CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Fast Money Reviev Archive — November 2017]
[Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017]

CNBC ticker stops showing stocks near end of Halftime, into Power Lunch

Here's a curious development.

Around 12:46 p.m. Eastern during Thursday's Halftime Report, CNBC's ticker stopped showing stock trades.

Instead, viewers got repetitive indexes and internal market data on the bottom line and, on the top line, all kinds of commodities, including, lumber, sugar, cocoa, etc.

This lasted into Power Lunch. We're not sure when the stocks returned. (In the meantime, it gave us the incentive to turn on Gasparino's channel, whose stock ticker was indeed working.)

This also reminds us of a long-ago campaign by this page: Trying to determine where exactly the ticker data comes from. Which exchange(s)? What's the size criteria for making the ticker? How recent are these trades?

If that information is disclosed on cnbc.com, we haven't been able to find it.

CNBC graphic on chips said ‘perfomrance’ (sic) (spellcheck not used)

Joe Terranova on Thursday's Halftime Report predicted "more and more parabolic moves," though of what, we're not sure.

Judge said the Call of the Day was Citi's cut of GPS to sell. Joe first called it "Cap," then corrected to "Gap" and said the company seems to be "the story that is overcoming the secular obstacles in retail itself (sic last word redundant)," and he doesn't think the rating cut is reason to sell.

Pete Najarian noted Citi previously had a hold while the stock surged, and he wondered, "Have they been right with that hold thing." (Probably not as right as Katy Huberty is about AAPL.)

Steve Liesman reported that Randal Quarles said digital currencies have "no intrinsic value" and could pose a risk if they get bigger.

Liesman called it "some of the tougher words" from a Fed official.

Judge predicted "a tidal wave's worth more of commentary from members of the Fed and elsewhere."

Josh Brown said bitcoin is "almost getting too big" for anyone to "kill" it; the time to do so would've been at least 3-4 years ago.

Pete said the VIX was up partly because of people seeking upside.

Pete Najarian said December 25 M calls were getting bought. In an update, Pete said HUM January 250 calls have "more than doubled" since he mentioned the name, and he would've been better off being in those calls than long the stock.

Once again, Judge interviews Carl without providing a backstory, viewers hardly know what he’s talking about (and also doesn’t ask about the ‘Day of Reckoning’) (a/k/a trendy thing is calling a tough market in 2018)

Judge decided at the top of Thursday's Halftime to talk to Carl Icahn about … SD's corporate governance.

Carl said the rules for the company's meeting are "the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen," but the most ludicrous thing we've seen (OK, that's an exaggeration) is Judge spending the top 10 minutes of his show on this Zzzzzzzzzzz topic when the Dow is up 350 points.

Carl began his commentary talking about Bonanza for a couple minutes, then said, "But here's the really important thing." That apparently was that "Bennett" got 50 million for himself but nothing for the shareholders.

"It makes a banana republic look good," Carl said.

Carl thinks SD has a "terrible board." So there you go.

Meanwhile, Carl said he's "surprised" about the stock-market "euphoria."

He mentioned a "euphoric state" and said, "there's a bit of irrational exuberance."

But moments later, he clarified, "I can't say it's insane … maybe I should say 'a little too much exuberance at this time.'"

And moments after that, "I don't think it's completely irrational," Carl said, issuing a correction for the 3rd or 4th time.

Judge said Carl taking a position in SD is news "in and of itself" (sic redundant/irrelevant) because it's his first activist position of the year.

Meanwhile, on the topic of bitcoin, "I don't understand it," Carl said. "I just don't get it."

Kevin O'Leary said of Carl's SD venture, "I love this stuff. I think this is what it's all about." (Zzzzzzzzz)

Josh Brown said energy is one of the "target-rich areas for value investors right now."

Judge said late in the show that SandRidge responded to Carl, calling the Bonanza deal "strategic" and one that will create "long-term value."

Steve Weiss said there's "euphoria" on Thursday because of tax-bill anticipation, but otherwise, "I don't think it's euphoria."

Dan Niles on the 5 p.m. Fast Money told Judge (who was guest-hosting for Mel) that the market could be "rougher" in 2018. That's the cool thing for Halftime/Fast Money panelists to say right now (despite having no evidence). (Oh, that's what's going to happen in August too.) (Oh, if DIS hires Sheryl Sandberg to succeed Iger, that'd be soooooo awesome....).

Getting a check and being on Judge’s show brings guest to tears

Judge on Thursday's Halftime Report cross-promoted Shark Tank with Benjilock founder Robbie Cabral, who apparently made a deal with Kevin O'Leary.

Cabral's padlocks use some kind of fingerprint technology.

Honestly, if we weren't so sick of seeing this show when we flip on CNBC primetime or overnight, or seeing all the stupid commercials during the daytime ("AMERICA, YOU ARE WELCOME!!!!!!"), we'd be more excited about it.

Judge even brought in Kim Kelley, CEO of Hampton Products, which is apparently the distributor of the product, who presented Cabral with a check for $100,000. Cabral got choked up with tears in his eyes and said it's the "American Dream."

Meanwhile, Josh Brown said all the notions of what "inning" the bull market is in are "mental shortcuts."

Joe Terranova said, "There's no incentive to sell."

Pete Najarian said, "Let's not make too big of a deal" of MU's slide.

Jeff Kilburg said OPEC members have always "cheated" on announced production cuts, but now they've had an "ah-ha" moment and will keep talking up cuts. Jim Iuorio said short term, he sees 55 crude, and if it breaks that, think "high 40s."

Pete's final trade was ETFC. Steve Weiss said MU, insisting it's "not an expensive stock at all." Josh Brown actually said SHAK, explaining it has "record" short interest. Kevin O'Leary said KR (actually he said "Krogers" (sic plural)). Joe said FDX.

[Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017]

Randall Stephenson made a lot of hand gestures while making his point

Judge's transition midway through Wednesday's Halftime to Becky Quick/Randall Stephenson was actually fairly smooth, all things considered.

Quick looked dynamite.

Stephenson said Amazon Prime has "at least 60 million" subscribers.

Stephenson explained what he says is the beef against his TWX deal. "The government contends that with AT&T with 25 million subscribers, that, uh, somehow we have market power," he said. "We don't understand that." (Translation: We understand it perfectly; it's the argument we prepared for in defending this deal for the last 12 months.)

To address the blackout/price-hike concerns he sees as unfounded, Stephenson said he's offering a 7-year ban on blackouts and "baseball-style arbitration" for all contract disputes. (The issue there is what kind of arbitration rules/jurisdiction apply, how are the arbitrators chosen, etc.)

Unfortunately, Stephenson said something about "the ability to integrate social media with premium content," the same jingle from TV executives for the last 15 years which basically amounts to Judge reading questions submitted by Twitter users on air.

Stephenson suggested that the idea of unloading CNN is one of the government's "illegitimate concerns" about this matter.

Judge finally cut the cord when Stephenson was complaining about the timeline.

Carping about FIFO for a week and with 2 reporters in D.C., CNBC still can’t say which lawmaker put it in the bill

As CNBC continues to lead the charge to knock the FIFO rule out of tax "reform," Judge on Wednesday's Halftime brought in former Fast Money veteran J.J. Kinahan to explain TD Ameritrade's open letter to Capitol Hill.

"This isn't a political comment or anything like that," Kinahan said, except when you write to congressmen, isn't it by definition political?

"It really affects a lot of retirees," Kinahan insisted, even adding, "Thank you Scott for take- for talking about this so much."

As an indication of how little traction this letter has gotten, Judge noted it was dated Nov. 23 but told Kinahan, "I just found about this from you, um, last night."

Kinahan said he's spoken to "staffs" but not actual members of Congress. Judge said Ylan Mui says the provision is still in the legislation.

"It is remarkably stupid," said Mike Farr, who said he's "just incensed."

Steve Weiss said it's another provision in the bill that's "really an increase to a number of people. … I think this is a bargaining chip."

Judge said, "It sounds so un-Republican." Farr agreed. "Stupid on every level," Farr said.

Jim Lebenthal said, "This is an obvious one to give up to get something else."

Tuesday, there was no reason to sell; Wednesday, they were saying, ‘Hey, I can’t wait any longer’

Receiving lukewarm opinions from his Halftime panelists Wednesday, Judge decided to do some opining himself, insisting it "doesn't necessarily feel like, um, a pause" in tech stocks but something "more substantial."

Stephen Weiss suggested a combination of MU downgrade, WDC hearing in Japan and ADSK's miss were part of the day's meltdown, then claimed "a lot of people that had massive gains were waiting for the tax plan to come in for next year and were going to sell. … They're saying 'Hey, I can't wait any longer.'"

Really. That's an interesting 1-day U-turn.

Weiss also claimed there's a concern of rates rising faster than people anticipated.

"Today you have to buy things," Weiss said. "If I weren't involved, I'd nibble."

Pete Najarian said the day's tech slaughter looks to him like a case of "rotation." He pointed to banks' gains.

Pete and Jim Lebenthal agreed the selloff creates opportunity.

Kari Firestone pointed out how much a lot of these big losers on Wednesday are up this year. The ticker symbol on the screen that got our attention was SQ, which is down 20% in barely 3 days. (This writer has no position in SQ.)

Mike Farr offered, "We've got a Fed tightening cycle."

Judge wondered if the bitcoin surge has people thinking "froth." Weiss said he doesn't see any "correlation." But Jim said "it's a good question to ask."

Pete said the banks' move has "staying power."

Weiss: ‘There’s something wrong’ with a CEO ‘missing’ 22 quarters

Jim Lebenthal on Wednesday's Halftime is actually buying IBM, noting the dividend, stating he might be early and calling it an "artificial intelligence (snicker) play."

He conceded there are "warts" in the name.

Kari Firestone endorsed Jim's move; "at this price, I mean, you know, why not?"

For whatever reason, Firestone suggested GE and IBM could merge into "General International."

Steve Weiss said he's been looking at IBM, but to him, "A company reporting 22 quarters, missing 22 quarters, there's something wrong with that CEO. The CEO's gotta be booted out."

ROKU has already exceeded the price target that Andrew is quibbling with (a/k/a when someone is obsessed with $28 price targets) (a/k/a when 4x45=160)

Judge on Wednesday's Halftime brought in both ROKU backer Laura Martin and ROKU skeptic/short Andrew Left for what purported to be a classic stock debate.

Instead, it was tired, pointless quibbling as Left proceeded to make virtually no point whatsoever.

Judge began by asking Martin about Left's tweet about her "irresponsible" research. (Oh joy, alert those feds whom Randall Stephenson is dealing with.)

"What Andrew's missing is this is, Netflix all over again. This is the identical twin," Martin asserted.

Left said "that sounds great" but demanded to know, "When did you figure that out."

Martin said there were "a number of data points" in the 3rd quarter.

Left proceeded to make what apparently is his beef, that Martin had a 28 target 3 weeks ago, which Left agreed with, and now Martin has upped it to 50.

Judge noted Oppenheimer seems to agree with Left and that Judge read something on Seeking Alpha (snicker) pointing out that NFLX has original content that ROKU doesn't.

Martin said Disney's move into streaming is bad for NFLX but good for ROKU.

Left told Martin that if the stock were presently at 26, 27, would she be issuing a 50 target? Left answered it himself: "Probably not."

OK. Let's say he's right. What is this, the worst analyst call of all time? 50 on a stock at 46?

Martin said, "Andrew, how can you say that being a non-consensus person is a criticism? That's what you do for a living."

"Then I think you shouldn't have put that note out 3 weeks ago," Left muttered.

Judge, who tried to appear all stern and stiff as if anyone was taking this seriously, pointed out the stock is near Martin's target. "You and I both know why stocks move," Left grumbled.

Judge said that maybe investors do agree with Martin's assessment. Left insisted, "We've seen this so many times in the past (sic last 3 words redundant)."

Correctly summarizing this bogus debate, Martin stated, "Andrew was supposed to defend why he thought it was a ridiculous valuation when he didn't."

She added, "I get paid to deal with bullies."

Martin also took issue with Left's "irresponsible" claim. "You, putting people in harm's way at a $45 a share price, when this stock is gonna go quadruple? That's irresponsible, in my view," Martin said.

Left said, "A quadruple? So now it's a $160 target? C'mon Laura, you're better than that, let's stop this." (Indeed, they should stop it when someone quadruples $45 and ends up with $160.)

Judge said they'll "revisit it down the road."

Jim likens bitcoin
to late-’90s AMZN

Throwing in the kitchen sink in a virtual commercial-free episode, Judge late on Wednesday's Halftime asked Jeremy Siegel about the overall market strength and Wednesday's tech meltdown.

Siegel said growth is "extended relative to value" and suggested a "harder slog" for the markets in 2018.

Judge brought up Grandpa Robert Kaplan and mentioned (again) Ken Griffin's "7th inning" notion.

Siegel said he thinks bitcoin's a bubble that will end badly. Jim Lebenthal said AMZN was 80 in 1999 and then 2 years later, "it was a $10 stock." Jim said bitcoin will come down, but "it's gonna be here."

Jeff Kilburg and Jim Iuorio actually showed up at Englewood Cliffs to talk about the 10-year yield. As for the yield curve, "It's gonna get flatter before it steepens," Kilburg said. Iuorio said he sees the 10-year going to 2.8. Pete got Iuorio to state that he's eyeing a 6-month time frame.

Judge suggested the negative yields around the world may "in and of itself" (sic redundant/useless) keep rates from rising.

Steve Weiss said he was surprised that Siegel was saying if there's another 2-3% down in tech that people will hit the exits.

Kari Firestone's final trade was BX. Pete Najarian said big banks across the board. (On the 5 p.m. show, he touted TGT.) Jim said XRT. Weiss said financials.

[Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017]

Isn’t this about the time when some grizzled investor says ‘Look at how low the VIX is!!!!’ (a/k/a why Death Valley is next to a mountain (or something like that))

Part of Tuesday's Halftime was preempted by Fed hearings and "tax reform" news updates; quite frankly, 15 minutes of program would've been more than enough.

Judge for whatever reason let 39 minutes elapse before taking a commercial break (#lost revenue), apparently so that everyone including himself could make redundant observations about whether tax cuts are baked into stocks.

Anyway, Kourtney Gibson told Judge the "melt-up" will continue into year-end.

Joe Terranova said yes, this is "the lift," and banks are breaking out.

Josh Brown shrugged that banks have become "high-earning utilities." But Brown said the XLF is "overdue" for a breakout.

Taking aim at bears, Brown said, "You're welcome to keep reading apocalyptic uh blogs (note: this one can be weak but never 'apocalyptic') and watching these people's amateur homemade videos (note: have none of those here)," but it's clear this market is "under accumulation."

Jim Lebenthal said, "Why would anyone sell? There really is no reason."

Jim said a delay or demise in tax reform would hit the market 3-4%, but not more.

For whatever reason, Judge kept trying to assert that "the market's start- is now clearly banking on something."

Brown said, "I disagree."

Judge allowed Brown the opportunity to deliver a speech about how Brown has nailed the global synchronized recovery-or-whatever story.

That prompted Joe Terranova to say, "I don't believe that it is in the market," which unleashed Judge's tirade at Brown.

Judge said, "At all?"

"Impossible to say!" Brown said.

"Well you just spoke so definitively in your mind that none of it's in the market," Judge said, angling along the lines of the mock voice but not using it nearly as well as the previous few days. "But now it's impossible, when you raise the other side of it."

"We have to leave open the possibility that some percentage of investors uh are counting on this happening," Brown admitted.

Like Tittle to Owens (or Lee to Walton), Joe offered to throw Brown an "alley oop," stating the tax-cut details are so complicated and variable that no one could design a strategy around it anyway.

Finally, the lede of the program buried for maybe half an hour, Joe stated, "You could make the argument that it is at the wrong time that this policy is coming forth."

Brown added, "What's the economic rationale for doing stimulus for the S&P 500 right now." (Note, gentlemen: Just be blunt about it; these people have nothing to do, that's the only reason they're doing this.)

Jim Lebenthal got hung up on "opinion" vs. "factual."

Judge brought up Ken Griffin's "7th inning" again (Zzzzzzzz) (What about Howard Marks' claim "that this is a time for increased caution"?) and mentioned the World Series. (We think Judge was trying to suggest the market could still have huge gains left even though it's the 7th inning, but given the loopiness of the arguments Tuesday, we're not really sure.)

Steve Grasso on the 5 p.m. show said, "Right now, I think the market still marches higher."

Karen Finerman said "I think we'll get something" on taxes because it's a "must, must win." (That's sure a good reason for doing something.) (Karen also said the Internet bubble chart looks "adorable" compared with the bitcoin chart.)

Sensationally gorjus Ylan Mui (image above from Tuesday but not the Halftime Report) stressed the importance of Sen. Bob Corker and Sen. Ron Johnson to tax-reform legislation.

Doc knocked it out of the park, touted THO on Nov. 14

Jim Lebenthal on Tuesday's Halftime said his NKE position is "not my favorite" and a "small position" because the stock is expensive.

Kourtney Gibson questioned who would sell NKE into Christmas.

Joe Terranova said EMR withdrawing its bid for ROK is good for EMR, suggesting it will have money for possible GE asset sales.

Kourtney Gibson said ULTA "shouldn't have been crushed" in June and that it's a name you want to be long.

Josh Brown said Arby's buy of BWLD "makes sense" because BWLD "got too big" for the family business running it.

Noting the spike in THO, which Jon Najarian recommended a couple weeks ago, Jim Lebenthal said "millennials are buying RVs," and that you should be buying THO and WGO. Jim has nailed this trade, touting WGO after THO's earnings over the summer.

Brian Stutland said China is having an effect on copper's struggle. Anthony Grisanti said he expects copper to hold the 3.06 level. (Zzzzzzzzzz)

Eric Chemi said the NFL is having a "variety of committee meetings." (Zzzzzzzzzzzz)

Joe's final trade was PNC. Jim said RDSa. Kourtney Gibson said VZ. Josh Brown said he read the VZ story in Barron's and thinks Gibson is right. Brown's final trade was JPM.

Joe and Jim said Stephanie Link owns AMZN.

Proud and beaming mom Kourtney Gibson likes "at the end of the day" and said it thrice, though that phrase thankfully has been disappearing on CNBC recently.

Mel on the 5 p.m. show said "Square is the greatest thing since sliced bread right now in the market."

Tim Seymour mentioned "Road House" (photo above) and "right boot" (that was kind of impressive actually) (that's the boot in the photo). Steve Grasso said, "Be nice."

[Monday, Nov. 27, 2017]

Judge developing impressive comedic voice, correctly illustrates Grandpa Kaplan’s observations

Steve Liesman on Monday's Halftime reported that Dallas Fed Grandpa Robert Kaplan is "increasingly cognizant" of financial imbalances and believes that commercial real estate appears "notably extended," that market capitalization is highest relative to GDP since 99/2000, that it's "extraordinarily unusual" to go a year without a 3% correction and that margin debt is at "record levels."

Liesman said Kaplan and Eric Rosengren are "thinking more about monetary policy through the prism of market valuation" (man, that hasn't happened at all since 2008 (or earlier)) and that 2018 rate hikes could perhaps be motivated by such. (Nobody bothered to ask exactly what that means; sounds like they're more interested in restraining stocks than boosting them.)

Judge stated, "Though it all comes down to the word 'gradual' yet again."

Joe Terranova asked Liesman if the Fed pays attention to the yield curve. Liesman said they look at it more from an "inflation standpoint."

Stephen Weiss said it's a question of "how fast they move." (Never heard that before.)

Weiss said not every flattened curve has meant recession (you can probably hear that once a day on CNBC for the last, oh, 23 years).

Impressively ramping up his comedic repertoire recently with mocking voice, Judge pointed and said Kaplan is talking about all these "potential bubble over there" observations, but Judge noted they're still doing everything at a "gradual pace."

Joe said, "What's good about that is the fact that there's no bubble where all the leverage is."

Josh Brown said the "caricature" bubbles are "very far removed" from big ones that really matter. Brown said the Fed had 1 Bloomberg terminal at its D.C. office prior to the financial crisis. Brown is "totally OK" with Kaplan's remarks.

Howard Marks’ forecast seems to have resonated with Grandpa Kevin

Josh Brown on Monday's Halftime pointed to last week's market records and said if you don't want to accept the trend, fine, but you're on the "wrong side of history." (All of you Neville Chamberlains out there who are selling your stocks …)

Stephen Weiss predicted volatility from Congress' tax discussions. He said that's the only "predictable wild card" before year-end.

Nevertheless, "Where else are you gonna put money," Weiss asked. He expects financials to get a boost from the (pending) Fed hike.

Joe Terranova said "sometimes the best trade is no trade," and there's really no incentive to sell before year-end.

Meanwhile, Grandpa Kevin O'Leary grumbled that "no one's focused on an inverted yield curve yet."

Grandpa Kevin again concluded we won't get 20% on the S&P 500 next year, and "there's better value in Europe right now."

Judge actually was the one who had to tell O'Leary that stocks aren't "ridiculously expensive," nor is there the type of "euphoria" one sees at the peak.

Grandpa Kevin suggested in 2018, you'll want to "de-risk your portfolio a bit" and pick more "conservative" stocks, predicting a "repeat of 2016."

Weiss’ smugness about AAPL ends with clueless point about low-tax-rate companies

Judge on Monday's Halftime dialed up Toni Sacconaghi, the No. 1 something-or-other who thinks AAPL earnings could get an 18% boost in reported earnings from tax reform.

But Sacconaghi thinks tech in general stands to benefit less from tax reform than other sectors. He said those benefiting the least are those with lower existing tax rates and "little to no trapped offshore cash."

Sarat Sethi touted ORCL "whether you get tax reform or not."

Sarat said one effect of tax reform is companies spending more on technology. Joe Terranova said "the software side" stands out. Stephen Weiss said AAPL has "apparently cured to a large extent" its production issues.

Weiss smirked about being long AAPL February 180 calls.

Weiss even claimed "an Apple employee came up to me in the store and said, 'I agree with you on the innovation points.'"

Grandpa Kevin O'Leary said the biggest winners from tax reform are in the Russell 2000, which produced a logical mess from the panel.

Joe Terranova said, "A high-tax-rate S&P company so far has underperformed a low-tax-rate S&P company 8% vs. 20%. OK."

Josh Brown opined, "That's evidence that the Street knew pretty much all along from March on that this wasn't happening this year."

Then Steve Weiss curiously said a lot of those companies with low tax rates are "not productive companies," so that will "prejudice" the stats.

Joe said "right" and nodded. But the point didn't make any sense. If the low-tax-rate companies are not productive companies, why are they returning 20% this year?

Josh Brown weighing offer from SQ to try to ‘transact’ in bitcoin

Joe Terranova on Monday's Halftime said the tumble in SQ is the "first shake-out" in the name but that revenue growth is "very strong," and merchant adoption is accelerating.

Josh Brown said he likes the type of downgrade that BTIG gave to SQ, because "ultimately the dips are bought very very quickly."

Then Brown revealed, "In full disclosure, Square reached out to me. I may be a trial user of bitcoin cash- to, to transact in bitcoin. I'm not sure yet."

Pete promised to be ‘real quick’ on HUM options but rambled on

Ken Griffin's "7th inning" got about 5 or 6 references during Monday's Halftime Report.

Leslie Picker at one point said "euphorio" (sic), and Ken Griffin at one point in the clip said "bitcones" (sic). Bob Pisani could be seen chatting someone up while looking over his shoulder at Griffin speaking to Picker.

Judge said DIS is the only individual stock Griffin mentioned, but Judge didn't see DIS in Citadel's 13-F and asked Picker if Citadel owns the name. Picker said we don't know if he owns it or is trading in and out of it. Steve Weiss clued in Judge how Citadel works and said it's a shop of "constant turnover" and suggested anything in the Sept. 30 13-F could be sold Oct. 1.

Weiss said he thinks WDC still has "pretty good upside" despite the "well-reasoned" Morgan Stanley report.

Joe Terranova mentioned the "mean-reversion strategy" between HD and LOW. He said to wait for more visibility from the HD analyst meeting Dec. 6.

Sarat Sethi said the LB comps "get much better" next quarter; he thinks the stock has room to grow.

Josh Brown said the analyst's cut on NSC is specific to that company. "I'm not a fan of the name," Brown said, touting KSU.

Pete Najarian trumpeted HUM and its January 250 call-buying. "I actually bought the stock," Pete said.

Sarat Sethi's final trade was CERN. Josh Brown said BOX and TWTR. Weiss said WDC and MU. Joe said HON.

Sully on Power Lunch said he has a "weird conspiracy theory" about the Time-Meredith deal that involves Trump learning about the Person of the Year.

Judge’s choice of terminology
trips up Kevin O’Leary

On Monday's Halftime, Judge claimed Kevin O'Leary was "callin' a bottom" in GE, saying O'Leary thinks "14 is the bottom."

But O'Leary insisted "No, I'm not" and that it's "extremely expensive" and that he sees it trading to 14; "the bottom is not in yet."

But that's exactly what Judge said he thinks.

"Help me out," Judge said.

O'Leary protested, "I say the range is 13-14" before admitting he'd buy it there.

OK, both at fault here, but it's 80-20 on O'Leary. Normally when someone is "callin' a bottom," it's presumed to be right now. So Judge should've rephrased his intro to, "Kevin O'Leary thinks 14 will be the bottom for GE."

By saying "callin' a bottom," Judge initially implied O'Leary is suggesting the bottom's in now.

O'Leary, who last week thought Weiss was Brown, obviously wasn't listening to the whole lead-in from Judge, heard "callin' a bottom" and mistakenly felt the need to clarify what Judge already clarified in the remainder of the intro.

They're rusty; there's been a holiday break.

More from Monday's Halftime later.

Closing Bell’s Black Friday botch highlights snoozer of an episode

It's ridiculous that it happens, but honestly, it seems like every year, some retailer has an issue on Black Friday. Or some random day when it's launching a new product, and its website isn't equipped to handle the demand, etc., you know the drill.

Nevertheless, when we heard about a Macy's issue firsthand, we knew that we had to get that story up the flagpole.

CNBC was all over it Friday — the only issue being that CNBC had its own glitch, as Carl Quintanilla and Melissa Lee prepared to turn over the reins to Bill and Kelly at noon Eastern, the screen went blank for a minute with no sound, then displayed graphics while Quintanilla and Lee, who thought they were done for the day, had to narrate market averages for a couple of minutes until working cameras finally found Bill and Kelly at the NYSE.

At least the camera also found CNBC superfox Deirdre Bosa, at Best Buy. Kelly credited Bosa for "good research" and said, "I know it's been a long day for her."

We were wondering if anyone from the Halftime/Fast Money panels would be tapped for some commentary. Steve Grasso obliged, telling Bill that big round numbers (such as 2,600 S&P) "act as a magnet, (and) once you get back on that momentum wheel, they're usually good for another 1 or 2% overshoot from there."

Honestly, CNBC needs to adjust its Black Friday approach; listening to people talk for 2 hours about brick-and-mortar vs. AMZN is like sitting in the front row for back-to-back Thor movies.

Mostly, we hope all readers had an outstanding Thanksgiving and safe travels.

[Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017]

Mel says it’ll be a ‘tall order’
to get a ‘broad market selloff’

Josh Brown on Wednesday's Halftime said while everyone's "inner contrarian" wants to call an overheated top in tech, the hot names are simply "crushing" it, so their gains make sense.

Joe Terranova said "the signs are not there" to suggest a tech meltdown. Joe also said repatriation would bring $400 billion to the tech sector, whatever the companies will do with it.

Stephen Weiss noted that Europe doesn't have the same tech exposure as the U.S.

Josh Brown said WMT has added $70 billion since the Jet acquisition, which cost … remember … $3 billion.

All of this sounded great, but Grandpa Kevin O'Leary warned, "If you let tech become more than 20% of your holdings, you're crazy."

Guest host Missy Lee, with a great new hairstyle, pointed out that 25% of the S&P 500 is tech. O'Leary said he's not indexed to the S&P 500.

Weiss told O'Leary that you need "elements of concentration to generate return," or else you might as well buy an ETF. Weiss said the tech giants aren't overvalued.

O'Leary called Weiss "Josh."

O'Leary suggested the panelists are "lemmings."

Jon Najarian said he was buying more BABA Wednesday. Doc told Mel he doesn't feel like a "lemming."

Josh Brown said he actually added to TWTR (snicker).

Later in the show, even Grandpa Kevin acknowledged CRM is as close as you can get to a monopoly in enterprise software. Josh Brown mocked complaints about CRM's P.E. ratio (but not with as good of a voice as Judge stating a day ago that no one would buy GE at 15).

Brown said he wouldn't be in CRM now but would like to scoop it up in a "broad market selloff." Mel said such a selloff is a "tall order." Brown said it could happen in January because it happened in January 2016.

Joe Terranova disagrees with Roth Capital's CRM downgrade and said the price target should be 120-125. Doc said he doesn't own CRM but loves the stock, and he's looking at selling 105 puts.

Weiss actually gets long M

As much as Kevin O'Leary scoffed about the abundance of tech interest, Wednesday's Halftime Report struggled to talk about anything else.

Stunning Christina Farr of CNBC.com (formerly of Fast Company) reported on the "huge deal" for Amazon Web Services with Cerner.

Joe Terranova said he's "not surprised" by the AMZN-CERN partnership. Stephen Weiss said it's more a shot at ORCL than the drug distributors; he likes MDSO. Doc said CERN upside calls were getting bought aggressively.

Meanwhile, Weiss said he bought M and LULU, partly because "seasonally, it's a great trade," and because he's positive about the U.S. consumer.

Joe Terranova shrugged that brick and mortar is "more for a trade than anything else."

Josh Brown said that rather than try brick-and-mortar, he's playing STOR, a REIT that focuses on retail that isn't facing huge Amazon risk.

Doc said Berkshire might be interested in AXTA, so December 37 AXTA calls were getting bought. Doc said "July" 14 HIMX calls were getting bought, but the screen chart said they were "January" calls.

Anyone interested anymore in what Janet Yellen (or Ben Bernanke) thinks about the trajectory of inflation?

Steve Weiss on Wednesday's Halftime said he doesn't think Dow Theory has "applied here for a long time."

Weiss said he owns airlines, but they've had trouble "managing the narrative." He said he sold some DAL but he called UAL and AAL "very very cheap."

Grandpa Kevin O'Leary insisted transports are leading indicators and should be watched, and the fact they're underperforming is "not a good sign."

Jon Najarian gushed about DE's "phenomenal" quarter. Josh Brown said DE is in the "sweet spot." Weiss said he's not buying the stock, but the company put up "unbelievable" 25% revenue growth.

Steve Liesman stumped the panel asking what happens next Tuesday (answer: Powell's hearing). Guest host Mel guessed that it's the "Fed meeting," then said, "Oh wait- next Tuesday."

Doc said GES was slumping because same-store sales were down 10%.

Joe Terranova said CHK is "challenged," and if you're going to do anything with that company, look at the credit side.

Josh Brown called MNK a "rolling disaster" and noted the shorts have been "dead right." (That's basically Andrew Left.)

Weiss suggested selling GME and "save your money."

Mel took 24 minutes without a commercial. #pushingit

Wonder if the investors in the Shiller survey are still the least bullish since at least 2001

Leslie Picker on Wednesday's Halftime said the PG-Peltz battle is "largely about semantics."

The camera for some reason went out of focus while Picker spoke.

PG long Kevin O'Leary said "I'm starting to question management now" because of its obsession with Peltz.

Josh Brown said the packaged-goods companies are struggling with an explosion in consumer choice.

Jeff Kilburg suggested there's "optimism" in the crude market. Anthony Grisanti said oil has had a "perfect storm," but "I'm not buying into this." He'd sell at 58.

Joe Terranova said he's thankful for SYK and made MDT his final trade.

Stephen Weiss trumpeted CAVM. Josh Brown said he's thankful for SCHW under 40, but he's unhappy he doesn't own more. Doc said he likes FAST.

No Halftime/Fast Money until Monday, but this page will have some updates and cheer over the holiday.

[Tuesday, November 21, 2017]

Brian Kelly says Kevin Plank is ‘probably one of the greatest CEOs of all time’

On Tuesday's 5 p.m. Fast Money, Brian Kelly uncorked a jaw-dropper, stating Kevin Plank is "probably one of the greatest CEOs of all time."

Steve Grasso wondered how Kelly is "gauging" that distinction. Kelly said it's because Plank has done a "phenomenal" job as a "manager and as a founder."

In a remarkable UAA prediction, Guy Adami suggested, "At some point they sell out to a rival for some take-under perhaps from prices that we still haven't seen."

David Seaburg said Plank is a "celebrity-esque-type CEO."

Mel said, "He was celebrity. But not anymore. That brand has lost a lot."

Jim suggests XLE as an investment to ‘get paid to wait’ (but he isn’t asked to name the No. 1 holding)

At the top of Tuesday's Halftime, Jon Najarian hemmed and hawed to affirm or reject the Goldman Sachs tax reform-or-bust scenario, stating if it doesn't happen by Jan. 1, there will be an "air pocket," but he doubts it'll be any more than 5%.

Jim Lebenthal said David Kostin is "extremely intelligent" and that Kostin's call is right, but he noted that Kostin has raised his S&P target.

Jim said there's "no way" the market will go up in a straight line. "To get a real correction, you've gotta have a growth scare," Jim said.

Erin Browne said the yield curve will continue to flatten but won't invert next year.

In a bit of a soliloquy (after perhaps overdoing it on Kensho), Joe said S&P companies with a high tax rate are up 8% YTD, while those with a low tax rate are up 20%.

Pete Najarian ripped all the fear-mongering about the yield curve but touted JD and BABA and WYNN and how great those are.

Joe questioned how much of the market gain is from buybacks; "I would tend to believe a lot of it."

Erin Browne said Kostin downgraded technology to neutral from overweight, which Browne called a "valuation play." She said he has an overweight on financials and industrials.

Doc said the Dax is still near multi-year highs even though Angela Merkel can't get a government together.

Jim suggested there's been a lot of sector rotation and that you can try (ETF alert) the XLE, where you "get paid to wait."

Judge said Kostin uses the term "rational exuberance." Joe said he's "very comfortable" if the leverage is in the options market.

Nobody sounds ready to make an investment decision based on distance from 200-day moving average

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime struggled mightily to introduce what Dom Chu was talking about regarding 200-day moving averages.

Chu said NRG, PYPL, NVDA, MU and ALGN were all seriously above their 200-day MA, making them "overextended," while GE, CTL, NWL and EVHC were all way below.

Pete Najarian said he likes MU regardless and later said January 50 MU calls were being bought. Joe Terranova tried to explain how volatility got him to exit (he didn't say "liquidate") some positions last week (including RHT).

Jon Najarian said he doesn't know what stops PYPL; "this thing moves like bitcoin." (This writer is long PYPL.)

What happened to Adam’s great ‘transfer of wealth’ from insurers to Houston car owners?

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime said "widely followed" Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas is calling for TSLA to see 400 and then 200.

Apparently, that's unusual, because at one point Judge said, "I've never seen a call like this."

Jim Lebenthal contended that Jonas has the "order reversed." Jim sees TSLA going lower, "but not out of business" (snicker), and he believes it will "thrive 5 years from now."

Jim and Judge tangled over whether TSLA has momentum up or down based on either the whole year or the last 2 months. As Judge continued to stumble through this conversation, it took him 5 minutes to verify what Jim said at the outset, that Jonas has the numbers reversed.

Jim insisted that TSLA's performance over the last 2 months is "not trivial."

Jon Najarian said Elon Musk has learned "how to play Wall Street like a fiddle."

Steve Weiss dialed in to say he bought GM. After interminable minutes of jokes, Weiss finally said he bought the stock because of a "major mobility presentation" on Nov. 30 that will provide a lot of "clarity and transparency." (About what, we were never really sure.) Weiss went on to say the "mobility" division of GM might be worth $60 billion and might be spun off or at least separated as a company division. (Apparently this is all about … you got it … Driverless. Cars. #ohjoy)

Actually went a day without a ‘goofball’ FIFO update and how congressional staffers do ‘weird’ things

Jim Lebenthal on Tuesday's Halftime said CPB is a "disaster" and that "nobody's buying" Campbell's soup.

Jon Najarian said "big upside calls" were getting bought in DE.

Doc said TRIP January 35 calls were getting bought with a "vengeance" when the stock hit 30. He said HPE made a nice pop.

Pete said January 60 calls in PANW had been bought, then the stock had a "huge pop," but he's still hanging on. Pete said "some of this stuff" is on CNBC.com.

Pete said he can't wait for a pullback in HD.

Doc said investors were just "hittin' the exits" in SIG. (But he didn't say whether to buy the plunge.)

Joe Terranova said "the other shoe dropped" in DSW.

Erin Browne said stocks offer "tremendously more value" than does high yield.

Jeff Kilburg said copper still has an "upwards" (sic with an "s") trajectory. Jim Iuorio said he wants to see the March copper contract settle above "3.16ish." Judge made another Notre Dame football joke. #tiredrepertoire

Doc said there some call activity in DHI. Joe insisted MAR is going to 130.

Pete's final trade was BAC. Doc said HIMX, Erin Browne said XLI, Jim Lebenthal said QRVO and Joe said SAP and MSFT.

GE: ‘If it bleeds, it leads’

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime said Deutsche Bank reiterated its sell on GE with a target cut to 15. Jim Lebenthal said it's going there, though "I'm not happy about it … It's going to 15; I don't think there's any question."

Judge asked why, then, GE was up Tuesday. Jon Najarian said, "175-point rally in the Dow is why it's up. … There is just a weight on this stock."

Doc mentioned Bill Nygren liking it at 22 (snicker) but didn't say anything about the 2% Doc is making every 2 weeks selling upside calls in GE.

Aside from GE's obvious struggles, Joe Terranova contended that pension liabilities will be a problem "in the next couple years" and are "the reason why" GE and other older industrials won't see "significant appreciation."

Pete Najarian decried that GE doesn't seem to have growth (a word he used about 5 times).

Joe credited Stephanie Link and Jim Cramer (who weren't on the show Tuesday) for touting HON, and "I don't understand why people don't talk enough about the positive story that's occurring at Honeywell."

Judge said people have been talking about HON. But Pete cracked, "If it bleeds, it leads."

Judge mocked the idea of people rushing in to buy GE at 15, suggesting (in a rare good mocking voice for Judge) panelists will tell him at that point that "it's a falling knife, it's going to 13."

Judge suggested to the panel that there's "no price" at which they'd buy GE. "Not true," Pete twice said.

More from Tuesday's Halftime later.

[Monday, Nov. 20, 2017]

Stephanie claims AMZN is the ‘biggest name’ in the XRT

Despite the fact it is often mentioned on the Halftime Report that ETFs are taking over retail investing, Judge and the panelists rarely discuss them, focusing on single stocks, presumably because they are more interesting.

Perhaps also presumably because the panelists don't even know what's in the ETFs that occasionally surface on the program.

On Monday's edition, Judge asked Stephanie Link whether you can own the XRT. Not only did Link not answer the question, her response was, "The biggest name in the XRT is Amazon, right, so, I mean, you sure can- you can own Amazon, I think."

Moments later, Josh Brown said, "Amazon's in the XLY (correct), um, the consumer SPYder. XRT specifically brick-and-mortar retail. Uninvestable."

But even that sounds fishy. According to SPDR's XRT page, the No. 5 holding is Groupon (snicker), which hardly strikes us as a brick-and-mortar operation.

Also, in the "fund overview," the XRT "seeks to provide exposure the retail segment (sic missing "to" between "exposure" and "the" #lackofproofreading) of the S&P TMI, which comprises the following sub-industries," one of them being "Internet & Direct Marketing Retail."

Maybe Judge can sort it out on Tuesday's show. (Remember when Pete Najarian went months bickering with someone over the XHB-vs.-ITB?)

By the way, the No. 1 XRT holding, according to the site, is LB. (Yowza)

Meanwhile, JPMorgan's Matt Boss said that while JCP's top line may have shown improvement, "the bottom line actually seems like it's getting worse."

Boss recommends BURL (and the usual names), ROST and TJX. In a ray of light, he said department stores have inventory under much better control heading into this holiday season.

Boss said LULU is starting to separate from the pack; "we still like LULU."

Jon Najarian said AEO, ANF and GPS have all had unusual options activity, though he's not sure he'd hold them past Black Friday. (For years, he trumpeted the buy-Labor-day-sell-Black-Friday retail trade, but not this year.) However, Doc said he might be willing to own DLTR longer. Jim Cramer touted PLCE.

Stephanie Link touted NKE as a 2018 story. Pete Najarian called NKE a buy at 59.

Jim Cramer touted OLLI at the end of the show and said retail ETFs "don't work." (Then again, that probably depends on whether the buyer knows what's in them.)

Karen Finerman, stunning in light blue on the 5 p.m. Fast Money, lukewarmly endorsed the XBI but wasn't given a pop quiz by Mel as to its components. (But let's note that Karen endorsed this vehicle "if you do think there's M&A." Tip: The XBI does not go up or down based on whether you think there is M&A. It will likely go up or down depending on whether there actually is or isn't M&A. So what Karen means is that, if she thinks there is going to be M&A, she'd buy it, but there's no indication she expects that M&A now.)

Judge clinging to prediction of GE at bottom

Reflecting his ongoing interest in stock-picking, Judge on Monday's Halftime took up GE again and admitted, "I thought the day that it hit 17.46 was the bottom."

Jim Cramer seems to think it's in the ballpark, asserting that "at a certain point," you get a 17 multiple in GE.

"They have to recognize that they're a fossil-fuel company," Cramer said, noting Jeff Immelt's insistence that the company doesn't care about the price of oil. "They're more levered to oil than, than a lot of the independents in Texas."

Pete Najarian called John Flannery's GE purchase "Nothin'!!"

Brian Stutland said the Keystone Pipeline news was weighing on crude. Scott Nations said traders won't get "really interested" in crude until it breaks out of its 52-58 channel.

Pointing to the Barron's article on IBM, Judge said the company is "epic" when it comes to buybacks. Cramer said, "They have to stop pleasing Buffett."

Josh Brown said BOX would be a transformative purchase for IBM. Cramer agreed. Stephanie Link said IBM could "work for a quarter," but she finds it one of the top holdings of the XRT a value trap.

But are the Senate and House going to reconcile the idea of rolling student debt into mortgages?

After remarks from Donald Trump, Judge on Monday's Halftime brought in Eamon Javers to revisit the proposed FIFO rule under the Senate's tax reform.

Javers explained the concept well with an AAPL example.

The problem is, nobody ever explained how this situation doesn't wash out in the end … for example, if someone buys 100 AAPL in 2010 and 100 more in 2015 and sells 100 in 2017 and the remaining 100 in 2020 … boy does that make the head spin … ultimately we got the same total dollar amount for capital gain regardless which block of shares were deemed sold at different times. But whatever.

Judge said a bunch of GOP senators (he named them all) refused to come on the show to discuss this provision.

But Larry Kudlow was happy to show up, calling this idea "the dumbest thing I've ever seen." (Unfortunately, we don't really believe that.)

Revealing "I've tried to explore this," Kudlow said, "this becomes a backdoor capital-gains tax hike." He said a 2nd issue is that "they're trying to stop short-term trading." (There's already a strange 1-year rule designed to do that.) (By the way, how come nobody talks about the importance of the Uptick Rule … this was SO important in 2008 … now it's evidently not that important … same for releasing oil from the SPR and cracking down on oil speculation ...)

Kudlow dismissed Javers' report that the FIFO rule would bring $2 billion in revenue (Kudlow said $2.5 billion), insisting, "You'll never see that money."

"This sounds like some goofball revenue-raising staff thing. Staff does weird things," Kudlow said.

"They're interfering with market action here," Larry concluded.

Joe Terranova said, "First in, first out OK is the default strategy in most brokerage accounts." Joe suggested a better idea is raising the $3,000 capital-loss limit in a "one-time holiday."

Javers said his sense of how the FIFO provision got into the Senate bill is that it was part of the "stack of ideas" on the shelf for years for raising revenue.

Josh Brown said he expects the measure not to be in the final bill; "there are only voices against it" and no big backer. But Larry Kudlow said it's "trickier" to get this kind of provision out than Brown indicated. Eamon Javers said the "champion" of the bill is the $2 billion in revenue.

No word if Pete’s still riding the FL bandwagon

Josh Brown on Monday's Halftime said there's an "arms race" in the semiconductor space and shrugged off the notion of M&A signaling a top.

Stephanie Link made the case for ever-popular TJX, calling it "misunderstood." She said the purported threat from Tesla to CMI is a "joke."

Joe Terranova said high yield concern has "removed itself from the conversation" and that there isn't "isolated leverage" in the capital markets now.

Jon Najarian said KO December 44 calls were getting bought. Pete Najarian said November 190 BABA calls that expire Friday were getting bought.

Stephanie Link's final trade was ZION. Joe said PVH. Josh Brown said INTC. (This writer is long INTC.) Doc said MRO. (This writer is long MRO.) Pete Najarian said NKE and WYNN. Jim Cramer said XPO.

Judge tried to rein in Josh Brown as Brown briefly started to mention historical problems in Germany.

Judge went 35 minutes before a commercial, finally cut off by Sue Herera's news update. #lostrevenue

[Friday, Nov. 17, 2017]

Elite Raymond James advisor actually says ‘part of’ his job is getting super-wealthy clients to ignore the Halftime Report

We were paging through the Nov. 6 edition of Barron's the other day (that's correct, nearly 2 weeks ago, takes us a long time to read and comprehend these things), and lo and behold did we run into a doozy on Page 34.

Raymond James/Alex. Brown advisor Rich Hassan, who manages money for "ultrahigh-net-worth investors," explained part of his strategy in the passage below:

Capitalizing on his experience, smarts, and drive, Hassan built a business in which 90% of his clients are so wealthy that they will never need to touch their investment principal. But they're tempted, of course — and that's where Hassan comes in. "Part of my job is making sure they don't focus on the halftime report (sic lower case and not in quotes according to Barron's) and the CNBC speaker of the day (sic not a real term)," he says.

Ouch.

Not the greatest endorsement. (Then again, aside from the dis for those on the show, what about the people who actually watch it? #oops)

Hassan also explains how market psychology works: "It feels good when the market is down 20%, and you're down 8% or 9%."

We know Gasparino would address something like this, but we've heard no response from Judge or his crew.

If they say something, we'll report it.

Rob Sechan doesn’t reveal latest on movement to roll student debt into mortgages

In a choppy, not-very-convincing opening stanza of Friday's Halftime Report, Steve Weiss said "seasonal patterns" should take stocks higher into year-end but that tax reform has introduced volatility.

Josh Brown said the Russell 2000 had a nice bounce while the S&P paused.

Tom Lee, a guest for the hour, revisited that boneheaded 5% selloff call for September said the "seasonal" trend is most important right now, but credit markets haven't been rallying of late.

Weiss said he's not concerned about the European high yield shellacking because it's largely limited to telecom (a phrase you've heard about a dozen times this week).

Jim Lebenthal noted gold and the VIX aren't saying there's a risk of high-yield contagion.

Rob Sechan said tax reform and Fed communication will be market factors, as well as tougher comps in 2018, so next year, "I think it's really likely that we see a downshift in returns and a pickup in volatility."

The panel seemed to think the Goldman Sachs "heavy lean" on emerging markets was a no-brainer, with Josh Brown suggesting it has to do with "recency bias." Rob Sechan said he agrees with the "go global" notion but argued it's more about developed markets than emerging.

Tom Lee predicted that next year, FANG will "really disappoint." Lee again made his loopy point that FANG only outperforms in odd years. (Now you're starting to understand why Rich Hassan instructs his ultrahigh-net-worth investors to ignore the Halftime Report.)

Jim Lebenthal warned that wage inflation would knock the market multiple from 18 to 16.5 "in a big hurry."

Tom Lee said his clients "unequivocally believe" tax reform is "important" for markets because it will "reset" earnings higher, but he said what isn't discounted is whether tax policy is "actually good for markets."

Josh Brown said there's a "great chance" that tax reform will be a sell-the-news, "interim top" of the market. Weiss indicated he was just thinking about that.

Brown cut off Rob Sechan while Sechan was trying to make a long point about what companies will do with repatriation cash. Sensational CNBC hire and sensationally gorgeous Ylan Mui said companies have an "8-year window" to take advantage of repatriation. Mui said it's "very likely" that the corporate tax cut will be delayed until 2019.

Pete suddenly purports to be a believer in Foot Locker

Pete Najarian on Friday's Halftime said he "absolutely" agrees with the Deutsche Bank upgrade of FL, suddenly on fire after an utterly disastrous 2017 in which it put together one of the most ghastly charts we've ever seen (this writer was long FL in the summer but has no position now).

Pete mostly took the opportunity to hail NKE. Judge interrupted to say Deutsche Bank actually claims "Foot Locker is back." Pete said he really does believe that.

Stephen Weiss said FL "did get oversold" but still has "down earnings next year."

The real spoilsport was Josh Brown, who shrugged that FL's remarkable day is a "short squeeze," adding it's "way too premature" to start celebrating in this name.

Pete agreed it's a short squeeze but insisted there are still "interesting levels of growth."

Meanwhile, Jim Lebenthal said NKE has an "easy 10% up from here (sic last 2 words redundant), and then you sell it." Judge asked why sell NKE after a 10% gain. Jim said this just happens to be the start of the seasonal retail trade (he made XRT his final trade).

Josh Brown shrugged that the XRT had a great week on "essentially dead-cat bounces."

Rob Sechan said retail is a story of "haves and have-nots." (Um, there's not exactly very many "haves.")

Out of the blue, Steve Weiss claimed, "Amazon's not a pleasing shopping experience."

We've gotta agree with Brown. It's true that some stocks that surge 25% in a day are massive breakout buys. With a chart like FL's, it may be paradoxical, but a 25% gain is a sign of something seriously wrong.

Nothing more from Judge about GE being at the ‘lows’

Josh Brown on Friday's Halftime said SQ got an upgrade from Evercore (but didn't say whether to buy it).

Jim Lebenthal said there's "no catalyst" in the near term for VIAB and "no hurry" to buy.

Steve Weiss said CMI's fall is based in part on investor day but that the market also sees a "viable competitor" in Tesla (snicker).

Rob Sechan said to be "really careful" in utilities.

Tom Lee said he still likes energy though being long feels like "fighting the tape."

Judge said biotech is near correction territory. Meg Tirrell said "a lot of people in the space are really spooked." Weiss predicted more tax selling into year-end but said late December is the time to get in front of the "huge" JPMorgan conference in January.

Josh Brown contended biotech "bottomed this week."

Weiss said he'd be "shocked" if CRM disappointed.

Josh Brown said he's got a double in DE (which doesn't mean anything as to whether viewers should buy it).

Tom Lee gushed about bitcoin, claiming it's "negatively correlated with almost every other asset class." (See, here's another reason Rich Hassan tells his clients to ignore the Halftime Report.)

Weiss' final trade was Forest City Ratner. Josh Brown said he owns bitcoin.

[Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017]

CNBC graphics crew thinks CSCO is trading at all-time high

Pete Najarian on Thursday's Halftime declared, "Cisco is doing everything right."

Pete hailed that CSCO "cumulatively" (he struggled with that word) has bought back more than $100 billion of stock at an average $21 price.

Josh Brown offered "2 minor things," one being that the screen text proclaiming "new all-time high" for CSCO was wrong (yup, but he didn't mention the redundant "new") and that the buybacks were motivated by the need to retire "notorious" options that were "lavishly bestowed" on execs and employees. (Other than that, Pete made a great bull case.)

Jon Najarian said the CSCO leadership handoff has gone "very smoothly."

So AAPL should’ve bought Jet?

Joe Terranova on Thursday's Halftime said he bought WMT "because I think this stock continues to go higher" (that's a typical reason for buying a stock).

Joe called the Jet purchase "sensational."

Josh Brown noted skepticism of the Jet purchase. "They underpaid for Jet," Brown asserted, stating analysts now talk about "GMV" in regard to WMT.

Brown also pointed out the diverging charts of WMT and TGT in 2017.

Jon Najarian called the Jet purchase "transformative" and hung Kevin O'Leary (who was the one who derided it but wasn't on Thursday's show) out to dry. Doc also compared WMT's Jet purchase to AAPL's Beats purchase for the same $3 billion price and said Jet is "clearly" the transformative transaction.

Pete Najarian wasn't as fired up about WMT as Joe was, stating "I wouldn't be chasing it" even though he understands Joe's "methodology."

Pete was more interested discussing his chat with Brian Cornell, who Pete said told him, "We're a couple quarters behind."

Pete suggested TGT is the "opportunity" for 6-9 months rather than WMT.

Barely 3 minutes into the show, Judge quoted Jim Cramer, who apparently calls WMT's success a "reinvention."

Panelists mock MAR ‘clowngrade’

Judge on Thursday's Halftime announced Bernstein's MAR downgrade as the Call of the Day.

Joe Terranova, who has trumpeted that stock, said he has about 7% of the portfolio in this name; he thinks what the analyst is missing out on "is the revenue per available room dramatically grew on the international side."

Judge noted the analyst raised the target from 116 to 132 despite the downgrade, which Doc and Josh dubbed a "clowngrade." Judge said the downgrade isn't a sell but market perform and that the analyst is merely recommending HLT instead.

Joe unloaded RHT day before Nasdaq surged

Gorjus Ylan Mui on Thursday's Halftime Report put together a crisp interview with Republican Congressman Peter Roskam of Illinois.

John Harwood said tax reform is on a "very tough road."

Rick Rieder said the bid for yield and bid for credit will "absolutely" continue.

Judge asked Rieder about the either-high-yield-or-S&P-is-right notion. Rieder said high yield is not cheap, and "I don't know that one is necessarily telling you something aberrational in the other."

Joe Terranova said we're "still seeing the discounting in the Victoria's Secret brand," and he doesn't see the "clarity" of the turn in LB.

Josh Brown said RF has a good chart, and if it gets above 16 "meaningfully, there really aren't any sellers in this stock."

Jon Najarian said RH "caught a huge short interest" but is "doing a lot of things right."

Pete Najarian questioned the amount of upside in ALK but said he can see 70 "in the fairly nearby future."

Doc said 36,000 puts in the XOP at the 32 strike got bought. He also noted how BBY puts had fared since he mentioned them last week on the Intrepid. He's right; this page mistakenly made it sound like his final trade that day was BBY long, which was originally how it sounded like he was saying it, but he did state that he was looking at the put activity. Pete Najarian said QCOM December 70 calls got bought.

Nili Gilbert contended that when the yield curve begins to flattening, "at first, it is often a positive environment for the stock market."

Bob Iaccino said "the weakness in WTI is real." Jim Iuorio pointed to 53.25.

Judge said Notre Dame "got waxed" last weekend.

Have to admit we found Joe letting himself get stopped out of RHT a day ago a bit of a head-scratcher; evidently he should've waited a day, but it's not like we knew anything.

Doc's final trade was COT. Josh Brown cautioned that the primary trend is what matters with EEM (translation: don't get bearish). Joe reiterated WMT but said he'd "wait for a pullback" to buy SJM.

[Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017]

Joe says the only reason to buy DKS is because AMZN might buy it

Wednesday's Halftime crew managed to put together an excellent conversation on another angle of the mall crisis.

That said, there are a couple ways it could've and should've been better (but that's our job, to point out these things).

Things unfortunately nearly got derailed before they got started. Addressing JPMorgan's upgrade of DKS, Josh Brown said, "I'm all about fading Dick's." (Jim Lebenthal struggled not to laugh out loud.)

After that annoyance, Brown said he buys stuff from DKS, "but more and more, I'm just defaulting to Amazon."

Judge said that sounds good, but, "you could've said the exact same thing about Best Buy 5 years ago."

That's a good point. Most of these names are going to be losers, but a few will be surprise winners.

Joe Terranova asserted that "Best Buy is managed completely differently than Dick's Sporting Goods is." He explained, "They don't have the debt levels that Dick's does, they have a better management team" and have "successfully" redesigned their stores. (He could've added that BBY sells more expensive goods.)

Jim Lebenthal said DKS is a "speculative trade," and in that context, "actually not a bad idea."

Jim said Dick's specializes in items that aren't so easy to buy online, such as basketball hoops or specialized football cleats.

Joe said "there's one reason to buy Dick's," which is that AMZN could buy it like it did WFM. But Brown made probably a better point: "That's a reason not to be short it more than it's a reason to buy it."

Here's how the conversation could've been better. 1) The panelists never addressed what the "meal ticket" of DKS is. These stores are enormous. Golf is in decline. Performance apparel seems like it can be made decently and very cheaply and is available everywhere. Fishing seems to be the specialty of Bass and others. Whether footwear or something else is the biggest driver of Dick's traffic, the chain (and its competitors) needs products that people are talking about. 2) The show is supposedly a "fast money" trading show. Which means forget about matching Best Buy's 5-year return. Is it possible DKS is a great buy from now through Jan. 1, or is that in fact a big risk if early holiday traffic proves to be light? If the best argument to own it is for an AMZN deal, we have to doubt that will happen before 2018.

Meanwhile, the panel also took up TGT. Joe Terranova said, "This is brutal," pointing to higher inventory and a not-so-great buyback. "I don't know what's going on with Target other than, it's getting Amazoned," Joe said.

Judge said Telsey (or somebody else) is saying TGT is getting "squeezed" between WMT and AMZN.

"We're overstored; everyone knows that," Josh Brown said.

Jon Najarian said "Guidance was brutal" for TGT and that Pete was chatting up the CEO.

Kari Firestone contended "there's no strategy" at Target. Judge and Joe said Target has a strategy of $7 billion investment including omnichannel.

Gotta admit, Joe’s argument for selling RHT sounds flimsy

Josh Brown on Wednesday's Halftime said nobody should view a 5-10% pullback in stocks as "out of the ordinary," but it was Joe Terranova who ran into turbulence after revealing a couple of sells.

Joe said that using quantitative models, "I got stopped out of a bunch of names that I have bought along the way since August and September," explaining those were RHT and COST and AMG and TCBI and IBTX.

Judge stated it sounds like Joe is "leaning more defensive."

Joe insisted, "I am running a rules-based system that is dictating to me when to enter the market-"

"I got it," Judge interrupted.

"70% of what goes on in the marketplace strategy-wise right now is rules-based quantitative, so, let's not dismiss it," Joe responded.

Josh Brown asked Joe why those particular stocks generated sell signals. Joe said, "They are breaking down in terms of both mean reversion, in terms of moving averages, in terms of the slope of the moving averages."

But Joe told Judge it's "wrong" to think of that as a "more defensive posture."

Jim Lebenthal bluntly declared, "This stock market is going higher," pointing out the S&P was down about 1%.

Judge insisted he's looking at it "from regular guy on the street," not any "fundamental, quantitative, technical, mumbo jumbo, this that and the other thing."

Jon Najarian said if you've got more capital to deploy, "I think you wait." Doc cited extra put buying in the IWM. Josh Brown questioned if there wasn't heavy put activity before the Brexit vote and 2016 U.S. election.

Judge in the 11th minute brought up Bob Shiller's survey of bearishness (snicker). Jim Lebenthal said that conclusion "flies in the face of other surveys."

Mike Santoli said the HYG has been a "beacon" for the market all year. Doc said HYG puts were outpacing calls 4 to 1 and that people were buying 80 puts into next year.

Within 2 minutes, Judge was airing Cramer clips about a "rollover" and "air pocket."

People in government looking for work (cont’d)

Eamon Javers on Wednesday's Halftime Report said one provision in the Senate's tax reform (snicker) is to require that, when investors sell a partial stake of stock, the oldest shares be sold first. Javers said one person told him this would "ding" active investors in favor of passive investors.

Josh Brown told Javers that the idea is "disgusting" because they're "nickel-and-diming regular households" to fund tax cuts for large corporations.

Brown concluded, "I actually think it's gross" and that any senator who tossed in this wrinkle "should be embarrassed."

Jim Lebenthal questioned the ideas being proposed. "It doesn't feel like tax reform. It feels like it's shifting one loophole or one little rule for another," Jim said. "I don't like this."

Now we're getting somewhere. It's absolutely not "reform." It's pointless activity among a bunch of people who have nothing to do.

Jon Najarian said the idea mentioned by Javers "looks like a negotiating ploy more than anything else."

Josh Brown said it's a "fantasy" that corporations are going to invest their tax savings in hiring.

Kari comes up short in argument for buying AAPL

Jon Najarian on Wednesday's Halftime said ALK is down 28% on the year; he doesn't like the Raymond James upgrade but praised JPMorgan for being "dead right" and lowering its target from 104 to 64.

Josh Brown said SQ is on fire but the bitcoin news is a bigger deal for bitcoin than Square.

Jim Lebenthal said IBM "could get really interesting" with another good quarter.

Kari Firestone said she likes AAPL, promising 3 reasons but only saying China (that's 1) and cheap valuation (that's 2).

Doc said AMLP January 10 calls were getting bought. He said X was "hitting again," this time November 26.50 calls.

Brian Stutland said some may see upper 50s as a ceiling for crude. Anthony Grisanti said he could see crude at 60 by spring but below 50 before then.

Doc's final trade was EA. Josh Brown said INTC. (This writer is long INTC.) Jim Lebenthal said CSCO, which proved excellent afterhours. (This review was posted after the market close.) Kari Firestone said FRC and Joe said BAC after a "very powerful" reversal higher.

[Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017]

Pete stumbles, claims Joe’s excellent point is ‘fair but not fair’

If he's not picking stocks, he's scooping Adam Schefter.

In an unusual news update, Judge on Tuesday's Halftime said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly wants a $50-million-a-year contract with lifetime use of a private jet and that it's being resisted by Jerry Jones, but Judge said, "I'm now told from sources that Jones is not the only NFL owner hesitant to give Goodell that kind of money at least right now."

In agreement with those owners, Pete Najarian said, "Why now?"

Judge said, "You could also sort of see why if this is the case that it's, it's Goodell, um, who's pushing for the new deal now, sort of knowing the noise that's out there. Knowing where the business is."

Pete said of Goodell, "He hasn't been proactive at all over the last I'd say 2 years, so I understand Jerry Jones completely right now."

Joe Terranova made a quality point, that the "reality" is that the values of NFL franchises are as high as ever.

"Thank Paul Allen for that," Jon Najarian scoffed. (Paul Allen is the reason the Dallas Cowboys are worth $4.2 billion?)

Joe persisted, "Aren't the value of the franchises still as high as they've ever been?"

"That's fair, but it's not fair," Pete Najarian somehow said in Shiller-speak, because "nothing is traded" and there's "declines in ratings." (Oh sure, the Giants would suddenly fall 50% on the Nasdaq if Sunday Night Football overnights slid.)

This page is not at all endorsing Goodell, but Pete's response is weak.

Pete said Adam Silver makes $10 million a year. Sigh … (Can't believe we're defending Roger Goodell) … The NFL makes more money, and Goodell has been on the job a lot longer than Silver.

The embarrassing thing about Goodell's compensation is that this fellow has never thrown a touchdown pass nor invested a dime in improving this entity but gets his jollies out of suspending players whom society has cleared and issuing $25,000 fines to guys who are putting their health on the line.

Doc mocked, "Where is he gonna go. What's the competing bid for him."

Doc said "Nobody wants this guy" and even claimed, "Disney would rally if they got rid of Goodell."

Obviously, somebody wants him, or he wouldn't be in talks for an extension.

Judge tries to claim
GE is ‘at the lows’

Sometimes, Judge sounds like he'd rather be a stock picker than a TV host.

That was the case on Tuesday's Halftime, after Joe Terranova advised investors to "throw in the towel" on GE.

Judge actually said, "At the lows?"

Joe said, "How do you know it's the lows?"

Backpedaling, Judge said, "I'm just saying this is certainly their- the recent lows."

Stephanie Link said GE's new $1 earnings estimate for 2018 could actually go to 55, 65 cents.

Judge said Stephen Tusa is saying "we had expected more" from GE investor day.

"I think they did a lot," Link claimed, before citing the high payout ratio. "They're basically doubling down in power-gen, And that is, uh, problematic," Link said.

Sarat Sethi said GE would be close to bottoming in the 15-16 range.

Joe noted GE has an 18-member board; "that's unheard of!"

Joe added, "They're staying in power. That- that just makes no sense."

That was around the time when GE-long/identical-chart-to-Kinder-Morgan Jon Najarian showed up. Doc admitted he "bought it at 21½" and isn't happy. "Obviously the Street was looking for more trimming," Doc said.

Doc asserted that most managers aren't giving Flannery 3-5 years; if he's lucky, it's more like 2. (But Ginni has gotten 5 and counting.)

The other day, Joe scoffed at the need to review Nelson Peltz's track record. But it's worth noting that according to an article Tuesday at CNBC.com, Peltz's GE stake, disclosed at $2.5 billion in October 2015, is now worth half of that.

Bob Shiller mentions 1929 but also seems to echo Vinnie Viola (but stops short of giving Donald Trump an A+)

Judge opened Tuesday's Halftime with Professor Shiller, out with a new survey showing individual investors are, according to Judge, "the least bullish they've been in stocks in the survey's history, back to 2001."

We knew of course that Shiller wouldn't give that (or any headline) an unequivocal pass.

"Well, uh, that's true, uh" Shiller stammered, "but they were very bullish just 6 months, 3- several months ago. So it's kind of oscillating."

"Most people are worried," Shiller explained, citing a "concern about overpricing."

Shiller said he's not "alarmist" about that, but, "Maybe I should be. … Maybe I would lighten up my holdings, but I'm not ready to exit, from this evidence."

"The strength of the Trump boom is still a factor. There's something psychological going on. I can't quite fathom it," Shiller said.

"Euphoria isn't a good term to apply to the present situation," Shiller chuckled, suggesting maybe as the Economist says that it's a bubble without the "fizz."

Judge questioned if Shiller is saying that the "main reason" stocks have climbed is because of Trump optimism and not more "fundamental" factors.

Shiller said, "That's the problem with economics, everything feeds back. It's hard to know what is a fundamental factor."

Shiller said there's a "general level of sense that we have a government that supports capitalism and uh that will foster an atmosphere of entrepreneurship and business."

What he's leaving out there is that the modern Fed precedent was established in 2008, which is that the central bank is inclined to act to prevent any kind of crisis in financial stocks.

He said people view the administration as "benign capitalists," but then again, "that could change."

Actually, Shiller sounded much like Vinnie Viola on Friday, except Shiller didn't say "heralding" 4 times.

Judge tried to pin down Shiller on Judge's favorite Question of the Week, whether the next 5% in stocks is up or down, and tried to lead Shiller into saying "down."

Instead, Shiller said, "I would say the same," that after 6 months, "it'll just be where it is today."

Nevertheless, "I think that volatility could come back big-time, quickly. That's what happened in 1929," Shiller claimed.

Still wondering what happened to Carl’s ‘Day of Reckoning’ (and Jeffrey Gundlach’s 400% return on S&P puts that will soar when the VIX hits at least 20 before year-end)

Assessing the latest from Bob Shiller (and, for that matter, Tony Dwyer and the latest quarter of bear warnings), Joe Terranova on Tuesday's Halftime said, "Everyone's looking for signs of caution" but that the issue is what happens with technology.

Grasping as usual for invented drama, Judge said the B of A Merrill Lynch report incorporates the headlines "Frothy FANG" and "Icarus is flying ever closer to the sun."

Stephanie Link said pessimism's fine, but when everyone's euphoric, "That's when I get really worried."

Link said there's some growth in earnings not already priced in.

Pete Najarian said the idea of Tony Dwyer's pullback "makes a lot of sense," and, "I see more of a potential for downside than I do upside."

Sarat Sethi said a 50/50 chance of a 5% up/down move makes more sense because nobody knows when a correction will happen. Pete cut him off, stating, "But year-end is probably why it makes more sense now," calling the first few months somehow "a different category." (Hey Edna, let's make sure we sell NVDA before Jan. 1 so we can pay taxes ASAP.)

Joe Terranova noted, "The tax structure might change, so what's the incentive to sell now."

Joe suggested repatriation would be a "tremendous catalyst" for stocks.

Judge tried to claim, "Apple's down for its 4th straight day. The Russell remains concerning to some …"

Judge doesn’t bring in Mike Francesa to explain why Francesa sold at 125

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime made Deutsche Bank's cut of ALB the Call of the Day and brought in ALB cheerleader Josh Brown via phone. (This writer is long ALB.)

Brown said the call for taking profits is not "unreasonable … but I'm not doing that." Brown said the report is not bearish, and Deutsche Bank's price target (150) is still 12 bucks over the current price.

Brown said "all they're saying" is that lithium prices could be soft in 2019.

Brown said he bought NVDA at 57. "It probably got downgraded 15 times between 57 and $215 a share. … I've ignored it all," he said.

"I'm more inclined to add if this thing comes in, um, rather than heed the analyst's advice," Brown said.

Pete Najarian said "it's a home run stock with incredible growth" but that the "CEO himself" (sic last word redundant) spoke of slowing growth in 2018.

Joe Terranova said, "The growth slowing is troubling, but predicting where price is going to be in 2019, that's more of a problem."

Actually Doc trumpeted BBBY on Sept. 8 when it traded at 28

Jon Najarian on Tuesday's Halftime again touted December 20 call-buying in BBBY.

"Full disclosure: I jumped in when the thing was 40 last time, and it didn't do so swell," Doc said.

Doc also said GGP soared after they talked about call-buying. "It only took a week for GGP to work," he said.

Pete Najarian said there was "pretty aggressive buying" in January 10 calls in BKD.

Pete said he's trimmed his MAC calls but is still holding.

Jeff Kilburg said crude could keep heading to 60. Scott Nations pointed to 58 as an "important level."

Joe's final trade was MAR. Stephanie Link said TJX. Sarat Sethi said FRC. Pete said HD and Doc said THO.

[Monday, Nov. 13, 2017]

Jim seems to sort of predict that 2018 might be a dreadful year

Monday's Halftime Report included this curious bit of wisdom from Jim Lebenthal:

"Remember, 2007 was an exceptionally low-volatility year, and that led into 2008," Jim said. "History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

So … what exactly do we make of that commentary?

Is Jim stating that every low-volatility year in history has been followed up with a 2008?

Or just 2007 … which saw a huge plunge on Nov. 1 (that we think was Fed-related) that opened the floodgates (that hasn't really happened this year)?

2007 was also the year the Patriots went 16-0 and lost the Super Bowl to the Giants.

Doubtful that's going to happen in 2017-18.

We love it when Ivy Leaguers talk about history's "rhyme."

Why is it that the only history that rhymes is the history we know about?

Isn't it possible that every minute of every day is rhyming with some sort of history that was either 1) never recorded or 2) completely ignored?

And both Lincoln and Kennedy were succeeded by someone named Johnson.

Whatever.

Jim doesn’t seem as intrigued by the high-yield market as Joe is

Judge opened Monday's Halftime with none other than Eric Chemi with a curious forecast.

Chemi said we're near about 2,000 days since the last 5% drop. So, "We are due for a 5% drop," Chemi said. (That's probably because history "rhymes.")

But then he also said there's been almost 3,000 trading days since a 5% rise in the market.

Judge said Tony Dwyer is predicting a 3-5% drop in a tweet (snicker).

"I don't think you're gonna get that correction this year," said Jim Lebenthal.

Pete Najarian said the VIX is ranging from 10 to 12 and contended that any spike above that will be "very, very short term."

Stephanie Link said a flat yield curve doesn't mean it's "armageddon" for stocks. "I don't see a recession in the next 12 months," Link said.

Joe Terranova said the lack of tax reform is "a problem for 3 or 4 months from now." As for the present, "What's been going on the last couple of days is a direct result of the high-yield market," Joe said.

Joe said it's a "coin flip" as to whether the next 5% in stocks is up or down. But Jim Lebenthal said it does hinge on tax reform. Jim said, "If you look at the high-yield market, it wasn't across-the-board selling. It was 2 sectors in particular, it was telecom and health care. And you know what, telecom may actually have some problems."

"But Jim, it's about money flow," Joe protested.

Pete Najarian offered that the next 3-5% is "more likely down than up," citing a lack of market catalyst.

Jim insists he’s not knocking Joe but that the facts don’t support what Joe is saying

Probably not aware of the arguing he would have to do, Joe Terranova on Monday's Halftime said he likes UPS and FDX and XPO, citing "positive momentum going around" in the space.

But Jim Lebenthal said that for UPS, "The numbers speak for themselves … I'm not taking shots at you, Joe, I'm just sort of reporting the facts on the ground."

Jim questioned why not just own FDX. Joe said you can own both, "because I think there's enough secular momentum" for both names.

"UPS has an inferior business model to FedEx," Joe conceded.

Stephanie Link said she owns FDX and has previously owned UPS and has "gotten burned on UPS." But Link suggested a "better entry point" after holiday costs are reported.

Pete Najarian wasn't impressed by UPS. "They either have too many employees or they don't have enough," Pete grumbled.

Pete disagrees with Goldman Sachs, calling CSX and UNP buys and suggesting buying NSC and KSU too. But Jim Lebenthal said these names trade at multiples that 5-10 years ago "were unheard of." Panelists had a brief debate about the impact of energy and coal on the rails but without any consensus.

Wonder if the GE chart still looks ‘identical’ to KMI? (That’s history ‘rhyming’ again)

Pete Najarian on Monday's Halftime said GM February 48 calls were getting bought and financed by the sales of downside puts.

Jim Lebenthal said, "The chart is looking a lot like Boeing earlier this year" and that in late November, "they're gonna have a whole conference day about autonomous vehicles. That's why I think your call-buyer is in there."

So someone who expects big news from a November conference is buying February calls?

Pete also said WTW April 60 calls were getting bought.

Joe Terranova said he added to DXC and credited Stephanie Link for buying it early in the year. Joe said it first came to his attention on a "quantitative basis" and that it's hitting on margins, earnings and cash flow. He predicted north of 100 "very soon."

Link said her target for DXC is 130-140. "Great, great management team," Link said.

Joe also said he bought back into DPZ on Friday morning.

Stephanie Link said a MAT-HAS combo would be "very synergistic."

Pete said JD goes "north of 45 very quickly."

Joe said he doesn't think CMG is an appealing stock.

Jim Lebenthal said "frankly," he thinks the Brookfield offer for GGP is a "lifeline" and the "right deal" for GGP.

Jim said LB seems to have its "mojo back" despite missing "the bralette phase or whatever that is."

Judge tried to make a couple jokes about The Buckle. Pete admitted, "I do have Buckle. That's because my daughter is the model for Buckle online."

Joe's final trade was MNST. Stephanie Link said KO. Jim Lebenthal said QCOM; "the stock goes higher from here (sic last 2 words redundant)." Pete said BABA and its "record numbers" for Singles Day.

Doc makes 2% every 2 weeks selling upside calls that ‘cushion’ his downside risk while still giving him ‘a lot of upside’

CNBC's Morgan Brennan, who looked great in blue, said on Monday's Halftime that "a number of folks" were "underwhelmed" by the GE analyst meeting.

Before asking his own panel for opinions, Judge aired a clip of Jim Cramer saying there's a "huge number of warts" at GE and predicting "closer to 17."

Jim Lebenthal predicted GE will fall lower because "some people are shell-shocked by this" and not everyone is out of the name yet.

Jim said there's a "state of denial" regarding the company and added, "15 to 17 is where this stock finds a floor."

Stephanie Link though questioned if that range is too high, stating that would be a 15 multiple.

Link touted EMR and HON. Joe Terranova said HON has been a "great place" to invest.

Pete Najarian said, "You don't buy anything ever for dividend. … You do it for management." Pete said EMR has management and growth.

Link rattled off CAT and CMI and URI and SWK.

Jim Lebenthal decried the "country club culture" of GE and mentioned the "empty jet uh trailing Jeff Immelt everywhere he went."

In purportedly his last decision for the company, Jeff Immelt only left the chairmanship early because of his "determination that the CEO transition has proceeded smoothly" and that Flannery "was ready to succeed" him.

More from Monday's Halftime later.

[Friday, Nov. 10, 2017]

Judge’s tribute to veterans has nice visuals and star power but unfortunately lacks focus

To mark the observance of Veterans Day on Saturday, the Halftime Report on Friday put together a live show from the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the Hudson River.

The program delivered classy tributes to servicemen and women; the most earnest comments came from the veterans on the panels.

We note for further consideration that, as is often the case on CNBC, the veterans on the program were from the academies or Ivy League. There are a lot of folks on our front lines who didn't go to college and aren't going to get wealthy managing money.

If we had to identify a theme for this hour, it would probably be exhorting Wall Street to hire veterans. That's a fine statement, but the scattershot format curiously failed to take up a lot of natural subjects. For example, there was zero discussion of defense stocks.

There was also zero discussion of the future of the soldier. Will tomorrow's West Point grads need greater skill flying a drone than firing an M-4?

And equally important: What is America's inclination today toward overseas armed conflict? Is recent military recruiting exceeding or missing goals? A couple of foreign-policy precedents were set in the early 2000s that 2 later presidents have either decried and/or somewhat attempted to walk back.

Finally, there was hardly anything about the Intrepid museum, other than Jim Lebenthal's very quick tour of sailors' quarters.

The star guest of the program was Vinnie Viola, a billionaire former Nymex chairman and Florida Panthers owner and friend of panelist Joe Terranova who was named as Army secretary by Donald Trump but withdrew from consideration.

Viola spoke of how "every day of my life has been informed by my experience as a soldier."

Chance Mims spoke about hiring veterans. Super Bowl touchdown-scorer Phil McConkey, a wonderful guest who has been on the Halftime Report several times, said he played at 158 pounds in the NFL and that the great trait of all veterans is grit.

Dr. Anthony Hassan said Steve Cohen has put $275 million into fully funding a network of military family clinics. Ian Winer, an occasional CNBC guest, said he's trying to help the network expand in San Diego. The conversation did prompt a question about the extent of PTSD. Winer explained that after West Point, he "blew out" both of his eardrums at the Korean DMZ, then landed a job with Goldman Sachs as a phone clerk on the NYSE floor.

Matthew Caldwell, an associate of Viola who runs the NHL's Florida Panthers, said he got to know Viola while working at Goldman when Viola "was a big client of the firm."

Viola said Caldwell was decorated for valor on the battlefield and thanked him for his service.

To all veterans, know that whatever situations we find ourselves in, America's gonna be there for you.

Vinnie Viola gives Trump an A+ for ‘heralding respect’ for the business world

Vinnie Viola on Friday's Halftime Report said he's not surprised this year has been one of such low volatility because of "review" of procedure (and other things) since the financial crisis.

For some reason intrigued by the word "herald," Viola said, "I think this president has done a fantastic job of heralding, heralding trust in terms of his approach to regulation and in terms of his desire to promote a pro-business environment."

And slightly echoing something Kevin Plank said a while back (but this isn't going to have the same kind of blowback), Viola said he gives Trump an "A+" for "heralding, heralding respect, reward and encouragement for the entrepreneurial class and the business class."

Viola said of the president: "And of course, his tax policies are universally accepted if I could be a little bit sort of over the top."

Phil McConkey said the market would go higher on tax reform, but if there isn't tax reform, "I think we're pretty good right now."

Ian Winer said the market looks "a little frothy" but that it comes down to tax reform.

Vinnie Viola told Joe Terranova that the oil market has gone from a "peak-supply paradigm to a peak-demand paradigm."

Judge made an obligatory joke (you knew it was coming) about how the Giants need help from Phil McConkey.

Doc gloats about making money long GE as the shares slide, praises Iger just for doing something that might or might not work

On Friday's Halftime, Jon Najarian was trumpeting a lousy GE trade as if he'd just hit the Powerball jackpot.

"I'm getting 50 cents every 2 weeks for selling out-of-the-money calls," Najarian said. "That's 2% every 2 weeks for selling these calls. I'll take that as far as it cushions any of my, uh, downside risks and gives me a lot of upside still here."

Honestly, that sounded a little too good to be true. Buy a stock, watch it stumble, but somehow make 1% a week selling upside calls while somehow giving yourself a lot of upside. (If you're selling upside calls, aren't you capping your upside?)

Why not just sell upside calls in UAA forever and make a fortune?

Najarian said the GE turnaround will begin "when they finally cut the dividend." He claimed "it'll be the same as Kinder Morgan when they cut their dividend. The charts look identical."

Najarian also seemed to be buying the new Disney narrative, describing Bob Iger's comments this way: "So instead of just sayin', 'Woe is me' and wringin' his hands, he says, 'I've got a solution, I'm gonna spend my way out of this.' The Street'll give him a quarter to see if that's true."

So a media company is going to spend its way out of this, and do its own NFLX, and Wall Street finds that a winner.

OK.

Pete heard on open mike installing Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl

It's one of the greatest stocks in Fast Money/Halftime history (stay tuned for a post on this subject by year-end).

But NVDA's gain Friday was only prompting skepticism on the Halftime Report.

Sarat Sethi said he would be "careful" in the name, advising, "I would take some money off the table."

Steve Weiss said, "The risk/reward in this stock is incredibly unattractive."

Weiss also said he doesn't like the KSS upgrade by a Baird analyst who's been on the "sidelines."

"I think the model's broken," Weiss said. "It's not the mall that's broken. It's the model that's broken."

Jon Najarian said KSS had a "disastrous day" a day earlier. Pete Najarian said it's "not a good sign" when they talk about retailers' real-estate value.

Jim Lebenthal said profit growth should drive stocks higher.

Stephanie Link said, "I do think that you wanna buy any kind of a pullback."

Joe Terranova said the unwind of the Sprint-T-Mobile deal is "spilling over into the equities market."

Engaging in hyperbole, Pete Najarian said he likes BBY, "one of the conquerors over Amazon (snicker)."

Judge said BBY is a "shocking conqueror" (snicker) of AMZN.

Sarat Sethi and Jon Najarian touted LB.

Pete said January 46 MU calls were popular. "This stock is going higher," Pete said.

Doc said KMX 75 calls were getting bought.

Weiss' final trade was XLE. Doc said BBY, Steph Link said DWDP, Pete said CSCO and Sarat Sethi said M.

Asked about Weiss' trade, Joe Terranova said that "any type of exposure in energy right now is very complicated, very difficult."

Jim Lebenthal's final trade was MSG, but the show's technicians at that point somehow botched the microphones and drowned out Jim's comments with backstage chatter from Stephanie Link and Pete Najarian, the latter heard to say the "Vikings will play a home game in February."

[Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017]

Honestly after several questions from Judge, we hardly have any idea what Mario thinks should happen with T-TWX

Judge had to yield the opening minutes of Thursday's Halftime to Andrew Ross Sorkin's interview with Mark Cuban, but after about 10 minutes, producers decided they'd had enough and switched to Judge's crew, who unanimously shrugged off the market's morning shellacking.

"This is a 1% fallback," said Pete Najarian.

Jon Najarian said nobody's betting on a sustained rise in the VIX; "they're all in the short term."

Steve Weiss said "it's great to have this" pullback because it gives investors "sobriety."

But the notion of tax reform, predicted by this page a day ago (just hit PgDn a few times) to quickly fade to oblivion and seems already permanently stalled, prompted Joe Terranova to state it's "concerning" when you hear 2019.

Weiss said the lack of tax certainty is "stifling" to corporate America.

John Harwood said the newest problem is that senators are concerned about the cost of tax reform exceeding Senate rules.

Mario Gabelli said the country spends $4.1 trillion and takes in $3.6 trillion and that corporate taxes "are only about 330 billion."

Harwood asked Gabelli how they should "make up the gap." Gabelli responded, "I'm not gonna get into the weeds with that." (See what we mean about tax "reform" not happening?)

Pete Najarian said the earnings calendar is now featuring "folks that are missing."

Mario Gabelli emphasized that he only owns T because of his "low cost basis on DirecTV." He said his "approach" to the deal is to own TWX. In a lengthy dialogue on the big-media space that led basically nowhere, Gabelli pointed out that T is "not a big company" compared with FB, AMZN, GOOGL, AAPL.

Judge needs to bring back Santoli to explain the law of large numbers

Mario Gabelli on Thursday's Halftime said he owns GE "in certain funds" and called the company a "work in progress."

Going far out on a limb (by Gabelli standards), Gabelli said GE "should" cut the dividend; "it makes logical (sic redundant) sense."

Jon Najarian said Morgan Stanley basically has an "obligation" to downgrade SNAP (snicker) to a sell.

Pete Najarian again called SNAP a "single-digit stock sooner or later."

Joe Terranova said that to invest in SNAP, you have to wait "until you have the turn in earnings."

Brian Stutland said gold has a little catching up to do with bitcoin. But Anthony Grisanti said he'd sell gold at 1,300.

Mario Gabelli didn't answer a woman's Twitter question about a stock to hold for 10 years.

Gabelli did say he's buying MAT, GDEN, ERi, FLL, RLJE and again mentioned VIAB.

Joe said MAT needs a "significant secular turnaround." Gabelli said, "I agree! Yes. Absolutely."

Joe's final trade was MDT (he called it "Medtronics" (sic plural)). Steve Weiss said DATA, Doc said SIG, Pete said ESV and Mario Gabelli said WYNN and MGM.

Friday's show will be on the Intrepid, probably with more guest commentary than panelist picks.

[Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017]

Josh Brown nearly makes a tremendous point but comes up just short

On Wednesday's Halftime, Josh Brown contended that the tech giants are seen as "impervious" to happenings in government, pointing to how the execs snubbed a D.C. hearing and merely sent lawyers.

"They look at, uh, developments in D.C., they look at Congress like a toy," Brown said.

"Completely wrong. Completely wrong," blurted Jon Najarian, pointing to TSLA and suggesting what would happen if the government raised corporate taxes to 45%.

Actually, both have a point, but Brown is much closer to something important, which is, several of these companies are enormously popular with the general public. This is not like 1999, when a lot of customers hated MSFT's monopolies and didn't even know what in the world CSCO does. This is a time when virtually everyone is using Facebook and Google (and even some people are using Twitter) for free, when they consider an Amazon Prime or NFLX subscription a steal, when they look upon their cellphone as fondly as their dog or cat.

It's almost certainly impossible to note any time in history that big companies have been anywhere near this popular or even popular at all — before the Internet Age, it was always Coca-Cola or Disney or McDonald's leading the popularity list, but none of those were 45-minutes-a-day-or-more endeavors.

Najarian is also correct that government can indeed make life miserable for corporations.

Does anyone think, specific to these companies, it's going to try?

Walter Piecyk suggests No. 1 Toni Sacconaghi is a ‘typical tech or equipment analyst’

Asked to kick off Wednesday's Halftime opining about AAPL (sigh, yep), Pete Najarian again mentioned Katy Huberty the company's huge "miscellaneous" revenue.

Pete said Steve Weiss (who wasn't on the show) grumbles about innovation, but "that's not really the issue."

Josh Brown said of AAPL and other tech stocks, "What a time to be alive."

Brown noted AAPL can open a new store on the "Miracle (sic) Mile" in Chicago.

Pete knocked Brown's reference to the "law of large numbers." Moments later, Mike Santoli said he needed to educate Brown on "what the law of large numbers IS and is not."

Walter Piecyk pointed out that there have been expectations forever that AAPL can't sustain iPhone margins, but somehow, it does.

Judge said Toni Sacconaghi thinks it'll be "difficult" for AAPL to get a market multiple; Piecyk said that's "because he's thinking about it in the context of a typical tech or equipment analyst."

Jim Lebenthal said "it isn't just technology that's led this." Pete said Mike Wilson is looking for a "pause."

Judge snaps at Josh over annoying interruption during Trump observation

Judge on Wednesday's Halftime thought he was going to introduce a provocative point with Mike Santoli, stating, "You know what one of the biggest surprises maybe under, under President Trump in terms of the market is the lack of volatility."

But Josh Brown cut in to say, "It has nothing to do with him."

Judge snapped, "I'm just SAYING, over the past 12 months, who cares whether it does or doesn't, just the lack of volatility in general is something to note."

"I care, but OK," Brown said.

Judge said, "You can wait."

Judge didn't sound permanently ticked and called on Brown moments later.

We’ll go on the record — this ‘tax reform’ plan is one of the loopiest ideas in recent D.C. history

John Harwood on Wednesday's Halftime suggested suburban Republican voters might be alarmed by Donald Trump's tax reform.

Jon Najarian said, "I think John's missing it," because the tax bill is for Trump voters, not the high end.

Josh Brown said what somehow nobody says on the show (but Jim Paulsen came close a day ago), "Why are we doing 1.5 trillion to 1.7 trillion dollar deficit-busting uh tax cut — let's stop calling it 'reform' — with the economy growing at its fastest pace in years, um, and debt already high. Why are we doing it. Nobody really knows, other than, because somebody wants that to be their signature thing, and that's fine. Um, unfortunately, the president's party doesn't really want it, when it comes down to it."

"You're making my point," Doc said.

"I'm not sure how this helps the middle class," Brown said. "I'm not sure what this does for quote-unquote Trump country."

Doc said, "Child tax credit and doubling the standard deduction. That's a solid middle-class …"

Yeah, but the bigger break is for corporations. Jim Lebenthal said the "centerpiece" of the plan is the 20% corporate rate. "They'll throw anything overboard to get that," Jim said.

We get that the current tax code isn't perfect, that it'd be great to have a lower corporate tax rate and to fine-tune some other things. We also get that, in this case, passing legislation for the sake of passing legislation probably at worst only has a benign effect. The bizarre rushing of this legislation is reminiscent of the street bums who absolutely need your $10 handout RIGHT NOW. The truth is, there's nothing to do. With stocks at all-time highs and interest rates remarkably low, it's really hard to fathom why anyone is even contemplating this right now, and it's obviously going utterly nowhere.

How come no one talks about the lockup? If the lockup doesn’t matter after the expiration, why did everyone talk about it before the expiration?

Josh Brown on Wednesday's Halftime said of SNAP, "We said on this show don't, don't get involved with this, I mean, from Day 1."

But Jon Najarian has trumpeted the call-buying before all 3 of the ghastly, hazmat-suit-mandatory earnings reports.

Jim Lebenthal said SNAP's trading on Wednesday indicates "there is eventually going to be a cash-flow problem here."

Revisiting the standard cliche with this name, Josh Brown trumpeted how FB talked about how "they were gonna kill these guys" and "incorporated" all the popular features. (At least Brown questioned how that wouldn't be legal in other sectors.)

Pete Najarian finally mentioned "single digits" again (but SNAP is still a decent ways from single digits).

Doc to his credit announced that he got his lunch handed to him with his latest batch of SNAP pre-earnings call-buying.

Judge said some analyst titled his/her note "Snap, Crackle, Flop." That's clever. (Sign those guys up for a newspaper.)

Wonder if Lee Cooperman and Glenn Hubbard celebrated at Hunt & Fish Club

Pete Najarian on Wednesday's Halftime said TTWO is ahead of the competition in "transition to digital." Josh Brown said it's probably not the pros buying today because technically they might see it as overbought. Jon Najarian said he was taking profits.

Jeff Kilburg said it seems like Dr. Copper is "continuing to smile." Anthony Grisanti predicted 3.20, 3.25 "within the next few weeks."

Doc said January 16 calls in FCX were popular. Pete said BHP calls were getting rolled up into June 50s. Doc said December 70 OXY calls were getting bought. Pete said QRVO November 82.50 calls were getting popular. (Wonder how the upside calls for SNAP's next earnings report are doing.)

Pete's final trade was AABA. Doc said TWLO based on upside call-buying. Jim Lebenthal said there's at least 10%, maybe 15% more in QCOM. Josh Brown said TWTR for some reason, "great price action."

[Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017]

‘Pause’ is possible in 2018

Ever hungry for stock-market drama, Judge opened Tuesday's Halftime with Jim Paulsen's idea that next year's market is going to take a … pause. (Stop the presses.)

Paulsen, now with Leuthold, even said we "could have a correction here" in 2018.

He mentioned bond yields, etc. (Zzzzzz) and even invoked M2 money supply.

Finally, he cited "sentiment." (You know what they say — when someone has 20 reasons for something happening, they really have no reasons.)

Paulsen contended that since we're at full employment, growth won't be as good as it has been. Paulsen has a doctorate in econ from Iowa State.

Judge asked if we're only in the early innings of the global rally and suggested tax reform and tossed in an "in and of itself" (sic redundant).

Paulsen did make one provocative point that we have to agree with, that a tax cut at this stage of the recovery is "extremely odd."

Joe Terranova, practically shut out a day earlier, said a pause is normal and wondered, "What do you do with that." Paulsen conceded "I'm with you" and said if nothing else, "certainly don't wanna go to bonds," warning about having bond surrogates in the portfolio.

Josh Brown said "it's so funny" that we're now talking about the "danger of overheating" after hearing all the deflationary scares a while back. Brown touted highs in Asian stocks and the Nikkei's 25-year high.

Rob Sechan said there's a tug of war between "invested skepticism" and "fundamentals" and said it comes down to selectivity.

Joe said, "Making absolute calls is the problem" and pointed out how the 2-year yield has risen.

Joe wasn't high on oil equities and mentioned how MLPs are struggling, which got the attention of MLP backer Rob Sechan, who insisted, "You're definitely gonna see some support as energy prices recover." Joe then had to explain he's not against energy equities, "but understand it also benefits multiple asset classes."

Katy Huberty and not Tim Cook is the reason AAPL goes up (cont’d)

Judge on Tuesday's Halftime brought in Sam Poser, who actually upgraded UAA. (The usual caveat: We're not trying to ruin the day of anyone who's long this name from a lot higher price; it's just interesting to talk about.)

But it didn't sound like much of an upgrade, as Poser said his price target (11) is "still below what- where the stock is now," and the stock has "serious issues."

He said the company historically has impressively tackled its mistakes. "If anything arguably less bad happens, the stock probably goes up, but there is certainly downside risk," Poser said.

Josh Brown asked if Under Armour should get out of KSS and the "cheaper outlets" and "make it cool again" as an affordable luxury product. Poser said that's what he thinks they should do.

Pete Najarian, from Minneapolis, said UAA is "probably getting close" to the bottom, but in the analyst community, "Nobody's gotten this right."

Pete said, "The problem has been brand erosion … you see Under Armour everywhere in the discount chain."

Actually, we'll differ with that and with what Brown said. The problem is that athletic gear is ubiquitous, and almost anybody can make decent stuff (all the polyester blends, etc.) on the cheap.

Pete said he saw UAA with a 60 forward P.E., an "incredible number." Pete also said he hasn't seen the big insider buy, and until he does, he's not sure the bottom is in.

Josh Brown called apparel a "terrible sector," which is definitely true. Brown said AMZN has "very quietly this week" launched 2 of its own sports apparel brands. "It's gonna be cheaper; it's gonna be ubiquitous," Brown said.

Ackman was hardly asked about VRX a day earlier

Also in the category of struggling stocks, Meg Tirrell, stunning in new hairstyle and black/red top, explained on Tuesday's Halftime why MNK was getting crushed and cited the company's comment about unfilled prescriptions.

"The big miss really here was on Achtar," Tirrell said.

In a shout-out to Andrew Left, Josh Brown observed, "The short sellers on Mallinckrodt have absolutely nailed this story."

"Their margins are just getting crushed here," said Jon Najarian. "Pretty ugly."

But Doc said VRX 13.50 calls brought almost 5 times the money.

Ackman mentioned GGP, which has to be brought up at least once during every one of his interviews

Pete Najarian on Tuesday's Halftime said RRGB's weaker guidance is a "terrible sign." He said he wouldn't buy the dip.

Jon Najarian said in the PCLN space, it's "people running for the exits."

Joe Terranova said "logically," you'd think the 3 hurricanes would help CAR's business. He said you have to take a "dramatic wait-and-see approach" with this name and HTZ.

Josh Brown said WTW is up 600% since Oprah Winfrey got involved; also it has a lot of short interest.

Pete said he's impressed that Bob Iger is taking a look at things to buy; "I still think they missed the boat on Netflix years ago."

Brown demanded the panel talk about APRN, "the worst IPO of the year," Brown said. "It's just gross to me."

Pete said December 80 calls in AABA were "exploding." Pete said recent JD calls have doubled.

Doc mentioned … what else … SNAP November 16 calls just ahead of earnings (and when haven't the Najarians trumpeted SNAP call-buying ahead of earnings, like when it was 23 in May) and called it a "binary" bet. (This review was posted after market close.) Doc also mentioned December 32 calls in GLW.

Scott Nations said the dollar move is "largely geopolitical." Jim Iuorio said he's looking for a breakout over 95.05.

Rob Sechan's final trade was EZU. Doc said ETP. Josh Brown said to avoid RRGB. Joe said MAR.

[Monday, Nov. 6, 2017]

Bill identifies why Lee Cooperman is no fan of ADP activism (a/k/a ‘Index funds control America’)

He knocked one out of the park.

Judge put together a virtuoso hour of the Halftime Report on Monday, keyed by an exceptional half-hour chat with Bill Ackman about the ADP proxy battle.

Now, are we going to go out and plaster the walls with Fatheads of Judge? No, we're not going to plaster the walls with Fatheads of Judge, if only because he's had several on-air conversations with Ackman, and it stands to reason he should be pretty good at them.

Nevertheless, it was a primo effort and easily some of the best CNBC material in recent memory.

Ackman first claimed he feels "great" heading into the ADP vote.

He said he was "kind of puzzled" by David Faber's report that Ackman will come up short. Ackman claimed "it's actually illegal" under proxy rules for either side to indicate how the vote is going. (See, on the one hand, the report's not true at all; on the other hand, whoever leaked this information broke the law.)

Bill curiously claimed, "The big institutions wait until the absolute 11th hour to vote because they don't wanna get lobbied by management or by us." Not to sound like a simpleton (snicker), but it seems to us, if you delay your vote till the last possible moment, aren't you maximizing your chances of being lobbied?

Bill read off a list of quotes by Carlos Rodriguez that Bill claims indicates his points have gained traction. "We've accomplished our objective of putting the company in a position where it's gonna have to perform," he said. (That's called setting the bar low for consolation prize.)

Bill, exceptional at parsing and as well-prepared as any presidential candidate in Debate No. 1, quibbled with Judge's contention that ISS "stopped short" of recommending Ackman for the board. Ackman said ISS did recommend him but didn't want 3 new directors, so it advised withholding against a director on the other slate.

Bill insisted, "We're not interfering" with ADP and asserted the company is trading at a 28 P.E. "because of our involvement."

3 times, Ackman mentioned Lee Cooperman's complaints about Bill's "comportment," the only time we've heard that term on the show probably ever.

Bill grumbled about Cooperman knocking this endeavor and explained why he thinks that's been happening: "Both Lee and I like Glenn Hubbard. We chose to run against Glenn Hubbard because he's been on the board for 13 years … and I think Lee didn't like that I'm running that- going after his director."

"I like Lee," Ackman assured. "And he's protecting his friend. I respect people who are loyal and protect friends. Um, but that's not what this is about. I like Glenn Hubbard, he's a terrific guy. But he's added as much value as you can to this board over a 13-year period of time."

Ultimately, though, Bill lamented the difficult road that activists sometimes face.

"It's just like Nelson," Ackman said, pointing to the "lost" (he used air quotes) proxy battle of Nelson Peltz at DuPont that preceded the CEO's exit. (That's the "Joan of Arc" CEO, according to Jeff Sonnenfeld.)

Bill downplayed the notion that the ADP fight is a "referendum" on himself, insisting it's about how the company does over 12-36 months (even though he regularly cited the stock's daily moves on the news events surrounding this proxy battle).

Bill said Peltz lost the DuPont contest because of the big index funds. "The index funds control America," Bill asserted, before clarifying, "I would say the proxy advisor and the index funds control America."

Basically, here's the deal … we've heard a number of smart people on CNBC opine on Ackman's ADP bid. Nobody thinks there's any low-hanging fruit here. Nobody really understands why he's doing it. So we gotta think, this is gonna be a bust, and Bill will be back in January with something else.

Bill Ackman vows to never talk about HLF again

ADP wasn't even the most interesting subject on Monday's Halftime.

That would be old reliable HLF, which this time prompted Bill Ackman to declare, "This is the last time I'm gonna talk about this company" (translation: basically throwing in the towel), promising to "write a little letter to investors" and noting "it's become a relatively small position."

Bill insisted he's not "throwing in the towel" on HLF.

Bill insisted he's been "entirely right" on the HLF facts. Judge pointed out the FTC didn't call HLF a "pyramid scheme." Bill said the FTC said the company is "tantamount to a pyramid scheme."

Actually, we looked up the press release, and we don't see "pyramid scheme" or "tantamount" in any of the description.

Bill disagreed with Judge that alleging fraud is a "far cry" from the business having a slowdown.

Ackman told Judge, "We converted our position from being short the stock to owning puts. So we're never gonna be forced to cover anymore."

"Theoretically the puts could expire and you just walk away quietly now," Judge said.

"That could happen. That could happen," Ackman acknowledged. (Translation: That's going to happen.) He wouldn't disclose when they expire.

Weiss tells Bill that Bill missed the ‘change’ of facts at JCP

After an already great discussion, Bill Ackman sat in with the Halftime Report regulars on Monday to take up the retail and restaurant scene.

Bill conceded that at CMG, "There's work to do, for sure."

Josh Brown said the CMG story seems to have broken, that it traded with a high multiple as some people thought it was the next MCD.

Bill shrugged that there was "1 employee sick in a store, a bunch of people got sick," and the stock fell 50%.

Brown, who likely didn't impress Ackman with choice of tie, said the company will have to spend more to advertise. Ackman said it hasn't optimized like other restaurants, no breakfast, no drive-thru, no mobile app, etc.

Bill pointed to Burger King's turnaround in a crowded burger space. Brown questioned if Burger King really turned it around, or "did they shrink the size of the food" and focus more on shareholders.

Ackman actually quibbled with Judge over whether Bill has made "many" retail investments or just a "handful." Bill took the opportunity to tout HHC.

A couple of times, Ackman knocked M. He said the shopping mall will exist in 5 years but with "different tenants."

Jim Lebenthal for some reason asked Bill's opinion of SHLD (it doesn't take Bill Ackman to figure out what's happening there) and said Q1 in 2018 is "kinda do or die."

Bill told Josh Brown it's possible to have too much conviction and said he "too readily accepted management's answers to concerns we had" at VRX.

Ackman said "one of my best sales" was JCP at 12.90. He told Steve Weiss there was no "stubbornness" on his JCP position, that he exited when the facts changed. Weiss said, "I would argue the facts changed a lot before that; you just weren't seeing the change." Ackman said, "I was on the board for 9 months."

Brown: INTC could
reach the high 50s

Josh Brown on Monday's Halftime shrugged that he bought the breakout in INTC; "the reason is that it's going up."

He said there's "enough momentum" for it to reach the high 50s.

Finally at the 58-minute mark, Joe Terranova got a word in, stating INTC is making a "very confident" move.

Jim Lebenthal said of QCOM, "I happen to think there's hair on this deal."

Joe said Jana just had a "huge win" with Whole Foods and is on the board of QCOM.

Flashback: Jeffrey Gundlach says he’ll be ‘disappointed’ if he doesn’t make 400% on ‘free money’ S&P puts

Way back on Aug. 8, Judge devoted the latter half of the Halftime Report to an exclusive with Jeffrey Gundlach.

Gundlach is an undeniably smart and savvy market observer with an uncanny sense of what's relevant, so of course we were tuned in.

The part of the interview we're interested in is the part about Gundlach's so-called "free money" puts (that's correct; that's the term Judge used) on the S&P 500.

We're interested, because 1) it's a trade that sounded almost too good to be true, and 2) maybe the only reason it came remotely close to working is because Gundlach mentioned it on the air days after Howard Marks was declaring market caution. (That's what we call a "self-fulfilling prophecy.")

Gundlach explained that "some of my guys" on his "macro team" told him, "You know, the vol is so low, that we can buy puts on the S&P 500 for December, that if the S&P drops by only 3%, uh, by expiration day, we either break even or make a ton of money. All we need is a 3% correction."

That made sense, Gundlach, said, because, "I believe that the market will drop 3% at a minimum sometime between now and December … and when it does, I think the VIX will not be at 10 or 10½ … I think the VIX will easily go to 20."

Gundlach concluded, "I expect these puts will- I'll be disappointed if we don't make 400% on the puts."

He added, "I think going long the VIX really is sort of free money at a 9.80 VIX level today."

So what has actually happened … The S&P, according to CNBC's screen graphics, was 2,488 during the interview. Within 2 weeks, it had dropped (for about a nanosecond) as low as 2,417, a 2.9% drop, before quickly surging to new highs.

The VIX, for about the same nanosecond days after Gundlach's remarks, hit 17 before retreating. It touched 8.99 Friday.

It's entirely possible that days after these remarks, Gundlach realized there wouldn't be a 3% S&P drop and 17 was as good as he was gonna get on his VIX call and cashed in his "free money" puts at a nice profit.

It's also possible that the entire trade amounted to guessing, was a complete bust and only came close to working because Gundlach announced it on TV — what they used to tell us in mathematics class proof discussions was a "circular argument."

To accord Gundlach a victory for this call would be like congraulating someone for predicting upheaval in the AFC just before the Broncos beat the Patriots on Sunday even though the Patriots are going to finish the season with 4 or 5 more wins than Denver.

The interview opened with Gundlach's recent comments predicting a spike in volatility. He twice said the markets have been "coiling," and said "one way or another, it's gonna have to break."

He mentioned the copper-gold ratio and questioned where the German 10-year was trading.

Judge said, "It sounds like you're telling me that we're gonna have, in your mind, a, a bond-yield-initiated stock correction."

"That's right," Gundlach confirmed.

Gundlach said he recommended EEM early in the year but that it was sitting on a "six-time top," and so "the trade location right now is truly horrific."

It was 44.50 while he spoke, and within a few days fell all the way to 42.72; it closed Friday at 46.34.

Gundlach did make clear he didn't see a big drop in the market because there's no sign of a recession.

(He also mentioned "Erin with the giraffe dress" regarding the famous Jim Cramer Fed rant.)

[Friday, Nov. 3, 2017]

Judge afraid of jinxing the market, admits it’s ‘can’t lose’

Kate Moore on Friday's Halftime said she "absolutely" agrees with Jeff Vinik that there's money to be made in stocks; "I think multiples can stay higher."

Judge said "I hate to say this," but it almost seems like a "can't-lose global investing environment."

"Define lose," Josh Brown actually said.

Stephen Weiss said things could go wrong "if rates really move quickly" (snicker).

Hate to say it, but this page was way ahead of the curve, we've been saying all year long that this market is like being a Mets fan in 1986, and if you're out of it, you're a chucklehead; good to see Judge finally agreeing. Note the caveats: 1) not every stock goes up (unfortunately, we've owned a few of those this year) and 2) there's money to be made in some shorts too; you just wanna be there, mostly long, but one side or the other.

Toni fails to answer Weiss’ question about AAPL-vs.-Samsung facial recognition (a/k/a Katy Huberty, not Tim Cook, is responsible for AAPL’s results)

The opening of Friday's Halftime Report was another victory lap for AAPL, and thus is hardly worth even mentioning, except it got all the key minutes of the show, so whatchagonnado.

Pete Najarian pointed to Apple's $30 billion in services revenue and $12 billion in "miscellaneous" revenue. (The latter, he was so excited that he mentioned it on the 5 p.m. Fast Money also.)

Jon Najarian stated that AAPL is the "60th largest money manager on earth."

"I think you have to give these guys their due," said Josh Brown, pointing out there are rumors at every phone launch.

Steve Weiss was compelled to say again that Tim Cook "has not innovated," leading to another tiresome spree of gags throughout the show. However, Weiss asked good questions about innovation to Toni "No. 1" Sacconaghi (even though Pete Najarian only talks about Katy Huberty, which happened again on the 5 p.m. show) and scoffed at Toni suggesting "animal emojis" as an example of AAPL innovation.

Weiss asked if Sacconaghi has even compared the facial recognition of Apple vs. Samsung. Toni said innovation is a "semantic definition."

Sacconaghi, who upped his AAPL price target to 195, said the most impressive part of results is the "breadth of the strength" (snicker) in the company.

Toni said that why the company doesn't get a market multiple is the "operative question." Then he suggested it's because iPhone margins have declined since the original launch.

Weiss: Buy the ATVI dip

Josh Brown on Friday's Halftime Report said you need "another quarter" to pronounce a positive trend in TWTR. Jon Najarian was even less impressed, stating, "payments and fees were down 5% Judge. That's not good."

Stephen Weiss made a joke, then said DATA is transitioning to a "subscription model" but it's not going as smoothly as how Adobe is doing it. Nevertheless, "The miss wasn't that big actually."

Weiss also admitted disappointment in ATVI falling on a beat-and-raise. "I'd buy it, great CEO," Weiss said.

Josh Brown said of SBUX, "I'm just not into this," dubbing it a trendless stock.

Pete Najarian said the options market thinks the TMUS and S deal might be on again.

Doc said P is experiencing "falloff like crazy" among active listeners. "This one's just headin' south," Doc said.

Kate Moore touted XLF, to rousing endorsement from Pete Najarian.

Doc said December 52.50 APC calls were popular. He said AIG puts were getting bought "in a pretty big way." Pete said November 45 MU calls were getting bought. Pete also said there's more buying in JD calls, the 42.50s.

Brown: ‘Oil is coal’

Jeff Kilburg on Friday's Halftime said crude's had a "big short squeeze," and because of Aramco, he doesn't think it's over yet. But Anthony Grisanti is a "seller at these levels."

Pete Najarian noted that energy trades in the options markets have failed to produce all year.

Josh Brown declared "oil is coal" and in a "secular decline." Stephen Weiss said you have to be a "tourist" in the space.

Josh Brown predicted multiple contraction for DIS and the whole space. Jon Najarian said to look at it in the low 90s. Pete Najarian, who has long touted DIS, said "I'm becoming more and more concerned," not just of cord-cutting, but "this NFL thing."

Weiss said he won't go near M and KSS.

Josh Brown's final trade was KSU. Weiss said LOW. Kate Moore said "value" (snicker) but struggled to end the "speech" that Judge was chiding her for.

[Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017]

Megarich guy like Kevin O’Leary can’t do any better than Domino’s Pizza

Kevin O'Leary on Thursday's Halftime Report explained how he gets pizza delivered.

O'Leary said the Domino's app "builds your preferences … and I don't go anywhere else now because I'm so lazy. … I eat pizza; I watch football. What can I say."

Joe Terranova said this level of DPZ "looks attractive to me."

Joe said he kind of disagrees with Scott Devitt's downgrade of SQ.

Pete Najarian said it's not the guidance with W but the results.

Kevin O'Leary said RL was "on the brink of going away," but management is "pulling it off."

Jon Najarian said a day ago, after the show, someone came scrambling in to buy NWL 41 puts.

"Congratulations, but I bet you get an investigation," Doc said. We'll bet against that. #SEC #askLeeCooperman

Rich Saperstein said he owns MAS and thinks it benefits from tax reform. "It's like buying a Home Depot equivalent without the multiple," Saperstein asserted.

Doc said DISCA April 20 calls were getting scooped up. Doc said LB had a "moonshot" after he made it his final trade the other day. Pete said JD November 41 calls were popular.

Judge can’t believe anyone would invest in JCP; that’s why he kept asking Jim about it

Pete Najarian finally showed up about halfway through Thursday's Halftime and once again mentioned Katy Huberty (yawn) and AAPL. Pete said December 200 calls were popular.

Kevin O'Leary said in his own Apple channel checks, business is "off the friggin' charts."

"Whatever numbers are out there, they're gonna beat 'em," O'Leary said.

Rich Saperstein said it's just an "incredible name" to own.

Aside from AVGO, Pete touted CRUS as an Apple supplier. Joe Terranova mentioned SWKS and GLW.

But Doug isn’t allowed on the show, so scratch that bearish voice

Thursday's Halftime crew took up details of tax reform (Zzzzzzz) … but perhaps they all sounded a bit too cheery.

Judge said he doesn't hear anyone even a "wee bit concerned" about the market, and he wonders if that's concerning … yep … you knew it was coming … "in and of itself."

Mike Farr said there are "not many voices" calling for a correction, but apparently Doug Kass is one.

Jon Najarian said TOL took a hit on the tax revelations; he said he bought puts.

Rich Saperstein said he'd look at small-cap stocks as well as big companies such as AAPL for tax reform/repatriation benefits.

Kevin O'Leary said tax reform will be "ugly" to watch, but there's a lot of momentum to get it done. O'Leary said he loves small-cap/mid-cap "big time."

Joe Terranova said the "removal of the electric vehicle tax" (sic meant to include "credit") is a "big problem" for TSLA.

Mike Farr observed, "We're adding stimulus at a time when perhaps we don't need a lot of it," which gets into the whole "There's nothing to do" point this page keeps making about Washington.

Kevin O'Leary said Jay Powell has an "innate ability to communicate numbers" and will "sell deregulation for Trump in a beautiful way."

O’Leary’s on to something — nobody really cares about Russia

Joe Terranova on Thursday's Halftime said the only thing he questions about FB's security spending is, "Why not go out and buy the security exposure."

Kevin O'Leary said FB's spin on this is "the best sandbagging I've ever seen at a tech company," as Facebook blames the government for forcing it to do this.

"This whole Russian thing is so … beep," O'Leary said.

Jon Najarian said he was in FB heading into earnings; he didn't sell the calls at the pop to 188 but "sold stock against it." He'd look to reload around 170 or 172.

Joe Terranova said he thinks BABA's price action Thursday is "a little concerning" though you don't have to "run for cover."

Kevin O'Leary cited accounting issues. But Doc said BABA is a name where you get 50% growth. (Judge said nothing about when Herb Greenberg would be back to complain about the company's transparency and the exec who lives down the street from Herb.)

Rich Saperstein prefers the FANGs to BABA. Joe said BABA is up 110% on the year.

No one owns YELP, though Doc said he has owned it previously. O'Leary asked, "Why is it even public?"

More from Thursday's Halftime later.

[Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017]

Weiss: ‘Best days in technology … are behind you’

Stephen Weiss on Wednesday's Halftime Report said he questions the notion of "crowded" stocks, stating, "There are those many shares outstanding that each company has, and somebody's gotta own them."

Not in the mood for nomenclature issues, Judge immediately cut in and told Weiss that Weiss knows it's about chasing the "hot money."

"Sometimes the hot money's right," Weiss said.

Weiss added, "If the market's up to this point, it's gonna be up in the last 2 months."

Judge suggested people might be underinvested in foreign stocks. Josh Brown agreed that there's a "huge gap in home-country bias" that could work against American investors if foreign stocks continue to outperform.

Brown said Savita Subramanian's note on crowded stocks indicates, "The market-cap weight of the S&P is 24% tech, um, but active managers are 30%," which means active could outperform if the tech rally continues but would be in trouble if it doesn't.

Jon Najarian said he favors tech stocks and also likes a "certain amount" of materials names.

Doc said EEM December 47 calls were getting bought.

Josh Brown said you have to spend "more than 5 minutes" determining which ETFs on foreign stocks you should own.

Weiss curiously said, "The best days in technology, I think, I think everybody here would think, are behind you. They're not in front of you." But he said you can still generate alpha by owning tech names.

Jim Lebenthal said he thinks tech stocks will run through the end of the year.

Weiss stressed the "synchronized worldwide growth" that Cramer mentioned in one of Judge's clips isn't just this quarter as Cramer said; they've been talking about it all year. Judge pointed out that Weiss already made that point this week to Grandpa Meb Faber (OK, Judge didn't say "Grandpa").

Sarat Sethi cautioned that when negative rates reverse, "You might get a taper tantrum that nobody expects."

Josh Brown warned that if Trump fires Mueller, "that absolutely will impact the market."

Josh & Jim quibbled over whether "cash on the sidelines" is a myth.

Brown: Buy the EA dip

Josh Brown on Wednesday's Halftime suggested EA's slide is "title specific," and he'd buy the dip.

Jon Najarian said Macau was driving WYNN on Wednesday and first claimed it was an "all-time high," then impressively corrected himself moments later to say 52-week high.

Jim Lebenthal suggested CHKP's tumble was profit-taking and called it "probably a buy-the-dip opportunity."

Steve Weiss said EVHC is in a "challenging space."

Sarat Sethi said VRSK is doing really well, firing on all cylinders.

Scott Nations said crude is "overbought." Anthony Grisanti said, "I got short this morning."

Doc's final trade was LB. Sarat Sethi said EXPE. Josh Brown actually said TWTR. Jim Lebenthal said CSCO. Weiss said UAL and MU.

Sarat doesn’t have much of an answer to Josh’s question about why JBLU is underperforming

Sarat Sethi on Wednesday's Halftime suggested the UAL downgrade by JPMorgan's Jamie Baker is "a little late to the party."

Sarat told Josh Brown that JBLU doesn't have as much premium seating and elite international gates as the bigger carriers, a bit of a headwind on the stock. Fair enough, but it seems like obvious stuff and that Josh was hoping for a deeper answer.

Stephen Weiss said of Baker, "There's nothing he says about United that, that people don't know … this is the time you buy United."

Weiss said he's sure Brad Gerstner is helping UAL "get through this."

Jason Calacanis actually suggests possible ‘existential crisis’ for FB, GOOGL

On Wednesday's Halftime Report, Jason Calacanis told Judge it was a "huge strategic mistake" for FB/GOOGL/TWTR CEOs not to appear at a Senate hearing.

Fair enough.

But at one point, Calacanis called FB and GOOGL "marauding capitalists" (still no big beef there) and doubts that there will be any U.S. regulation (still no big beef) … but then he said the hearing this week could be a "tipping point" and there could be an "existential crisis" for these companies.

Um, doubtful.

Calacanis told Judge that even though he's a Silicon Valley guy, he's critical because "I'm an American more than I'm a technologist" and believes Zuck has been "very cavalier" about fake news.

Calacanis claimed "Zuckerberg is lying to the American people" and "wants to run for office" (snicker).

Josh Brown immediately downplayed Calacanis' remarks, stating, "He's an Uber investor" and "that's like Suspect No. 1" about companies that don't care about laws.

Brown questioned Calacanis' notion of the companies "crashing down," pointing to stocks near all-time highs and pointing out there's no chance of a boycott of these names. Calacanis said it's the "arrogance" of the CEOs that could be their downfall (snicker), suggesting a "5 or 10% chance" that the government "stands up" to them.

If CEO arrogance was the death knell, there'd hardly be anyone in charge.

Judge actually cut off Calacanis to run a commercial, something he's often ignoring lately. (#revenuegains)

More from Wednesday's Halftime later.

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