[CNBCfix Fast Money Review Archive — February 2019]
Investopedia Entries That Don’t Exist: Stocks go down when there are no buyers
On Thursday's (2/28) Halftime Report, Josh Brown clearly had the most provocative quote of the day.
"Take a look at this 18% move in 44 days Scott, only happened 7 times in modern history," Brown said. "Every single one of those times was a major bottom in the market."
Well, we don't doubt it. But here's the problem: A sample size of 7, spread over a hundred years or so, really means nothing.
Not only that, but it's hard to believe March-April can be as good as January-February. The time to pound the table was Christmas Eve. A pause seems likely; admittedly, it could take weeks for the pause to begin.
Guest Ed Yardeni suggested there was a "flash recession" in December, then he made the mistake of assessing hedge funds while Steve Weiss sat ready to pounce.
"I think a lot of hedge funds actually shut down, and that might've been the biggest reason why the market kind of, uh, went straight down," Yardeni said.
Weiss told Yardeni, "I don't think you're right, respectfully, about hedge funds shutting down and causing the market- they have such a long lead time on their redemptions No. 1, No. 2, they have a lot of their own money in it. They're not selling stocks down 25%."
"I'm talking about the ones that shut down," Yardeni explained.
Well, 1) This is the first time we've heard that an inordinate amount of hedge funds shut down in December, and if true, it's likely an effect of people not buying stocks rather than a cause, and 2) Just knowing that bit of history, if true, really doesn't help anyone decide whether to buy a stock on Thursday.
Joe "Chief of Staff" Terranova said, "Geographically (sic redundant), the U.S. continues to just outperform the rest of the world."
Joe, who at the end of January flipped the switch on his optimistic outlook and trimmed 25% across the board in perhaps the year's biggest bungle thus far (he expressed regret shortly after), said there was an "overattraction to momentum" when stocks rolled over last year. Joe noted GOOGL among others as underperforming the S&P. But how can that be, when GOOGL's P.E. ratio is sooooooooo reasonable and sooooooooo much better than AMZN or NFLX or FB????
Joe said ABT is a "much better play" than ABBV.
Jim Iuorio told Seema Mody, who buckled knees during the Futures Now segment in impossible new outfit, that "With Powell being dovish right now (snicker/chortle over last 2 words) ..." Mody played it straight and gave Iuorio the benefit of the doubt.
Joe revisited one of his old favorites, SJM, for a Final Trade but recommended a "small, small position."
Karen: Fed has ‘left the building’
We thought we might check in to Tuesday's (2/26) Halftime Report, but the Fed testimony occupied a good chunk of the show before Steve Liesman was to come on and explain what the stock market was supposed to interpret, so we just decided, skip it.
Things took a turn for the (much) better on the 5 p.m. Fast Money when CNBC superfox Karen Finerman, who obviously in striking new outfit had stepped straight from the Dolby Theatre red carpet to Times Square, pounced all over the TSLA story.
"Well I think that, clearly they've come to the public markets, they use the public markets, right, they have debt, they have equity, and so, they like all the benefits of public markets, but clearly Elon Musk doesn't wanna live by the rules of public markets," Karen explained.
"Therefore, they should not be a public company."
Tim Seymour tried to insist that TSLA board members should be embarrassed. Karen said the problem with that is, "I think that, you know, that, it's probably a pretty cool thing actually to be on the Tesla board. Seriously, I think it is."
Karen said it's "ridiculous" for Elon Musk to make a First Amendment argument about his tweets.
She thinks the company is still heavily tied to Elon. "If he leaves, I think the stock falls a lot," Finerman said.
In other corporate news, Karen also questioned how GE would get its dividend in line with its "peers," questioning who the peers are. "I don't really get it," Karen said.
Also not escaping Karen's attention was the Federal Reserve. "I think they left the building. I think they are gone," Karen said.
Judge fails to entertain Oscars’ possible impact on NFLX
On Monday's (2/25) Halftime Report, viewers got a cogent analysis of the Academy Awards and the nominated pictures and actors this revelation from Steve Weiss:
"I've got more exposure in the market than I have- had in maybe 2 years."
Meghan Shue is "optimistic on where stocks go from here" (basically 4 of the last 5 words redundant).
And Jon Najarian gushed about optimism from China about the status of trade talks and how China-related stocks are doing.
So wouldn't all of that optimism have been more useful on Christmas Eve rather than 400 S&P points higher?
Grandpa Weiss said he still expects a sell-the-news moment when there finally is a trade deal, but as long as the can keeps getting kicked down the road, we're in a "trading range."
Weiss said he bought DE and sold CAT.
Joe Terranova said he's buying more of the stuff he's got confidence in (which can be a fleeting concept for Joe) but not the FANGs.
Mike Santoli said he doesn't see any "stop sign" ahead of the market "immediately."
Judge never asked panelists if they should buy NFLX ahead of the Oscars
This one's a bit late, but still in time.
Hearing the buzz about the Academy Awards this weekend, we started wondering why Judge hadn't brought up the possibility of a "Roma" trade last week.
That being, if "Roma" wins best picture, then ya gotta believe that NFLX will outperform whatever the stock market does on Monday.
Of course, NFLX might outperform even if "Roma" doesn't win.
NFLX did climb a bit on Friday in what was a range-bound week. Surely it would've been worth asking if the stock is a buy based on Oscars potential.
We'll see on Sunday night. This item was posted Sunday (2/24) afternoon, hours before the start of the ceremony.
‘I’m pretty sure this is a bear market,’ said Jeffrey Gundlach on Dec. 17, using the term ‘bear market’ 3 times
Nearly midway through Friday's (2/22) Halftime Report, Judge seriously intoned, "An update on the situation involving the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft," as though someone had died instead of ... OK, not going there.
Judge then said, "Uh, we'll make the, uh, pivot back to the stock market."
Later, Judge, who likes to tell panelists not to talk over each other, cut off Jim Lebenthal on INTC over how "effusive" Jim is. Then Judge talked over Josh Brown while Josh was opining on the name.
As far as stocks, Brenda Vingiello (it's hard not to make it "Brenda Vaccaro") questioned what kind of macro upside is left.
Vingiello said that if there's a trade deal, "I think it's entirely possible that it is a sell moment."
Steve Weiss offered, "As I go through the thought process (snicker), I think about exactly that — what can go right from here. And what we've seen drive the market is multiple expansion."
But Jim Lebenthal seemed to think trade isn't fully priced in, explaining that the "tariff game" is a "bad idea," and if that were off the table, markets would be set for a "nice leg higher."
That's despite the fact that Jim said later in the show, "I'm not gonna make a short-term prediction on where the market goes from here."
"That's kinda what we do here, Jim," explained Josh Brown.
Grandpa Weiss said, "If you read the Fed minutes and you take the totality of what happened with the Fed since December, you cannot have a lot of confidence in the Fed at this point." (And we'll say, if one is trading the market based on Fed minutes and "totality" of what the Fed is doing, one's a bonehead and a loser.)
Jim suggested that the reason to raise rates is that "there does have to be some dry powder for when a recession hits," which is like driving 45 mph so that you'll have to speed to 75 mph to make it.
Panelists seemed not particularly impressed with KHC's troubles. "This is a 1980s, 1990s game," said Steve Weiss, explaining he wouldn't buy. In a curious reference, Weiss claimed, "This is like ESL, a little different, this won't be bankrupt."
Josh Brown said Warren Buffett isn't the ethics guardian that he once was. "In his advancing years, he's grown softer," Brown said, explaining that what Wells Fargo did frankly was a "white collar crime wave."
Weiss said he's "so aggravated" he didn't buy W, which he called a "battleground stock." He said, "We've used it, for furnishing certain areas, and it's a great product," though the valuation is "kind of extended."
Josh Brown said it's "really encouraging" to have an "ecommerce monster" not run by Jeff Bezos.
Jim Lebenthal took a victory lap on a stock he's mentioned for more than a year, ROKU. "You let it continue to run," Jim said, citing this rationale: "When this thing catches fire, as it does right now, it tends to go much higher than where you think it will stop."
That's not exactly a scientific call. (Nor a "value investing" call.)
Outperforming Judge, Josh Brown posed the best question of the day, asking Jim what the short case is on ROKU. Jim said it's that AMZN or AAPL or someone else could build the same product. But Jim pointed out, they could also buy ROKU.
Jim said people should be in the Internet security space and suggested PANW or CSCO instead of FEYE.
Thursday's (2/21) Halftime was mostly a sleepy affair, though Weiss and Jim did tangle over capex.
On Dec. 26, Jenny Harrington said that a client who's a "super-smart dude (snicker)" told her on Christmas Eve he thinks the market is "broken" and that he's "done."
Great Moments in Fast Money History: Traders actually LIKING the stock market
(Sigh.)
Back in the early days, Fast Money had some oomph.
Specifically, what about the time "The Admiral" Eric Bolling was talking about refiner stocks VLO and TSO and stared into the camera and said (not quite the exact quote), "If you LIKE MONEY ... if you ENJOY MONEY ... BUY THESE STOCKS!!!!"
Fast-forward a dozen years, and about all you get from Fast Money or its offspring The Halftime Report is about how the stock market (despite a raging year thus far) isn't perfect enough and how you can't just buy stuff across the board (as if anyone ever does) and it's still a "stock-picker's market" and ho-hum, here's maybe a few stocks to buy.
That was the case (again) on Wednesday's (2/20) Halftime, which despite the return of Judge (who seems to have forgotten that Mike "2,400 to 3,000 and I'm right" Wilson told people to short at 2,600 and wait for the December retest) stumbled and meandered through a slew of half-hearted recommendations all contingent on something or other from the Federal Reserve or White House.
Honestly, if you're bummed out by being up 10% in February ... shouldn't you pick another profession?
The only notable call we heard was Pete Najarian touting GOOS. Judge didn't ask for any second opinions; if he had, we would've said, is anyone going to care about this product in March or April?
Doc mentioned the volatility of EA, but nobody asked Kari Firestone (she was actually on the panel) why she doubted the stock a couple weeks ago at 80.
On the 5 p.m. Fast Money, Karen Finerman (in yet another sharp new hairstyle) joined the Guy "Fed has lost control of the bond market (not an exact quote from Wednesday) (He said that all the time 2009-2012)" Adami bandwagon questioning how the market can be doing this well with seemingly scattershot indicators.
"It's just- it's odd to me, it's crazy. ... Why do we have a 10-year that's here ... something, something's amiss. I don't know what it is," Karen said.
Missy Lee started talking about TSLA and Elon Musk. "I think the board has no control, whatsoever, over him," Karen said.
Tim Seymour pronounced SLB as "Slum (sic) ber jay."
Sully doesn’t bring up Mike Wilson’s sell-2,600-wait-for-December-retest call
It seemed like a frivolous conversation, but oh, what a revelation.
On Tuesday's (2/19) Halftime Report, guest host Sully asked the panelists for a 1-word answer on whether the S&P 500 will end the year higher than it is now.
3 of them said yes; Joe Terranova said he has "no idea."
Sully asked, "Isn't that the whole point of the show is knowing (sic grammar) ..."
"Where the overall market is going to go?" Joe interrupted. "The point of the show is that we should acknowledge that no one knows where the overall market's going."
Hmmmmm.
How come no one "acknowledged" that during any of Mike Wilson's couple-dozen appearances over the past 12 months?
(Or any time Carter Worth appears on Fast Money?)
(Or any time Lee Cooperman is on the show?)
Sully could've asked Joe, "If we acknowledge in the opening credits that no one knows where the market is going, what do we talk about for the remaining 59 minutes?"
But he didn't.
Jon Najarian revealed, "I'm not buying the broad market, just willy nilly, throwin' money at it."
That's an interesting comment. By "willy nilly," Sully could've asked, does that refer to the S&P 500, or throwing darts at a board of individual stocks?
But he didn't.
And isn't Doc predicting where the market's (not) going by stating he's not buying the broad market?
(Maybe Joe is just taking a page from Lou Mannheim, you know, "Enjoy it while it lasts ... 'cause it never does.")
Doc mentioned the VIX and claimed "insurance (snicker) is so cheap right now." The VIX is an effect, not a cause, of how much buying has recently been occurring for stocks, and why not just build your own algo that buys protection with the VIX at 15 or lower and sells it at 16 or higher?
Doc claimed "we're still waiting ... for more on Brexit (snicker) (no one in the U.S. cares about this)."
Joe candidly admitted he made some "disruptive moves to my portfolio in the last couple of weeks" (see below). We didn't think it was that bad of a bungle; after all, who doesn't miss a big move every now and then, but Joe stated, "I kinda put myself behind the 8-ball."
Joe twice pronounced "Chipotle" correctly.
Joe pointed out that DRI is Olive Garden. "As an Italian, I'll never- I'm never going to Olive Garden," Joe clarified.
Sully, who likes to demonstrate his knowledge of things, mentioned Seasons 52.
Guy Adami on the 5 p.m. Fast Money complained about WMT's multiple (#effectnotcause). Karen Finerman, in sharp new hairstyle, was allowed extended time to opine on the difference between AMZN's multiple (Zzzzzzzz) and WMT's and TGT's multiples. Tim Seymour, who was allowed to talk for even longer and delivered far less oomph per syllable, called Karen's assessment "a really clever analysis." But Tim doesn't know whether it's "totally linear."
Karen said the tough talk about FB this week is "sort of a concern." But, "That's getting to be an old story now," Karen added.
Exceptionally cute Savita Subramanian said a trade deal could unleash "animal spirits" in the stock market.
Weiss strongly suggests that JJ’s retail investors don’t know what they’re doing
The Birthday Guy wasn't there for Friday's (2/15) Halftime Report (which makes us wonder, after this site telegraphed the occasion on Monday, why there were no cake and candles on Thursday's show), so Mel took one for the team and sat in as host and refreshingly brought in JJ Kinahan, one of our favorite commercial spokesmen (Seriously. If you watch those commercials and don't like JJ, you need your head examined) for the hour.
The only problem was, JJ made an accurate comment about how retail investors perceive stocks, not realizing that Steve Weiss was going to pounce on JJ's terminology that was accurate save for the omission of the term "nominal."
JJ said BA might be "a little pricey maybe for some of the retail traders." Mel, who surely knew what JJ meant, nevertheless asked if it's "pricey" on a "share basis, or on a P.E. basis?"
Of course, Kinahan was talking about the nominal share price.
"Why is that pricey?" Weiss asked. "It doesn't matter, if you have $400 in one stock ... or 10 shares of a $40 stock."
JJ kept protesting that he agrees.
A few moments later, Weiss explained, "Back to JJ's point on expensive stock. That is what retail investors think, you're absolutely right. But it's wrong."
1) Yes, we know, and 2) Yes, we get that. But Weiss can do 500 Trade Schools, and he's not going to convince any of the people who will say things like "I can't believe they're charging $1,500 for a share of Amazon."
JJ told Weiss and Mel, "Keep in mind 1 thing: People tend to think in 100-lot, round lots, when they go in to trade." That unfortunately was JJ's blunder, because even if that may be what TD Ameritrade research unveils, we really haven't heard people talk about that since the late 1980s, when Mel was about 3 years old, when commissions were $50 a trade for 100-share lots of AT&T or whatever, and anyone who thinks nowadays they can't buy 5 shares of BA without buying 95 more shares of BA in the same order is a certifiable chucklehead.
What about Mike Wilson telling people to unload at S&P 2,600?
Steve Weiss on Friday's Judge-less (2/15) Halftime Report scoffed that the S&P 500 is up "20 handles a day" for every day the China tariffs are pushed back. (It's entertaining how stock market panelists constantly complain about bull markets and think they're really cool warning about bear markets.)
Jim Lebenthal bluntly warned, "Don't try to make a market call here."
Josh "Retest" Brown claimed that since January, he's been saying you have to be "open-minded" and that the market has been in "no-man's land."
Brown cited a list of good things about the market, then warned about 2,800.
Weiss actually said with a straight face that our defense needs "are less" if the U.S. pulls out of Syria and Afghanistan.
In a discussion of NVDA (Zzzzzzzzz), Josh Brown brought up EA, but nobody talked about how the whole panel told Judge a week ago they weren't interested in EA at 80.
Shannon Saccocia decided that XPO's 15% tumble "is a concern."
Josh Brown said of WDAY, "if you have to own it," use a 180-ish stop loss.
JJ Kinahan said he's "personally short Home Depot right now."
Don’t forget — big birthday Friday (but it’s not the person in the picture above)
Joe Terranova on Thursday's (2/14) Halftime Report refreshingly owned up to a recent bungle, which involved trimming 25% across the board on Jan. 28 (S&P 500 at 2,643.85) just after praising the stock market the previous Friday.
On Thursday, Joe said, without identifying the details, "Listen, I made a mistake a couple of weeks ago. I reacted, on the day of CAT's earnings, I reacted to that, um, and did some selling that I regret that I did."
Joe at one point even mentioned "Mike Wilson's rolling bear market thesis" (how about Mike's sell-2,600-and-buy-the-December-retest thesis?) and claimed software was the last piece to roll over, so if software is strong, that'll be a plus for stocks.
Jim Lebenthal, who had a sleepy show, drew a distinction between a "foundation" and a "house" and said he wants the latter.
In the show's most provocative comment, Jim said chips "generally trade 8 to 12 times," so maybe tomorrow or a year from now, NVDA will be "measured" at 8 to 12.
In the show's most hilarious moment, Joe actually said with a straight face, "What should happen here is President Trump, from New York, Senator Schumer, from New York, should be involved now and try to re-engage this conversation with Amazon."
"It sounds like that ship, uh, has- has sailed," Judge helpfully pointed out.
Karen & Mel wear red
on Valentine’s Day
In the very early days of Fast Money, Quint Tatro was actually a guest panelist bestowed with the nickname "Kentucky Colonel."
Well, on Thursday's (2/14) Halftime Report, Tatro was about as inspiring as Red Robbins in the 1974 Eastern Conference Finals.
Pointing to retail sales data, Tatro asserted, "I think that investors, if they don't take this as a clue that things are deteriorating, I think that's crazy."
Judge said "that's a decidedly negative view" and not in the "consensus" (snicker) of the panel.
Jenny Harrington, with stunning red hair, asserted there is "a ton of money on the sidelines." But the 2nd thing she mentioned was "3rd year of a presidential election cycle (snicker) (groan)."
Regardless, unlike Tatro, "I don't think it's that bad," Jenny said.
Quint grumbled about MSFT trading at a 24 multiple. Jim Lebenthal said 24 is "not that high" in this low-rates, low-inflation environment.
Quint said December was about tightening, and the last time he was on the show, he "didn't give enough credit ... to Joe's points about the Fed being the key, uh, uh driver of that on the balance sheet side."
Jenny Harrington said, "I think that the next leg up is led, is led by value."
On Thursday's 5 p.m. Fast Money, Karen Finerman said, "I did sell some Foot Locker calls today," only because the stock's had a big run.
On Monday's (2/11) Halftime Report, Jim Cramer mentioned the Ira Sohn champ from 2017 who twice argued on Judge's show that PYPL is a short and EBAY is a long.
Scott "Thanks for joining us" Wapner promised Jim, "We will revisit that at some point ... Never gonna forget that, are ya." (Wonder if the folks at Ira Sohn who gave this trade a standing ovation are going to forget it.)
Cramer said the dude with the trade is a "very nice person."
Judge says financial pro didn’t sound like he regretted missing late-December rally
A curious debate took place at the top of Wednesday's (2/13) Halftime Report when Judge actually argued with Doc over whether "some guy on Squawk this morning" was having any "regret" over not piling in to the stock market in late December.
"He didn't even express much regret in missing it," Judge explained.
"How could you not??" Doc rightly wondered.
Flustered, Judge asked the question he should be asking about every 5 minutes on every program, "Who cares what you would've done; would you now." (The only problem with that is that most people say they should do now what they would've done 3 days ago if they could go back in time. #tradingyesterday'smarket #momentum)
Rob Sechan pointed out there's "no inflation whatsoever." But Steve Weiss said while there's been a rising tide in tech, not every name is the same. "Ya gotta be careful," Weiss said, appearing to grumble about AAPL and NVDA.
Weiss also stumbled into the revelation that the tough part of investing isn't long term, "because markets go up, they go up more than 80% of the time, so long term, that's easy, you just wanna be in risk assets. It's the short term that has the uncertainty." (Perhaps that's why Joe keeps telling us "The low is in, the high is in," and there's no call and why do the program.)
More from Wednesday's Halftime and Fast Money later.
Big birthday coming up
February is a big month for CNBC birthdays, none bigger than the one coming up this Friday.
We don't want to give anything away, but a hint is included with this item.
If you're part of the crew, let's do the right thing, and make sure we've got a robust celebration in the works for this Friday (or another day if said individual decides to take a VAC day). Collectible wine is said to be a good choice.
Kari’s bungle: Scoffed at EA on Wednesday at 80, could’ve made 30% in 3 days
On Wednesday's (2/6) Halftime Report, Kari Firestone revealed, "We used to be a big fan of Electronic Arts, and, and, we're not now. We, we, uh, we saw the writing on the wall."
Kari might've seen writing on walls, but she evidently didn't see the 30% rally from the price quoted on the screen above in just the next 3 trading days.
Judge actually asked the whole panel that day if anyone was interested in those stocks after the "tremendous pullback" in the names ... and got no takers.
See what we mean when we talk about a momentum-trading freak show?
Mike Mayo says you should ‘Put a blindfold on and buy the largest banks’
Even though the stock market has staged a furious rally since Christmas Eve, no one on the Halftime Report has been urging people to buy-buy-buy, and that remained the case during Friday's (2/8) tepid showing with the usual range-bound, last-year-when-this-happened-the-market-sank, fairly-valued, be-cautious mumbo jumbo (as if even during euphoria people are picking stocks by throwing darts at a board).
If people never think the market is any good, why don't they switch to T-bills?
Steve Weiss on Friday even brought up a "hard Brexit" (Zzzzzzzzzzzz) (No one in America cares about this story) and said the markets look like a "slow drip."
"I remain in this retest camp (snicker)," said Josh Brown.
Joe Terranova, capable of trimming 25% in a moment's notice, actually said, "We're kinda back into the world where we need central banks again."
Judge mentioned Goldman Sachs' really scientific-sounding opinion on semiconductors, which was basically, "Wait a minute, this is too much. There's- this cannot be sustained, uh, and they're likely to give back some of the gains that they had." (This writer is long MU.)
Judge, who finally started overachieving this week in the comedy department (see below), lost the momentum Friday but did make a quiet reference to Simon Baker.
Not too long ago, Joe claimed the world had reached ‘social media exhaustion’
Steve Weiss asserted on Thursday's (2/7) Halftime Report that the stock market is in "no-man's land" regarding the U.S.-China trade dispute.
Jim Lebenthal curiously said he assumes "rational actors will come to a rational conclusion." (Jim wasn't asked to define "rational.")
Joe Terranova quickly got things on the right path, correctly pointing out that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping aren't exactly going to be the ones to "outline the deal." (See, if this thing re-accelerates March 1, and there's another government shutdown Feb. 15, even the non-Democratic public won't be able to wait to throw this president out of office, taking Peter Trumparro with him.)
Weiss called the upcoming North Korea summit "a bust" and "a waste of time."
Steve Liesman briefly joined the panel to scold everyone that markets "suck" at predicting political outcomes.
Meanwhile, midway through the program, Judge brought up TWTR. Not surprisingly, Josh Brown, who dialed in because he wasn't on the show, said, "I actually really liked what I saw in the report" and claimed the selloff was "exacerbated" by the broader market.
Brown talked about all the "engagement" on Twitter regarding the Super Bowl and other events. (Yes, and it was going to do SO great when Donald Trump was elected because Donald Trump really uses Twitter and it was going to do so awesome during the World Cup because everyone was tweeting stuff about the World Cup.) (Translation: Business TV personalities play with it all day and post their funny jokes and can't figure out why something they spend an hour a day on doesn't make much money.)
Steve Weiss praised TWTR for being willing to spend. Meghan Shue agreed and said "we're in the middle of a technological arms race." (But what happened to social media having to turn over all kinds of data to Maxine Waters to be regulated?)
Judge in rare form, uncorks his best punch lines of the year
On Thursday's (2/7) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal touted GM partly for its autonomous vehicles, a story that's been germinating about as long as Twitter's supposedly growing engagement.
"Sometime by the end of this year, they should have a robo-taxi working in commercial operation in a major U.S. city," Jim asserted. "When that happens, that's a further unlocking of GM."
Really. Exactly how does this concept make money for GM? A cab company buys a GM autonomous car and then fires the driver? And then the cab company re-hires the driver after the autonomous car hits a person or animal or parked car?
Steve Weiss mentioned that GM is "6 times earnings." #p.e.ratiotrading #whynotjustbuildap.e.algo?
Warming up for some of his best lines of the year, albeit a tiny bit edgy, Judge snapped at Joe Terranova, "Just- Do you have to talk over each other? Jim go first."
Later, Joe affirmed he's long CMG and is sticking with it. Judge pointed out, "I'm glad he pivoted from 'Chipulty' to 'Chipotle,'" the first time that's been acknowledged on television despite countless references on this page.
Steve Weiss said, "At this valuation, just can't do it." #surejustbuildap.e.ratioalgoforyourtrading
Judge then got a jab in at Jim Lebenthal for touting SBUX instead. "You generally like stocks that go up less," Judge chided Jim, then semi-apologized later. "It's all good," Jim said.
Karen on fire in black, says Good for Ackman that CMG is climbing
On Wednesday's (2/6) 5 p.m. Fast Money, Karen Finerman explained, "If I wasn't gonna buy the semiconductor index when it got down to like 1,075 at the bottom, I'm certainly not gonna buy it up here."
That's interesting, coming from someone who likes to point out that "it's not where a stock has been, it's where it's going."
Karen said she prefers GOOGL (Zzzzzzzzzzzz) over semiconductors "for sure." (This writer is long MU.)
At one point, the panel took up CMG, and Mel mentioned Bill Ackman's stake, prompting Karen to observe, "He's gotta be delighted. I- I don't know what he's gonna do with it, but good for him."
At the end of the show, the group took up TWTR; we figured someone would call it a "unique property," and sure enough, someone did.
Joe worries about ‘chasing momentum,’ suggests Fed might chase inflation (snicker) instead
On Wednesday's (2/6) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova questioned if the market is back to "chasing momentum" like it was last summer, a curious comment from someone whose momentum changed notably from Friday Jan. 25 to Monday Jan. 28 (see below).
Joe said the chasing-momentum strategy "did not work last summer" and was "detrimental overall" to the S&P 500. #tradingyesterday'smarket
Josh Brown said the S&P is bumping up against the 200-day. Jon Najarian said he has "aggressively written calls" against AAPL. Brown said basically the names that took the biggest hits last year are making the biggest recoveries; it's as simple as that.
Kari Firestone curiously claimed valuations, once they get back to 17 times, might make some investors skittish. Josh Brown just shook his head that there's any kind of "cause and effect" between a 17 multiple and stocks selling off. Kari insisted some stocks are in "nosebleed territory." #p.e.ratiotrading #sobuyautomakers,theyhavealowp.e.ratio
Joe questioned whether Jay Powell will look at the S&P somewhere around 2,700, 2,800 and decide "I could not pause anymore, and I could go about my business and continue to normalize (snicker) rates."
Kari Firestone was about the only panelist to be down on DIS, citing "superhero fatigue." We'd agree, except we identified superhero fatigue about 15 years ago. Josh Brown bickered with Doc over whether the spending by DIS helps or hurts the stock.
Kari Firestone said "we used to be a big fan of Electronic Arts, and, and, we're not now." #talkaboutJoe'smomentumtrading. But Josh Brown said the industry has "brand-new revenue streams."
Karen stuns in two-tone*
Missy Lee on Tuesday's (2/5) 5 p.m. Fast Money said Chinese leaders apparently were talking about "political instability" because of the country's slowdown.
That prompted Karen Finerman to say, "I think this is the best hand that we've had to negotiate with the Chinese in a really long time. I think ultimately we'll get a deal. I don't think that March 1st is necessarily a binary event."
Well, we basically agree with the latter 2 sentences. See, when Donald Trump warns about another shutdown on Feb. 15 or a tariff spike March 1, it's like NBC News announcing Brian Williams is merely "suspended" from the "Nightly News" anchor chair. As to the "best hand," it's more likely China gives in on something only because they're sick and tired of hearing about this subject and would prefer to get back to things like name/description of Taiwan and some of those maybe-Japanese islands.
*See, here was the only thing wrong with Karen's Tuesday. Karen said "There was a lot to like" in the GOOGL report if you listened in a "vacuum." Actually, the Google quarterly report is the same boring report every quarter, lessee, check how much money they're planning to spend and oh by the way, monstrous amounts of people searching Ad Words is what lavishes money on curious projects that don't make any money but because it's cool tech people doing it, people like Josh Brown on CNBC gush about how much these business units are supposedly worth, such as the autonomous car service (i.e., buses without drivers, that's an appealing fantasy).
Karen seemed to think BA was having too many good things priced in, but Pete Najarian said he'd "probably be a buyer."
How come Judge didn’t mention Mike Wilson’s sell-at-2,600-and-retest-December-lows call?
Tuesday's (2/5) Halftime Report utterly failed to stimulate anyone's senses as panelists continued to dance around whether to buy the market or not. (See, in times like late December, it's always "I'm not sure we've bottomed yet," and then in times like now, it's always "the market looks overbought" or "fairly priced.")
Josh Brown tried to explain why he's respecting the tape even if he didn't expect stocks to be doing this well. Joe Terranova favorably mentioned one of his favorite terms (not "Palo Alto" or "LPX" or "TCBI"), that being "high yield."
Jim Lebenthal stated, "I think there is a war on capitalism," but, "I'm not gonna be a political or a cultural, you know, a, a judge here."
‘Small’ = 25%
On Friday's (2/1) Halftime Report, guest host Brian Sullivan predicted the Rams will win Super Bowl 53.
Eric Chemi at the Super Bowl claimed it's "amazing" that a bunch of Super Bowl players said AMZN is the No. 1 stock they want to own. Based on the clips shown, it sounded like 100% of the players said AMZN. But then Chemi said some players wanted to buy Chick-fil-A and Buffalo Wild Wings (snicker) (obviously aren't watching CNBC daily).
We figured someone would say of AMZN, "I CAN'T BUY THIS VALUATION!!!!!!!" But nobody except Sully questioned the price, wondering when "they get the multiple of a traditional retailer."
Steve Weiss noted that Lindsey Bell liked his joke about The Other Woman costing Jeff Bezos $70 billion.
Grandpa Josh Brown argued that statistics say February won't be anything special. #tradingyesterday'smarketagain
Sully said there's "almost a sense of euphoria" in stocks. Joe Terranova said, "Another December occurring, that can happen at any time." #yeahright.
Revisiting his loopy Monday call of selling 25% across the board that was even so goofy that Judge, who typically waves along bad calls like the windmills on pee-wee golf courses, actually brought it up Wednesday, Joe said, "Unfortunately this past Monday, Caterpillar's report kind of, gave me some concern about the economy (snicker)," so he did some "small selling on Monday."
Joe said he likes SYMC. Josh Brown said NVDA holders got "lucky" this month in that if the overall market wasn't so good, NVDA might be something like 110. Joe said to hold TWLO. (Oh no, not market-timing that one again, we hope.)
[Wednesday, November 4, 2009]
We only mention this to be nice,
to pay a compliment
We've never seen a birthday celebration as muted as the one for Mel Lee on Wednesday.
No cake, no singing, no cheering, etc.
Guy Adami broached the subject fairly early. "We won't give you a number, because you haven't told me the number. I'm sure you could look it up out there folks," Adami said.
"Google," said Tim Seymour.
"She doesn't look a day past 47, she looks great," Adami said.
Actually, we have Googled before ... she is obviously either 36 or 37 ... but one reason Lee hasn't yet made our "CNBC Star Profiles" page where she clearly belongs is because there is little information to be found about her in cyberspace. (Note to searchers; there are a couple other famous Melissa Lees worldwide, we think maybe Australia and South Korea, so careful.) Even Lee's Wikipedia page, which apparently has been the subject of fierce editing battles this year and just today added the Nov. 4 birthdate, is pretty light on details.
However, we did stumble upon this December 2008 interview in Asiancemagazine.com, and were floored by the final question and answer.
It went like this:
ASIANCE: Do you have a boyfriend? Are you married?
Melissa: ha-ha. No and no.
We knew she wasn't married. Granted, this interview was from 2008, and for all we know, things might've changed.
But, "No and no"?
And what's with the "ha-ha"?
Melissa Lee didn't (perhaps doesn't?) have a boyfriend??
Here's the deal ... hard work and career success are great. Lee probably gets up at 5 a.m. or even 4 a.m. and probably sometimes is at the office 12 hours a day.
Socializing is a big part of life too. We've always kind of imagined Lee getting whisked away to Campagnola after every show by some proud guy and yukking it up for hours about Lloyd Blankfein or Jimmy Cayne or Keith Olbermann or whoever with Charles Gasparino or whoever else happens to be there.
The idea that might not be happening is disheartening.
A female CNBC star evidently didn't have a boyfriend.
Wow.
Guys, it just goes to show, sometimes you never know if she's spoken for until you ask.
CNBCfix, by the way, exclusively broke the scoop on Karen Finerman's birthdate many months ago.
Melissa Lee gave the camera one of those mesmerizing little looks again during the RIMM portion of "Pops & Drops."