, stated, "We were probably due for some giveback in August, and I've been saying that for a couple of weeks."

In probably the best observation of the show, Jim said Friday "seems like an echo of last year," when the Fed didn't cut on a Wednesday, and on Friday, there was a weak labor report, and "everybody freaked out."

Jim said that a year ago, "People were calling for an emergency rate cut. I mean, not sane people, but some people," and it was "laughable." Jim said the economy's been "quite resilient" and the market will build a "wall of worry," maybe over "stagflation."

Jim added, "Let's face it — this is a president who likes to create drama."

Steve Liesman played the skeptic, noting that Jim is "sort of" saying that "Everything's OK if I ignore all the bad news."

"It's kinda easy to ignore the bad news," Jim responded.

Steve suggested tariffs will have a potential impact on "hiring" and "capital spending" and "inflation."

Jim conceded that he "lightened up" in the last couple weeks, but only because of "seasonality."

$120,000 ‘sticky’ for bitcoin

Bill Baruch on Friday's (8/1) Halftime Report said AMZN was facing resistance heading into the print and mentioned a February "gap" (he mentioned "206" a couple times, though maybe he was mistaken because we don't get the significance of 206 on this chart) (at least he wasn't talking about AMZN's "home court advantage"), and he thought it might "struggle."

Bill's not ready to buy AMZN because he's got "enough" of it already. Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said AMZN's multiple has been going down like "skiing downhill."

Bill said he bought more AAPL after trimming "a couple weeks ago."

Guest host Santoli said everyone could take a "victory lap" for July on ORCL and NVDA. Jim said QCOM isn't getting enough "respect," but he faulted management for not doing an "accelerated share repurchase."

Santoli pointed out that NFLX and SPOT have had "shakeouts" in July. (This writer is long NFLX and SPOT.) Jason Snipe said he thinks NFLX has experienced "digestion" (snicker) but will continue to work. Later, Bill made NFLX his Final Trade.

Bill said the $120,000 area for bitcoin is "pretty sticky."

Guy Adami’s Monday suggestion of 325 for UNH looks like a massive bust

Late into Friday's (8/1) Halftime Report, guest host Santoli wondered about UNH. Bill Baruch said he'd "stay away" from it.

Jim "Gangbusters" Lebenthal said if you own energy, XOM is the one to own, but "The problem here is nobody really cares about the energy sector right now," a fair point.

Bill pointed out that Donald Trump is "using U.S. energy in these trade deals."

Santoli actually brought up CL (Zzzzzzzzz). Jason Snipe said it's been tough for staples, but CL's tariff outlook has actually improved.

Bill bought TMO. Bill said it had a "tremon- (sic) tremendous earnings report" in the last couple of weeks, and that biotech was actually doing OK on Friday. Jim said the sector has gone down and "dragged down" some "high-quality" names like TMO. Jason touted ABBV.

Jim said DIS has been in a "consolidation range" and earnings need to outperform. Santoli noted UBER is in the "industrial sector," one of the show's favorite Fun Facts.

Jason Snipe's Final Trade was PANW; Jim actually is back to recommending RIG.

On Friday's (8/1) Fast Money, Steve Grasso said the market was probably due to struggle a bit, there's a "lack of catalysts," and he suggests maybe people "clear out for a little bit" and "reset," but he warned against selling the market, citing the superfast bounce-back in April. Tim Seymour claimed we're going into a "long weekend" (perhaps he's thinking about JOET rebalancing), which Mel pointed out is not actually a long weekend, a term that came up a couple times during the program.

On Thursday, the Fast Money crew congratulated Karen Finerman for getting "50 over 50" recognition in Forbes. (Honestly, the listing at forbes.com really is little more than a bio that seems picked up from some kind of official source (AI?) and hardly has any reporting in it, but whatever. #sorry)

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