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Halftime Report
Halftime Report 9/24/25
00:44:13
Listen to the Street’s top investors get to the heart of the action as it’s happening and help set the agenda for the rest of the day. Investment Committee Disclosures
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- [00:00]
Jenny Harrington
What does it mean to live a rich life?
- [00:03]
Joe Terranova
It means brave first leaps, tearful goodbyes.
- [00:08]
Jenny Harrington
And everything in between.
- [00:10]
Joe Terranova
With over 100 years experience navigating the ups and downs of the market and of life, your Edward Jones financial advisor will be there to help you move ahead with confidence. Because with all you've done to find your rich, we'll do all we can to help you keep enjoying it. Edward Jones Member SIPC.
- [00:32]
Shannon Sokotia
I'm no tech genius, but I knew if I wanted my business to crush it, I needed a website. Now thankfully, bluehost made it easy. I customized, optimized and monetized everything exactly how I wanted with AI. In minutes, my site was up. I couldn't believe it. The search engine tools even helped me get more site visitors. Whatever your passion project is, you can set it up with Bluehost. With their 30 day money back guarantee, what have you got to lose? Head to bluehost to start now.
- [01:03]
Scott Wapner
I'm Scott Wapner and you're listening to CNBC's Halftime Report, the podcast the most profitable hour of the trading day. We record this live weekdays at 12 Eastern. Listen in. All right, Carl, thank you very much. Welcome to the Halftime Report. I'm Scott Wagner. Front and center this hour, froth fears. Some riskier parts of the market have seen some massive gains over the past couple of months. So is history in danger of repeating itself? The investment committee joining me for the hour today, Joe Terranova, Jenny Harrington and Shannon Sokotia. We raised this question and let you know. The S&P 500 has gone 107 sessions without a drop of at least 2%. That's the longest stretch since July of 2024. Yesterday, the Fed chair in much talked about comments said stock prices appear, quote, fairly highly valued. Ed Yardeni said of that that it was Powell's irrational exuberance moment. Is that what it was, Joe?
- [02:05]
Shannon Sokotia
Not sure that he wants it to be the irrational exuberance moment. Because the irrational exuberance moment was followed by many years of price appreciation.
- [02:13]
Scott Wapner
Right, right. But that's, that's part of the point. Does it, does it even matter if it is?
- [02:18]
Shannon Sokotia
Look, Chairman Powell has done an excellent job as Federal Reserve Chairman in terms of analyzing whether markets are fairly valued, fully valued. I'm going to look at the market for that. I think that where we are right now is obvious that there extremes when you're talking about valuation. I also think that we're getting worked up and very excited about trying to identify this specific inflection point for the market. Oh my God, here it comes. The market is about to turn. You will know when the market turns. And what's so interesting about that is that the very people who spend months and years telling you that the market is about to turn, when it actually turns, they'll take the other side of that after several months. So I think it's important that you just kind of set an expectation and understand that a correction is normal. You're moving towards the end of the quarter. You have several days left. We've had a lot of good news in this quarter. The market has done a lot of work already in this month. The next couple of days. The market could go anywhere. Scott. I'm sorry. It could. It could go up one and a half percent. It go down kind of like you're.
- [03:23]
Scott Wapner
Going anywhere looking at whatever camera you want to. You know the red light means you look into that camera, right?
- [03:28]
Shannon Sokotia
Yeah, I know. Well, I was fixing my earpiece.
- [03:29]
Scott Wapner
Thank goodness. Thank you.
- [03:31]
Shannon Sokotia
But listen, the market, market over the next several days could go in any direction. Understand that there is still a prevailing secular bull trend. There are still areas of the market that are viewed as unappealing, which we're beginning to see capital flow there. Why? Because institutional money matters right now are offside. They're chasing that performance to the end of the year. So you see energy rally. Is anyone come on your show, whether it's halftime or closing bell, and said, Scott, we really want to be long. China FXI is up over 30%. Then you get the news from Alibaba today. So there are things within the market where you're seeing the mean reversion, and that's not evidence of a market that's thinning out. Market needs to thin out for it to be an inflection point.
- [04:17]
Scott Wapner
Okay, Shannon. Fairly highly valued. Is that some kind of warning from Powell? Ed Yardeni suggesting it's the irrational exuberance moment for those who don't know what he's referring to or understand the context in which he is saying that. It was Alan Greenspan, of course, who famously said irrational exuberance about some of the moves in tech stocks and the NASDAQ way back when, of course, it was four years before 2000 happened. Four years. So does it even. That's why I asked. Does it even matter if it, if it was just that of Powell suggesting that if I told you in 2004, if I said, you know what, man, these banks, they're writing these risky loans, these mortgage issuers, they better not issue, issue all these, these mortgages to people Would, would, would people have stopped piling into those trades four years ahead of the blow up? No, they wouldn't have.
- [05:15]
Joe Terranova
Right. So I think that the Powell comment I think is an acknowledgment that they're essentially cutting rates into what is essentially a likely re accelerating economic environment coupled with on the back of significant appreciation in capital markets. So if you look at his perspective, he's acknowledging the fact that there likely is potentially some risk as it relates to the valuations in which many US Consumers, Scott, have their wealth invested. However, I think the difference is, is that he's really looking at this and trying to pivot the conversation. No, Powell is trying to pivot the conversation to financial conditions, which is frankly what his interest, where his interest lies. Powell is being asked about the equity market because there is this misconception that the Fed cares about the equity market, that they're really looking to continue to create some sort of safety or they.
- [06:12]
Scott Wapner
Care about foundation the equity market. And by the way, we're not suggesting by even bringing this up that he's necessarily referring to the entire equity market. You know, there was an interesting piece out today that Bloomberg cited. Frothy and risky rally and profitless tech grows as the Fed eases. They looked at a basket of unprofitable tech companies tracked by UBS has jumped 21% since the end of July compared with a 2.1% advance for profitable tech and the Nasdaq 100 which has gone up 6%. Now they're talking about stocks like IonQ, which Britain has obviously mentioned, which has gone parabolic and things like Lemonade and Open Door which has traded like a meme stock and some others. But you know, there are names like Palantir on track for its seventh straight quarter of double digit gains. The high beta ETF has been up for the past seven weeks in a row. That's the best since the period of December in 2023. So I mean, you can make the case that there's froth in some places of the market, can't you?
- [07:18]
Jenny Harrington
Oh yeah, and I can make the case that there's no froth in other places in the market. Unfortunately, I'm sitting in those. Or maybe, or maybe in the longer term, fortunately I am. So, so I had an interesting past two and a half weeks. I spent a week in California and then I spent the past three days in Rhode island meeting with clients.
- [07:35]
Scott Wapner
And you were not at any rate conferences or anything like that.
- [07:38]
Jenny Harrington
Why are you so fixated on that?
- [07:40]
Scott Wapner
Well, because, I mean, the last Time you said you had some interesting time. It was like back to back reet conferences.
- [07:44]
Jenny Harrington
And it was one day. You should join me. You'll learn to love the recon too, Scott. But, but so here I am with, with this froth in the market. With the market up 14% almost. And nobody feels good. Absolutely nobody feels good about it. At least none of the almost 20 clients that I met with, they don't.
- [08:01]
Scott Wapner
Feel good about the market being up.
- [08:03]
Jenny Harrington
No, they're happy their portfolios are up, but they're unnerved because everybody has that sense of froth. Right. And even if their portfolios aren't part of playing in the frothy areas, they have that sense that there's this froth, that there's this disconnect, that things are fairly highly valued. Maybe they're thinking that they're overly valued. So while everybody's thrilled that they're up, they're not feeling comfortable and enthusiastic about what comes next. And I think this is where it's really a nice time to be an active manager, because then you can say, hey, we can avoid that. And when you're a really active manager, not a closet index active manager, but when you're a really active manager, you can go to places where the froth doesn't exist. And you can go to international stocks. You can go even with, even within the energy index. Right. There's some stocks that are at 40%, there's some that are flat, there are some that have a 6% yield, there are some that have no yield. But you can just, you can pick things out and stay in stocks. Because I do think that stocks remain the place to be for at least the next couple of years.
- [09:03]
Scott Wapner
You could say that, that some of these names that I mentioned are, are poised for a pullback. But you could have said that four quarters ago for, for Palantir. And I just said they're on track for their seventh straight. Excuse me. Quarter of double digit gains. Krinski at BTIG says high volume names are poised for downside reversion. Could he have put that out three, four months ago? Yeah. The point being is that at times when people have gotten nervous about the market, these kinds of stocks have continued to go up. They've proven a lot of the naysayers wrong.
- [09:39]
Jenny Harrington
Right. And then a lot of times they've also ended up having major retractions, you know, down 60, 70, 80%. And I think the challenge with, with a Palantir, which is no argument, amazing company, but when you're trading at 150 times earnings. @ that point, you're really speculating when you buy that stock versus investing. Because you can't say, okay, I see the earnings growing at. I mean, what did they grow 39% last quarter? 39%, but it's still 150 times earnings. So you can't say, I see the earnings supporting a share price of.
- [10:10]
Scott Wapner
Well, you're just. The game is you're with high growth stocks with high valuation, you're betting on them.
- [10:15]
Jenny Harrington
Speculating.
- [10:16]
Scott Wapner
Yeah, well, you can use speculating betting. I mean, I don't know, greater for you theory. Were you speculating, were you speculating back in the early days of the Amazons? I guess you were speculating there too.
- [10:27]
Jenny Harrington
Yeah. And so you need to define what kind of person you are with where you put your money. Are you speculating or are you like really investing in just putting one step and one foot in front of the other? Different strokes for different folks. Some people are comfortable with, with that froth and that speculation and really riding a roller coaster and some aren't. Both can do very well over the long term, but you need to be in whichever strategy you can live with through the ups and downs. And like my clients cannot live with a Palantir.
- [10:52]
Scott Wapner
But everybody's speculating to some degree, including those who are deploying the capital, that it's all going to have a great return on the investment. Sam Altman telling CNBC yesterday about the company's $850 billion in planned build outs. Is that speculating? Well, yeah, some degree. Of course it is. That's why he says people are worried. I totally get that. That's what he, he said. He told Mackenzie Segalis that yesterday, right here on this network.
- [11:18]
Shannon Sokotia
Joe, everything we do is about speculation. That's what the capital markets are. The capital markets are a wonderful confluence of various different styles, strategies, opinions, all blended together into price discovery. And there are moments when price discovery is being driven by fundamentals and there are times when it's being driven by technicals, and then there's times that it's being driven by a combination of both.
- [11:46]
Scott Wapner
Both.
- [11:46]
Shannon Sokotia
You could make the argument that we have moved from an environment where it has been a combination of both because you can't dismiss that earnings are strong. Oh, they're profit margins are expanding. Okay. And now maybe we are relying a little bit too much on the technicals. What does that mean on the other side? It doesn't mean it's 1999.
- [12:06]
Jenny Harrington
I agree.
- [12:07]
Shannon Sokotia
It means that, yes, there's probably a correction coming didn't say it was 1999.
- [12:12]
Scott Wapner
Does it matter if it's 1996?
- [12:14]
Shannon Sokotia
I'm not saying.
- [12:14]
Scott Wapner
Would that change the way. No, no, forget it. Would you change the way you would invest today if, if you were convinced that, yes, this is 96, we know what happened in 99 into 2000. I know this is going to end up poorly at some point. Would that change the way you would invest today?
- [12:30]
Shannon Sokotia
No, because I have one specific strategy that I believe works for me that means all the other strategies don't work. I don't know how to incorporate them into successful investing. So I'm going to continue to utilize the one strategy that I know best and that is utilizing reflection of. Okay, I've got strong technicals and I have strong fundamentals. The combination of two.
- [12:57]
Jenny Harrington
Right. And I use the strategy that works best for me, which is looking at the earnings, earnings growth, valuations, free cash flow, free cash flow, yields. And that works best for me. But just, just to close up, what I've been talking to these clients about is I've said, look, I think it's party on for the next two years. We've got earnings growing, we've got interest rates that aren't headed in. Aren't headed up, most likely. And we have an administration that's told us in no uncertain terms that they will do absolutely everything they can to support asset prices. So I think it's game on for the next two years. That doesn't mean that I want to be in the frothy stocks I still would rather be in, in, you know, my portfolios where there's a tangible multiple, you know, predictable earnings growth ahead. But to your point, Scott, I've told all these clients, too, I may change my mind in two years and we may be having a very different conversation in two years about taking real risk off the table. Not something I've done before.
- [13:49]
Scott Wapner
Frothy stocks can mean different things to different people. This is like, for example, energy, AI related energy names. Are they frothy or is it completely justified? Because as we've learned, if nothing else this week from both in video, in John Ford's interview and with. Excuse me. And with Sam Altman, again with McKenzie's interview, it's going to take a tremendous amount of compute and it's going to take a tremendous amount of power. Does that justify the fact that these stocks are up on your screen the way they are over the last six months? Bloom up 200%, Talon Energy 92 for Nova, NRG, Vista and Constellation, names that we Mention all the time. Is that, is that froth or not? It doesn't have to be. Doesn't have to be.
- [14:33]
Joe Terranova
Well, this is an example of if you're utilizing historical precedent or comparisons then you would certainly not be paying these types of multiples for utilities. Scott, so the power scarcity theme is aligned with AI, but also has this tailwind of electrification. And so I think you need to bifurcate. Are you investing here just on the basis of this AI spend or are there other trends and more, more importantly, where is the spend going to come from when we move capex from these large cap tech companies to the rest of the economy? Industrials are going to rely on this, on power. There is going to be a necessity. Now can you actually I'm going to, you know, look at. Jenny, can you look at the fundamentals of these companies today and look at the valuations at which they're trading and compare them to anything in the last 20 to 30 years? You cannot and therefore you need, if you're dogmatic about valuation. Scott, you are missing the point on some of these areas because they are turning from value cyclical low growth areas to potentially high growth areas with multiple tailwinds. So I think you do need to change your framework in terms of the valuations that you're anticipating and expecting to be materialized and monetized for.
- [15:44]
Scott Wapner
These stocks cannot compare, you can't compare these kinds of names versus traditional utility names over the last 20 years because the AI trade in and of itself is more transformational than anything we've seen over the last 20 years. These are by many respects new growth stocks. They're not tired old energy names. And utility stocks where you go in, it's a, it's a defensive place to get your dividend and do whatever else a proxy on yields. Now this is, these are proxies on growth, right.
- [16:17]
Jenny Harrington
But it's, it's really tough from my perspective. So in our equity income strategy, for example, we have Next Terra and we have Dominion. Dominion's up 9%. NextEra is essentially flat on the year, so not huge numbers. And you think like okay, they should be up a ton because they'll be at the epicenter of generating electricity for all the AI. But then you see a headline come out like what was that yesterday with.
- [16:39]
Scott Wapner
Are you talking about the Vertiv one of Microsoft? Figured you were talking about that.
- [16:42]
Jenny Harrington
Yes, right.
- [16:43]
Scott Wapner
Vertiv went to down a bunch because Microsoft announced a breakthrough in chip cooling technology.
- [16:47]
Jenny Harrington
Right. And so all these things may really change the way, the way how much power is used? It's a very distorted, disrupted time right now to try to figure it out. And so as a, as you know, a kind of value leaning investor, I say, okay, historically they traded at 13 times. We have a new world order. Do they deserve 18 times? Do they deserve 25 times? I don't know what the right number is. But then you have that one vert of thing and the chip cooling and that changes the game too. There's so many moving parts right now, it's just hard.
- [17:15]
Shannon Sokotia
That's where the speculation comes into play. That's exactly what this is. And it goes back. Look, Tony Pascarello said something in his note, a wonderful snippet. Don't fight it, don't chase it. Apply that to utilities. Think about the utility sector. You really want to fight the secular tailwind that is building for the sector?
- [17:34]
Jenny Harrington
No, that's why I own them.
- [17:37]
Shannon Sokotia
You're taking it personal. I'm not talking about you specifically. Then you think about. Don't chase it. To Scott's point. You look at Constellation today, up 1.45%. It's a great example. We own Constellation, we own Vistra. What I say to someone who doesn't own Constellation Energy, this is probably the time for you to get it. Well, okay, if you could ride out the potential that in the next six to nine months it could drop 10 to 20%, then fine, go jump in, you should. But I don't think you want to chase here.
- [18:04]
Scott Wapner
Well, you know, you're picking Constellation. I'm not exactly sure why you're picking it, but.
- [18:08]
Shannon Sokotia
Because it's been a great.
- [18:09]
Scott Wapner
Yeah. Yes. But if you want to look at like a GE Vernova, for example, over the last 12 months, it's up 145%. So Constellation is only up 35. Yes, great gainer, but okay, Vernova is up 145%. And many of the names in that, in that space are up considerably to Quantum Services raised today to buy from hold target to 469 at Jefferies. You, you own that name, right?
- [18:38]
Shannon Sokotia
Yep, we do. And again, I think, I think all of these names that are derivatives of the build out for AI infrastructure, I do think it's a case of you probably don't want to reach for it right here. I also think when you look at the various ETFs that are seeing significant inflows, a lot of these ETFs have a specific holding that's a utility or some of these industrial power names like an Eaton, like a Qantas Services or like the utility names that we're talking about. And when you see that type of inflow in there, it makes you step back and say, okay, wait a second, we might be approaching a level where the market needs to get a little bit of relief in terms of position.
- [19:20]
Scott Wapner
How come nobody is rushing on to say, hey, you guys see what's happening with China? Internet names, China Tech. Because there was a view that what was uninvestable for many reasons has turned the corner now. Baba hits a 52 week high today. They're going to boost their spend as the CEO has said today. But these stocks have been on the move and on the move a lot over the last three months. Baidu is up 59%. Bob is up 52. Tencent 28. The K Web, which is the ETF that comprises these names, is up 21%. Where, where are my buyers at?
- [19:55]
Joe Terranova
My final trade two weeks ago was China stocks and we were in California. Scott and I do think this is still a bit of a contrarian play. This overhang of US China trade relations is certainly a challenge. What I would instead say is that this AI arms race between China and the US is real and it's supported fully and backed by the Chinese government. So if you want to put, you want to think about where Chinese government is putting their money, they know how important it is for them to be competitive in this arms race and kind of the intellectual capacity around that. So I think that if you're not looking at China's potential contrarian trade coming into 2026, you should be.
- [20:28]
Scott Wapner
You don't have any of these names.
- [20:29]
Shannon Sokotia
In the Jyoti, do you? As we began the show, when I was scanning the beautiful infrastructure, the New York Stock Exchange, you were everywhere, you.
- [20:35]
Scott Wapner
Were looking everywhere but the camera you.
- [20:37]
Shannon Sokotia
Were supposed to talk to. It really is beautiful here.
- [20:39]
Scott Wapner
People should visit.
- [20:40]
Shannon Sokotia
I mentioned China and I said no one has the done it. Look, I screwed up the China trade, okay? Cut me, I bleed. I owned Alibaba, made some money on it, sold it out. I think at like 135. Got out way too soon. Should have recognized that in terms of positioning and sentiment, as it was rising as the FXI and as the entirety of these Chinese stocks were rising, people still remain skeptical. So look at Alibaba on a year to date basis. I got it up 108%. Okay, where are we relative to the last five years? Stocks down 34%. That's what people have. That's the bias that people are supposed.
- [21:18]
Scott Wapner
To have A bias. You're supposed to have a rules based investing plan.
- [21:22]
Shannon Sokotia
So you're, you're talking specifically about the ETF right now. I'm trying to tell you asset allocation, which is much larger than my ETF and it's the reason why you're seeing all this capital move into these areas because there's just dramatic paradigm shift from we don't know, we don't want China, we want to think about China.
- [21:42]
Scott Wapner
Right.
- [21:42]
Shannon Sokotia
We're bearish China. We wouldn't go there. Now it starts to rise. Slowly, the skepticism remains in place. And now very slowly the battleship is turning and people are beginning to see, wait a second, not very slowly, I could make some, I could make some capital there.
- [21:56]
Scott Wapner
So I mean, is there a reason why they're not in the etf?
- [22:01]
Shannon Sokotia
The Chinese names. Well, first of all, a lot of those names have issues in terms of us discovering the profit, profit return on equity, debt to equity. We have the 500 largest US corporations. So it's difficult for some of these adrs to be in the etf.
- [22:21]
Scott Wapner
Are they allowed to be in the ETF or not?
- [22:23]
Shannon Sokotia
So I would say given the parameters we have right now, they would not qualify.
- [22:27]
Scott Wapner
Oh, they wouldn't qualify. They could, they could try to get, they could at some point, but they don't qualify.
- [22:31]
Shannon Sokotia
I'm not, I'm not going to shut the door completely, but at some point they could qualify. That's why a lot of what I do with the Chinese stocks, I'll do them personally and I'm admitting at the beginning of the year I screwed up.
- [22:43]
Scott Wapner
No, that's fine. I was trying to understand why they're either in, why they're not, that's all. Okay. I think our viewers would like to know that information too, but I didn't know that.
- [22:51]
Shannon Sokotia
Yes.
- [22:52]
Scott Wapner
Thank you, Joe.
- [22:53]
Shannon Sokotia
Thank you, Scott.
- [22:53]
Scott Wapner
He looked around, he found the answer.
- [22:57]
Joe Terranova
I, I think that the challenge to, to Joe's point on asset allocation is that yes, Scott, you've seen some nice gains here. But I think from an overall overarching asset allocation perspective, I think most institutional investors are probably under exposed to emerging markets right now on the equity side and, and they have put, if they have the diversified outside of the US over the last year it's been in the developed markets on either European fiscal stimulus and, or an improving shareholder backdrop in China. So I think that if you look at wanting to potentially be a little bit more speculative in terms of not necessarily making a call on China US trade policy, but instead on government spending in China which has Proven to be quite the stimulative measure over the last 20 years or so where they've wanted to spend their money. I think that China is a place where even within a diversified emerging markets market portfolio, you could start to think about maybe allocating a little bit more capital.
- [23:49]
Scott Wapner
Do large banks pay dividends?
- [23:52]
Jenny Harrington
Yes.
- [23:53]
Scott Wapner
Why did, why don't you own any of them?
- [23:55]
Jenny Harrington
Because they don't pay high enough dividends for me.
- [23:58]
Scott Wapner
Because these stocks I mentioned, JP Morgan hit another record high today. Its price Target goes to 319. At Truist, they reiterate their hold on it. The stocks had a massive run, but adjust the true, truest.
- [24:11]
Jenny Harrington
I missed. Right. But for the most part, the large banks have a dividend. It's decent, it's not high enough. The objective of our equity income strategy is to generate a 5% or better dividend on average for the portfolio. So when the, when the JP Morgan's in the bank of America's have, you know, 2% yields, 1 1/4% yields, they're simply not high enough. And it kills me, you know, but to our earlier point, like, you stay in your lane, you do what you're good at, you do what you know you can do. And unfortunately, unfortunately, most of those don't make sense for us. Truist was a tricky one. The math mostly made sense, but as we got into it, there were just kind of like some macro factors that held us back on that. But I missed it. I probably should have been in.
- [24:49]
Scott Wapner
They're just the ones who made the call. I was only bringing it up for that matter.
- [24:53]
Jenny Harrington
Yeah, yeah. But I really did miss Truist and I was just running through this screen that every week that I look at and I'm like, damn it, you know, darn it. Sorry, I should have, I really missed on Truist because that did have a.
- [25:03]
Scott Wapner
Decent gold near record high again. 3800 for the first time ever a day ago. You own Newmont. Let's end the block with that.
- [25:12]
Shannon Sokotia
Newmont Gold's going higher. The US dollar continues to move lower. I think it's, that's something that's going to be a trend as we move into 2026. I think a lot of people have gotten that trend wrong. I think it's one of the reasons why gold continues to appreciate. You could add silver, silver in the mix as well. And then certainly given the news with Freeport, you could add copper with what's going on today.
- [25:34]
Scott Wapner
All right, we'll take a quick break. We come back, we'll tell you about the latest big name to enter the buyback club. We do have our calls of the day as well. We'll do that in two minutes.
- [25:49]
Joe Terranova
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- [26:50]
Shannon Sokotia
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- [27:22]
Joe Terranova
Are you ready to get spicy?
- [27:25]
Shannon Sokotia
These Doritos Golden Sriracha aren't that spicy.
- [27:29]
Joe Terranova
Sriracha sounds pretty spicy to me.
- [27:32]
Scott Wapner
Um, a little spicy, but also tangy and sweet.
- [27:36]
Joe Terranova
Maybe it's time to turn up the heat. Or turn it down.
- [27:41]
Shannon Sokotia
It's time for something that's not too spicy.
- [27:43]
Scott Wapner
Try Doritos Golden Sriracha.
- [27:45]
Joe Terranova
Spicy but not too spicy.
- [28:07]
Scott Wapner
Welcome back. A news alert now from Angelica Peebles. What do we know?
- [28:11]
Joe Terranova
Hey Scott. Well HHS just sent out a post on X of a screenshot from Tylenol. It's about an eight year old post on Twitter where they say that we actually don't recommend using any of our products while pregnant thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns today. And this has been picked up really all across X today. I've seen it from numerous accounts and now again including HHS and can view in a statement saying that this eight year old consumer response is incomplete and out of context. Today they say that their guidance on the safe use of Tylenol has not changed and that basically they recommend talking to a doctor before using it. But again, you know, this is just coming at this really heated moment where this has been in the news all week and now people are using this to say look, even Tylenol, you know, this is backing up what HHS is saying. You can see that stock down almost 2% today. Scott.
- [29:01]
Scott Wapner
So just quickly because as many of us saw this post believe from Tylenol, we were wondering if it was even real because sometimes you just never know to be quite honest on social media what you your reporting of this suggests, in fact it was.
- [29:18]
Joe Terranova
Yeah, I mean Kennedy is not denying it here. They're saying that this was an 8 year old consumer response. The there's been a couple of different posts on X that have been flagged, but one that's really getting the biggest making the most attention is one where there was a response to a consumer and that original post has been deleted. So we can't see exactly what they were responding to. And then the screenshot that HHS is sending out, it's a screenshot so we can't again see that original post. So it's not exactly clear what they were responding to. But certainly Ken View is not denying that this was indeed a real post. But again they're saying that it was taken out of context.
- [29:56]
Scott Wapner
Yeah, Angelica, thank you very much for that reporting. Angelica Peebles, let's get back to business here. Marvell. We mentioned a big name company joining the buyback parade. They just did $5 billion announced this morning. You don't own this name, but you do own Lam and KLA Corp. And there has been a long list of companies that have announced buybacks over the last couple of months. But you take this one first and we'll go from there.
- [30:21]
Shannon Sokotia
Long list of companies buying back their stock except Berkshire Hathaway. That's the one that we're still waiting for.
- [30:26]
Scott Wapner
I know we're talking about the chip equipment.
- [30:28]
Shannon Sokotia
I know, but that's important, that's important to mention because a lot of people always cite that and view that as a reason that he sees something within the marketplace. In the case of Lam, in the case of KLA Corp, the reason that you're owning these stocks. The buyback's good, but that's not the reason that you own these stocks. You own these semi equipment names because they are fully participating in the build out of the artificial intelligence infrastructure and they're in the right place. They're sitting next to companies like in Video and Broadcom. They have direct relationships with both of them and they're seeing significant expansion in terms of profit margins and earnings growth. It's one of the reasons why we have ownership of them.
- [31:07]
Scott Wapner
Okay, Jenny, Uber's on the list. $20 billion announced August6. Charles Schwab, $20 billion announced on July 24. As some look to this as a key catalyst for the market to keep going up.
- [31:21]
Jenny Harrington
Yeah, I don't think it should be a catalyst. But Uber is interesting in that it's not surprising. They have just enormous free cash flow. 9 billion this year, 10 billion, 12 billion billion the next couple of years. So it makes sense because they have been incredibly fiscally disciplined. So that one makes sense to us. The Schwab buyback is a little more surprising. You need to remember that they only recently had a funding crisis on their bank deposits. So I would have thought that they might keep a little more dry powder. But then again, don't forget, you can announce the buyback, but you don't need to enact the buyback. And sometimes you get the credit for just the announcement. So, you know, full thumbs up on Uber's buyback. Schwab, a little more apprehensive. But you know what I did, I took a peek. This is a beautiful use of AI, by the way. I put in our portfolios and I said real quick, you know, please tell me which of the companies in the portfolio announced a share buyback and when. And about 25% of the companies in our growth portfolio have a share buyback in place that was announced within the last couple of years. And then over 10%, about 15% actually in the equity income have a buyback in place that was recently announced. So it's just there's so many out there, you know, this list.
- [32:23]
Scott Wapner
You're not, you're saying it's not a catalyst. No, you're in the minority. I think in that view that it's a catalyst. Buybacks. I don't think you're a catalyst for, for stocks to go higher.
- [32:33]
Jenny Harrington
Not really. I just think it's a, it's a statement of management saying, I think my shares are cheap. We are showing fiscal discipline. We have a lot of cash. I don't Think you should drive it up? I think it's just another layer of support in an investment thesis. But I want to buy something just because. Because a buyback is announced.
- [32:47]
Scott Wapner
Well I didn't say just because it's just a layer.
- [32:50]
Jenny Harrington
Yeah, it's just one of the layers of the foundation of Catalyst in the.
- [32:53]
Shannon Sokotia
Financial sector I think maybe in the.
- [32:56]
Jenny Harrington
Financial sector but for our stocks.
- [32:58]
Scott Wapner
Well you don't think it's a catalyst for like to some degree.
- [33:02]
Shannon Sokotia
Sure.
- [33:03]
Scott Wapner
The stock's going to, going to have fluctuations.
- [33:05]
Jenny Harrington
Has so much cash like they buy.
- [33:07]
Scott Wapner
Back more stock than anybody.
- [33:08]
Jenny Harrington
I don't know what's the difference between a catalyst and a layer of support to put is a catalyst or is it put?
- [33:16]
Shannon Sokotia
Just a buyback is a put for Apple.
- [33:17]
Scott Wapner
All right, what do you think?
- [33:19]
Jenny Harrington
I don't get excited about it.
- [33:20]
Joe Terranova
I would say that obviously I'm reassured. We're in a, we're still in a higher interest rate environment. We're not back in the pre 2020 era. And any acceleration in buybacks which we're starting to see I think is reflective of of the very strong fundamentals of many of these companies and I think it is a basis for the potential for multiple exceptions expansion if you know the market still goes up.
- [33:39]
Scott Wapner
One more real quick, Electronic Arts. We did notice those shares were lower earlier. Google adding Gemini to its mobile games. You own ea. Josh just bought it last week. There's the stock down three and a.
- [33:51]
Shannon Sokotia
Quarter percent and I take the other side of it being down three and a quarter percent. You can make the same claim for take two. Jenny's very excited about Friday. FC 26 is coming out. Pumped about that. Battlefield 6 coming out in October 10th. This is a company that's achieving an 80% profit margin. That is a record profit margin. They're increasing their free cash flow. The bottom line is strong, the balance sheet is strong and you have active engagement from gamers.
- [34:17]
Scott Wapner
Coming up next in Totally on the other side with his midday word. We'll be right back.
- [34:27]
Shannon Sokotia
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Joe Terranova
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- [35:11]
Scott Wapner
Eduardo.
- [35:32]
Joe Terranova
We're back on halftime. I'm Kate Rogers with your CNBC news update. Two people are dead after a shooter opened fire at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Dallas from a nearby rooftop this morning. Police say the two dead includes the shooter and four total were shot. The FBI says it's investigating the incident as targeted violence and that early evidence shows bullet rounds contain anti ICE messages. President Trump promised Arab leaders he won't allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Politico reporting the president made that promise in a closed door meeting at the UN On Tuesday. And the US Team presented the administration's plan to end the war in Gaza that included the said promise. The White House has yet to respond for comment. And Iran's president says the country has, quote, never sought and will never seek nuclear weapons. Speaking to the UN General assembly today, the country's president called France, Germany and the UK's move to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program as, quote, illegal, adding that it was done at the behest of the U.S. all of the sanctions will be reimposed if a deal is not reached by Saturday. Scott, back over to you.
- [36:39]
Scott Wapner
All right, Kate, thank you. Kate Rogers, Mike Santoli here now, our senior markets commentator for his midday word. I would love your thoughts, thoughts on what Ed Yardeni suggests was Chair Powell's irrational exuberance moment. Weigh in on that.
- [36:53]
Shannon Sokotia
Sure. I mean, first of all, I don't think that Chair Powell yesterday went out of his way to try and comment on the equity market, Unlike Greenspan in 96, where he really did seem to want to float that notion out there about equity valuations. You know, Powell is kind of responding to a question. He said the Fed has no real view on the right or wrong price for stocks. And what I find more interesting is the rush to quickly seize on that as affirmation that somehow we're early in this. I kind of craze at this point. You know, something I noted over the weekend to my column that there's a lot of bubble talk out there, but it's being approached with warmth as opposed to alarm. In other words, hey, if we're going to be in a bubble, look at all the upside we have left. And it very well may be true. But I can tell you Right now I was there 95, 96 all the way along. And in 96, nobody was saying, hey, you know what, we have a quadruple in the Nasdaq ahead of us because that's what happened 25 years earlier. It wasn't like that. So I think some way it's going to be different. I don't know think necessarily the market sending scary signals right now. It looks like this is just fatigue rather than an injury in terms of the overall trend. But it's fun that everyone is kind of rushing to say, yes, let's prove it. It's still early because of what Powell said.
- [38:07]
Scott Wapner
Yeah. And would you, even if you, if you were convinced it was before, year from now, blow up? Would you even change your investing style today?
- [38:14]
Shannon Sokotia
Yeah.
- [38:14]
Scott Wapner
I don't know.
- [38:15]
Shannon Sokotia
It's a tough call.
- [38:16]
Scott Wapner
Thanks.
- [38:16]
Shannon Sokotia
Yeah.
- [38:16]
Scott Wapner
We'll see you later. For your for your last word on closing bell. Coming up next is CNBC exclusive. The NFL looking to renegotiate its media rights deal well ahead of schedule. Our Alex Sherman has the scoop, what it means for the stocks involved. He'll join us next. Welcome back. Exclusive new reporting today from our very own Alex Sherman. The NFL could renegotiate its media rights deal as soon as next year. Alex spoke with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He joins us now. The significance, of course, is that would be years earlier than the opt out and that's why this is so newsmaking, Alex.
- [39:14]
Alex Sherman
Yeah, exactly, Scott. You got it. The opt out is not until the end of the 202930 season. So that is when the NFL theoretically could get out of its current existing media contracts with a whole slew of companies. Thinking about Paramount, which owns cbs, our own parent company, at least for a little while Longer, which owns NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon, Fox, those five partners are the big traditional media partners, by and large that own NFL packages. Well, what Roger Goodell is telling me is that discussions with those companies on a new deal may happen as early as next year. So why would the league do this and why would the media companies do this from the league's perspective? They have seen recent sports media rights deals out there, the NBA, the NHL come to mind, that have gotten huge annual revenue increases. The NFL has the most popular programming in the United States. So from Roger Goodell's standpoint, he feels like the league is potentially or in fact absolutely leaving money on the table. From the media company's standpoint, if they could do a deal earlier and lock up a few more years of NFL football beyond 2029, 30 and maybe in effect, box out some of the big tech companies that may want in. That I think would be something that the media companies would want quite a bit. So perhaps there is a lane here where the NFL can get more money sooner than the end of the 2029-30 season and the media companies can get a few more years of NFL rights, which they'll then be able to of course, pass on to consumers in the form of charging you more for your streaming service of choice and of course your cable bundle.
- [41:01]
Scott Wapner
I mean, he sees what many see and he Goodell is clearly trying to assess what the landscape is is going to look like a few years from now, to which he says, and I quote of what he told you and I'll get your reaction to it. The landscape is changing. The reality of it is it changes so quickly that you want to have the ability to move it. It hits both factors. Who knows what it's going to look like the media business in in 29, what role, maybe bigger role that these tech companies are going to be able to put play in it too, as they have not shied away in any way, shape or form from spending whatever money it takes to get into the game, so to speak.
- [41:44]
Alex Sherman
You know, you tease this segment, Scott, by saying what does it mean for the stock? So it's an interesting question because it's a nuanced question, right? No investor wants these companies to pay even more money than the billions of dollars that are already paying for the NFL. And of course, the NFL would ask for a second sizable increase here on rights. On the flip side, there is no more valuable programming you can own than NFL football. It keeps you relevant in this world. I mean, if you are a Paramount or an NBC Universal and you are a relative minnow fighting against Apple and Amazon and YouTube and Netflix, if you own NFL football, you're going to get tens of millions of people to subscribe to your streaming service or keep your cable subscription. I mean, it is sort of the linchpin for a lot of these companies. So they're very fearful on losing out on an NFL package. And therefore I think they may be willing to pay more money. And investors will have to weigh that calculus like how much more money are they paying? How many more years did they get NFL games? So I think it's a tricky one from an investor standpoint on is this a positive development or a negative development for some of these companies?
- [42:53]
Joe Terranova
Companies.
- [42:53]
Scott Wapner
Yeah. Alex, thank you. Great newsmaking interview from Alex Sherman. Just real quick, Joe. I mean, it goes to like even Netflix, when you know your shareholder. When Netflix made its initial foray into live sports, making it clear to investors, the ones that Alex is talking about, people like you cheered it like this is where they should go.
- [43:11]
Shannon Sokotia
Not only cheered it, I think there was a dramatic inflow of capital that pushed towards the streamers, in particular, Netflix, Netflix. And I think it's the excitement and the opportunity and the understanding. I think the streamers, I think these dominant tech streamers like Netflix and Amazon and ultimately Apple, I think they are going to control the sports landscape environment in the coming years. The four major sports, I think they'll be dominated on these streamers.
- [43:37]
Scott Wapner
All right, from football to golf, because straight ahead, we're live at the Ryder Cup. We are following the big money in one of the premier golf events of this season. We're back. We're going out to BETPAGE next. Welcome back. Best golfers from the United States and Europe getting ready to tee it up at the Ryder cup on the famed black corset Bethphage. Joining us now from Farmingdale, New York, our own Dominic Chu and the Golf Channel's Todd Lewis. They'll give us the rundown of what to look for. Todd, we begin with you.
- [44:25]
Shannon Sokotia
All right, let's break down the markets on the Ryder cup, beginning with Team Europe led by the steady Luke Donald, who led Team Europe to a very confident victory at Rome at the last Ryder cup. He's got 11 of his 12 players that competed in Rome back on this team. That's the most returning players at a Ryder cup in the history of the matches on both sides. And of course, Team Europe led by Rory McAvoy on the US side, Keegan Bradley, the emotional connection he has to Beth Page. Black in the Northeast, he went to school at St. John's he is leading the United States team. And they, of course, have the steady number one player in the world, Scotty Scheffler. But the wild card for the United States team may be Bryson DeChambeau. His power drives and the fact that he can pump up this New York crowd, I think the Europeans on paper have a better team. They have a lot of depth. But the United States, well, that team has a lot of emotion. They've got the home crowd. This is going to be one of the greatest not golf events of the year 2025. Scott.
- [45:27]
Scott Wapner
Yeah, we're excited about it, that's for sure. That's Todd Lewis out at Beth Page. Our Dominic choose there, too. He's following the big money, Don. The big money for sure. We're talking 281 hospitality units here. Maybe no surprise that in the world's biggest media market, the New York metro area, you will have what will evolve to be the biggest Ryder cup in history. You're talking 281 hospitality units that are going to generate roughly for the whole entire ecosystem around the Ryder cup, roughly $200 million in economic impact over this week long span, 160 million of which are going to be felt right here on Long Island. Now, other things to consider as well, the notion that you have big name participants in this event. Also, for fans of fine Italian food, Rao's, the fine Italian restaurant in New York City, will be opening up its first ever pop up at a Ryder cup event as well. All of this set against a huge media background. And by the way, just behind me over there is going to be the largest merchandise tent ever put up at a major golf event. 61,000 square feet of selling stuff like polos, hats, pullovers and everything else. Scott, it's going to be massive here in Farmingdale, New York. I know you, Dom. You'll be in that merch tent too. I know you will.
- [46:42]
Shannon Sokotia
See you enjoy yourself.
- [46:44]
Scott Wapner
That's Dominic Chu out in Farmingdale at Bethpage. Don't miss full coverage of the Ryder cup all weekend across NBC Universal platforms. It's an NBC of course, USA and Peacock. It's Friday, 7am it's an early start. Don't miss coming up finals. What do you got?
- [47:08]
Joe Terranova
Financials, Carmax, Baker Hughes.
- [47:10]
Scott Wapner
All right, good stuff. I'll see you at 3. You've been listening to CNBC's Halftime Report, the podcast you can always catch us live weekdays at 12 Eastern only on CNBC.
- [47:24]
Joe Terranova
All opinions expressed by the Halftime Report participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, Internet or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information the Halftime Report participants consider reliable. But neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Halftime Report disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com halftimereportdisclaimer@ Capella University. Learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills. You can take from the courseroom to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella. Eduardo.