The Fed, the Markets and your Money 6/24/25

Summary

Halftime Report: The Fed, the Markets, and Your Money – June 24, 2025

Hosted by CNBC’s Scott Wapner

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Introduction

In the June 24, 2025 episode of Halftime Report, CNBC’s Scott Wapner engages with top financial experts to dissect the current economic climate, focusing on the Federal Reserve's policies, market dynamics, and investment strategies. The discussion provides insightful analysis on how tariffs are influencing Fed decisions, the resilience of the stock market, and highlights key sectors and stocks poised for growth.

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1. Federal Reserve’s Current Stance on Interest Rates

Scott Wapner opens the discussion by addressing the Federal Reserve's (Fed) cautious approach to cutting interest rates. The primary reason for this restraint is the need to evaluate the economic impact of ongoing tariffs.

• Steve Liesman, Senior Economics Reporter, elaborates: “Chair Powell pretty explicitly said that if not for the tariffs and the uncertainty created by them, the Fed would already be cutting” (01:47).

This sentiment underscores the Fed's intent to stabilize the economy before making further adjustments to interest rates.

Notable Quote:

"If it wasn't for the tariffs, the Fed would already be cutting." – Steve Liesman (01:47)

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2. Economic Indicators and Upcoming Reports

The team discusses key economic indicators and upcoming reports that will influence the Fed's decisions:

• July 6: Jobs report
• July 11: Inflation data
• July 9: President’s decision on reciprocal tariffs
• July 30: Fed meeting

Steve Liesman emphasizes the importance of these dates in shaping future monetary policies and market reactions.

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3. Market Overview and Performance

Scott Wapner highlights the stock market’s robust performance, nearing new all-time highs, buoyed by positive news such as a ceasefire in the Middle East.

• The S&P 500 is just 1% away from a new all-time high (03:06).
• Joe Terranova notes, “78% of tech stocks are above the 50-day moving average” (07:14).

Notable Quote:

"The market continues to drive higher. I use the word resiliency." – Josh Brown (04:46)

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4. Sector Highlights: Technology and Financials Leading the Charge

The episode delves into the sectors driving market gains, primarily technology, consumer discretionary, and financials.

• Josh Brown remarks on the resilience of the tech sector: “I think the trajectory points towards we will achieve new all-time highs relatively soon” (04:46).
• Stephanie Link discusses consumer strength: “The consumer continues to do well because they have jobs, they have better wages, inflation is coming down” (05:29).

Notable Quote:

"This is one of the most resilient markets that I have ever witnessed." – Josh Brown (05:29)

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5. Spotlight on Notable Stocks

Several stocks are highlighted for their strong performance and potential growth:

• Uber (UBER):

  • Recently surged by 7.5% due to expansions in autonomous vehicle services.
  • Joe Terranova states, “This is my largest position personally. I've been saying it's my highest conviction” (13:45).

• Toast (TOST):

  • Up 22% year-to-date, lauded for its dominance in the restaurant payment sector.
  • Joe Terranova compares its growth trajectory to early Salesforce.

• Broadcom (AVGO):

  • Achieving record highs with strong earnings and revenue growth.
  • Stephanie Link comments on Broadcom’s impressive margins and cash flow (12:31).

Notable Quotes:

"It's the most profitable bull market to what the average does to what the index does." – Josh Brown on tech sector (07:34)

"They've got pricing power, free cash flow." – Stephanie Link on Broadcom (12:31)

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6. Best Stocks in the Market

The panel introduces new additions to their best stocks list, emphasizing their strong performance and potential:

• Amphenol (APH): Reached an all-time high, praised for double-digit revenue growth.
• Snowflake (SNOW): Upgraded to overweight by Morgan Stanley, thanks to new CEO and product innovations.
• Electronic Arts (EA): Upgraded to buy from neutral with expectations of double-digit EPS growth.

Notable Quote:

"The setup here is very simple. A break below 100 bucks tells you the momentum is gone." – Joe Terranova on Disney (28:06)

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7. Economic and Geopolitical Factors

The discussion also touches upon broader economic and geopolitical factors affecting the markets:

• Kerry Firestone highlights the role of technology and AI in driving market growth.
• Silvana provides brief news updates, including the postponement of Senate and House briefings on Iran strikes, legal rulings on AI training models, and the formation of the first Atlantic tropical storm.

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8. Final Market Insights

In the concluding segment, the panel reflects on the market's near all-time high status and future outlook:

• Mike Santoli, Senior Markets Commentator, discusses market dynamics and the potential need for a "scare and relief cycle" to propel the market to new heights.
• Josh Brown emphasizes that despite some speculative activities, the leading stocks remain fundamentally strong and profitable.

Notable Quote:

"The market has self-corrected itself. The issues at hand, whether it's SPACs or other factors, don't derail the overall trend." – Mike Santoli (31:21)

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Conclusion

The June 24, 2025 episode of Halftime Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Federal Reserve’s cautious approach amidst tariff-induced uncertainties, the remarkable resilience of the stock market, and the sectors and stocks that are leading the charge towards new all-time highs. With insightful commentary from seasoned financial experts, listeners gain a clear understanding of the current economic landscape and informed perspectives on future market movements.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

1. Steve Liesman:

   "If it wasn't for the tariffs, the Fed would already be cutting." (01:47)

2. Josh Brown:

   "This is one of the most resilient markets that I have ever witnessed." (05:29)

3. Stephanie Link:

   "The consumer continues to do well because they have jobs, they have better wages, inflation is coming down." (05:29)

4. Joe Terranova:

   "This is my largest position personally. I've been saying it's my highest conviction." (13:45)

5. Mike Santoli:

   "The market has self-corrected itself. The issues at hand, whether it's SPACs or other factors, don't derail the overall trend." (31:21)

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Timestamp Guide:

• [01:47] – Steve Liesman on Fed cutting rates
• [04:46] – Josh Brown on achieving new all-time highs
• [05:29] – Stephanie Link on consumer strength
• [07:34] – Josh Brown on market resiliency
• [12:31] – Stephanie Link on Broadcom’s performance
• [13:45] – Joe Terranova on Uber’s conviction
• [28:06] – Joe Terranova on Disney
• [31:21] – Mike Santoli on market dynamics

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Disclaimer: The opinions and analyses presented are those of the podcast participants and do not reflect the official views of CNBC or its affiliates.

Transcript

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[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. No big surprises today. Really underscoring that the Fed is in no hurry to cut rates until it can assess the impact of the Trump tariffs on the economy. Very similar to what he said at the Fed meeting last week. We bring in now our senior economics reporter, Steve Liesman. That is the news of the day that there's no new news. Although I have to say, Steve, Chair Powell pretty explicitly said that if not for the tariffs and the uncertainty created by them, the Fed would already be cutting. Is that your takeaway here?

[Steve Liesman]

Yeah, I think that's a pretty widely held belief on the committee, Scott. Look, I don't think he really changed his tune from last Wednesday, maybe loosening up a bit. The harshest possible hawkish view. But he didn't say the door was closed for the summer, but he basically said it's not his intention to open it. In fact, Scott, if you mind, I've got one quote here I want to run from him if it's there, about him talking about the idea of tariffs passing through. That I think summarizes the last three hours, if you can run it.

[Scott Wapner]

We think we should start to see.

[Josh Brown]

This over the summer, you know, in the June numbers and in the, in the July numbers.

[Scott Wapner]

And if we don't, I think we're learning here. If we see less, less pass through.

[Stephanie Link]

There aren't historical experiences we can consult here really.

[Josh Brown]

So it may turn out that the.

[Scott Wapner]

Pass through is less or more than we think.

[Steve Liesman]

Here you go Scott less or more than we think and he's just going to hang out and look. I think we are hearing more importantly, Scott, that there is support for his position. We did hear rather plainly from Waller and from Bowman, but also we have several other Fed officials Hammock talking, Bostic talking and really supporting the idea that the Fed needs to wait and see what happens with tariffs and inflation.

[Scott Wapner]

Are we setting ourselves up for a pretty good battle inside the room? Steve as the next meeting approaches, given the very public disagreement, I think is a fair word on the views of the folks you just cited. With some others.

[Steve Liesman]

It could be Scott but but I just don't know how people are going to react. Let's say that and I have no idea if this is going to happen if the June inflation numbers come in at 3%, the case of those who want to cut is going to be much weaker. If it comes in lower, then you will have either a fight or a lot of acquiescence on the idea. So Scott, just write these dates down. July 6We get the jobs report. July 11 is inflation. July 9 the Fed, the president decides on the reciprocal tariffs. The Fed meets July 30th. So don't take too much time at the beach, my friend.

[Scott Wapner]

Now you're the one who has to be on duty. We'll, we'll do accordingly. But you're the one who's in trouble. Steve thanks. It's Steve Leeson. As I said, Steve is going to continue to monitor all of this. And Steve, please do come back and let us know if there's anything that we need to know. But you see the markets here and that's what all of you need to know, that we are now this the highs of the day for stocks. We are 1% away, all on the S&P 500 from a new all time high and the market has crept higher ever since. Word of that cease fire out of the Middle east came through earlier today and we're holding these levels. It's very interesting. The investment committee is with me today too. Josh Brown, Joe Terranova, Stephanie Link and Carrie Firestone. Joe, I'll give you the ball first. Nothing new there but very much new in the market. I mean we're not that far away now and we continue to creep higher.

[Josh Brown]

No and I think the trajectory points towards we will achieve new all time highs relatively soon. I think the chairman did little to disrupt what already was a very favorable and optimistic mood coming into the opening of trade today. I think markets are beginning to understand based on his comments. September 18th for me is the date. I think in July, July 29th and 30th you'll get some dissension surrounding whether they should cut. I think they'll be cutting by September 18th because I don't think you're going to see the inflation that everyone's talking about showing up in those readings. So the market continues to drive higher. I use the word resiliency. I will use that word over and over again because this is one of the most resilient markets that I have ever witnessed.

[Scott Wapner]

Steph. So yields, yields were being closely watched today. They were higher. They're lower now. I believe oil prices continue to fall. Consumer confidence was a miss at 93 versus 99 and a half. UBS today says the fundamentals remain supportive even with the Middle east and what's going on Wolf Research poised to reaccelerate to make a run at the highs. Is that what you think too?

[Stephanie Link]

I do. I do and I think I go back to the economy overall, you're running at 3.4% now for the Atlanta Fed tracker for the second quarter, just go back and read the transcript from Carnival Cruise and what the CEO said about the consumer. They are, it's strong. They were, they actually beat expectations. They raised numbers. Bookings for next year are going to be similar to this year which were a record. So the consumer continues to do well because they have jobs, they have better wages, inflation is coming down. But I did take away the same that you did with regards to Fed Powell because if it wasn't for the tariffs they actually would be cutting. That's really big actually like maybe actually does get it.

[Scott Wapner]

He gets it. But what's he going to do? He's, he's, he's in this paralysis like many others have been because they just don't know and they don't want to make a mistake.

[Stephanie Link]

Of course they don't want to.

[Scott Wapner]

They don't want to, they don't want to cut too early and then have inflation reemerge as a result of the tariffs and then have to react to that and then look silly and also create bigger problems than probably it's worth. What's your thought care I think it's.

[Kerry Firestone]

Very interesting that the, that the groups that have done really well this quarter quarter to date, which are technology, consumer communication services and discretionary consumer discretionaries which are really the big mag seven stocks it's Microsoft Meta. It's not Apple, but it's Tesla for sure, Nvidia, etc. That has driven the market. And these for the most part not really do not require, you know, they're agnostic about tariffs. Except for Nvidia and I'm sorry, I'll.

[Scott Wapner]

Let you continue 2 seconds. Give me a 12 months please of the Qs. Let's take a look at that because that's like 0.3% from a new all time high for the QS. It goes with what Kerry saying. Yeah, forgive me, but I wanted to put that up and you continue please.

[Kerry Firestone]

No, no, it's exactly true. We've had a year, the year to date had the defensive names like consumers, consumer stocks and then some cyclicals, industrial and financial. That's strongest year to date. But the tone of this market has changed and it feels very much as if we've got a Runway at least over the next month for the big tech and digital giants to lead the market higher. And you need them I think to get to the new high. And that's, you know, it doesn't take much.

[Scott Wapner]

You're getting, you're getting a bigger buy in if you will. Josh. The biggest equity inflows in seven weeks according to B of A and their client flows more tech buying as well. We have the tech sector hitting a high for the first time since December. So this is game on for that trade.

[Joe Terranova]

It is. And one of the things that I keep returning to is just like if you're paying attention to stocks and not just the stock market, then you understand exactly why, why we're approaching highs at this point. We've neutralized the worst of what we thought would happen with the tariffs. Now we seem to be getting a little bit of a handle on the geopolitical risk and the market has rendered its verdict, which is lol. And look at the stocks that are going up to Carrie's point. The NASDAQ 100 is.09% away from all time highs, not 52 week highs, all time highs. Within the S piece, S&P 567% of the technology sector stocks are above their 20 day moving average. These are micro bull markets within Macro Bull Markets. 78% of tech stocks are above the 50 day, 56% above the 200 day and those numbers are climbing. About 9% of S&P tech names are currently at 52 week highs. And the XLK overall, the sector overall the RSI is about 70. That bull market is the most important bull market to what the average does to what the index does. We all know that. What's the second most important financials? Here is a sampling of companies that are within 5% of their 52 week highs right now. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citi. You have not seen a market top where all of Those names are within 5% of their highs. Those markets tend to persist and even away from the big banks. Look at Coinbase. It's the best performing stock in the S P financial sector year to date. It's up almost 40% on the year and it wasn't exactly a low price stock heading into the year. So when you have financials and you have tech doing what they're doing, that's like, I don't know, 40% of the market cap of the S and P. That's really all you need to understand about why we are where we are.

[Scott Wapner]

By the way, I'm just noticing, do you see Uber?

[Josh Brown]

I do.

[Scott Wapner]

Uber's up seven and a half percent.

[Josh Brown]

Yes.

[Scott Wapner]

Today.

[Josh Brown]

And guess what?

[Scott Wapner]

Tesla's lower. Is that, is it directly related to what some may have thought was a lackluster launch of Robo Taxi over the weekend?

[Josh Brown]

Well, I think it also has to do with Waymo announcing that they're going to be expanding into Atlanta. That's obviously favorable, the relationship that exists there. But Uber is an example of what an industrial stock and we're talking about financials and technologies. Industrials are the best performing sector year to date and they haven't let us down in this quarter. This quarter they're up 10%. So they are participating as well. The semis. To Josh's point, they are now engaged. They had been dormant for quite a while. Look at a name like KLA Corp. I'll tell you that the short, strongest momentum name, which we actually do not own right now in the semi universe is amd pull up a charge. Trading about 136.

[Scott Wapner]

You could pull up breaking out a bunch of different ones. AMD is up almost 6%. Micron's up almost 4. Broadcom today hits a new record high. That stock got upgraded at HSBC. 400 bucks is the price target, the new one for shares of Broadcom. And there's broad ownership. But Steph, you've been in this thing.

[Stephanie Link]

A long time, a long time. And actually inference demand is inflecting. They said that on their conference call. And you need custom ASIC chips for inference and because you have to balance the efficiency and the power. And so that is where they are a winner. And they are gaining momentum and in the meantime they have earnings growth of 40, 44%, revenue growth of 20%. They have industry high margins. They rose 320 basis points last quarter, year over year. That's huge. So they've got pricing power, free cash flow. I don't like an upgrade here because it's had such a nice run, but I understand the enthusiasm for the name.

[Scott Wapner]

Yeah, applied materials to 220 from 200 overweight at Kander Care. You got that right.

[Kerry Firestone]

I think it's part of the same scenario. I mean we are so interested, of course, in what's going on in the whole AI universe and you can't do that without the equipment to make the chips. And that demand is insatiable. It still appears. We heard about it the last quarter. We're going to hear about it in four weeks too. So that's a name that, you know, we feel you have to.

[Scott Wapner]

Let's circle back real quick to give me Uber again, guys, please. Josh, I'd like your take on this as we watch that stock surge. The new news related to what happened this weekend was that the robo taxi incidents caught on camera in Austin draw regulators attention. That's a CNBC.com headline and you can check that out for yourself and read through the story. Is this a direct reaction to what was a limited rollout and then whomever is going to opine on what, whether it met the moment or not. But this stock move in Uber is pretty interesting, I'd say.

[Joe Terranova]

Look, Tesla shareholders have already fully priced in the robo taxi according to the sell side. I read all the notes. They're all like, okay, great, but kind of the stock already rallied on this. We get it. In the Meanwhile, they had 10 cars on the road. The cars had human drivers in them. They had a couple of minor incidents which don't seem like that big of a deal. You have to really hate Tesla to say that that was a flop. But when you consider who's in the cars, it's Dan Ives, it's Tesla influencers from social media, it's fans. So what did you think the rider feedback was going to be? So look, I think it's actually a positive that Tesla, Tesla is now in this market. This has been an overhang for shareholders of Uber since they announced that they were going. And every time there's like positive headlines about Robotaxi, stupid people sell off the stock of Uber because they don't understand. The big picture here is that autonomous is great. Tesla should have a great service. So Should. Waymo and Uber's role in this ecosystem is to partner with all of the autonomous players who are going to exist and make money as a result of the fact that the human driver is the most expensive part of the experience for both you, the consumer and for Uber, the company. It's called take rate. The take rate to the human driver is the highest cost part. So this is all positive for Uber. The street is waking up to that stock is the number one performer in the S&P 500 today. I was pounding my fist on the table on this show 700 times. Every time it fell on news of competition. The rollout in Atlanta today is important. It's the second city. They're already in Austin with Waymo. The rollout of Uber and Waymo together in Atlanta is super important. It's a whole other region of the country where people will log into the Uber app, see that there's an autonomous vehicle, it's a Jaguar from Waymo, take that ride and have their minds blown. And that's what the stock is reacting to right now. This is my largest position personally. I've been saying it's my highest conviction, still is. I don't know why it's under $100 a share. Makes no sense to me. And even when it gets there, I'm not selling.

[Scott Wapner]

You know, there's another stock that's been doing well. It's toast. Is your, that's your stock too. It's up four and a half percent this week. 20, almost 22% year to date. You got a, you got a breakout on your hands, right?

[Joe Terranova]

Yeah. $25 billion market cap. This is recently added to my best stocks in the market list. We wrote it up for CNBC Pro the other day. This is a stock that's about to make a 52 week high, in my opinion. 45. It hit in the middle of May, backed off on low volume. That's exactly the setup that you want to see for a new breakaway. And the reality is this, this is a company that has effectively dominated the restaurant and hospitality space for payments. But it's so far beyond the payments play. Every restaurant that they get their terminals into, there's a high cost up front, right? They have to give all the waiters and waitresses the little handheld thing that they come to the table with. There's setup costs, there's time, there's money being spent, but once they get in, they never leave. And when you look at the growth of, of cash flows that this company is showing Wall street relatively early in the evolution of this industry, you understand that that growth is fairly rare in the S&P 500 combined with the inertia of clients who don't walk away, it's reminiscent to me of Salesforce in the early days. This is becoming the industry standard for payments and they're signing bigger and bigger enterprise deals with Apple, these recently with the entire Marriott chain and they're just barely scratching the surface internationally. So Toast is something that started as a trade and has since become a long now a conviction long. I added to it the other day, which we talked about again, this is a name that so dominant of its space, I'm surprised It's still at 44.

[Scott Wapner]

Got a nice breakout step in the banks as well. You have names like your Wells Fargo up 1.3%. JP Morgan hits a new record high. Some of the regionals like State street at a new high as well. Citigroup up 2%. Goldman up another 2.2%.

[Stephanie Link]

So we talked about the Morgan Stanley bank conference last week. All of the companies had good things to say about M and A, the pipeline and improving demand, better deals, better equity capital markets. It's not going to be all perfect when they report earnings, but I think the numbers are going to be good.

[Scott Wapner]

Kick off the season.

[Stephanie Link]

I think yes they do in, in two weeks and I do think it's going to be good. I think the net interest income story has yet to play out. That's your catalyst. You have regulation that is easing, that will help capital and buybacks. And the stocks are still really cheap relative to the market and actually on an absolute basis too. So to me, I think I'm overweight and I'm gonna stay overweight.

[Scott Wapner]

All right, so we'll take a quick break. We're gonna come back. We have many calls of the day to get through and ownership all over.

[Heather]

Heather is a nurse practitioner from UnitedHealthcare.

[Scott Wapner]

We meet patients wherever they live.

[Heather]

During a house call, she found Jack had an issue.

[Stephanie Link]

Jack's blood pressure was dangerously high.

[Scott Wapner]

It was 217 over 110.

[Heather]

So they got Jack to the hospital and got him the help he needed.

[Stephanie Link]

He had had a stent placed in his heart, preventing a massive heart attack.

[Scott Wapner]

If it wasn't for my guardian angel, I wouldn't be here.

[Heather]

Hear more stories like [e-mail] benefits, features and or devices vary by plan. Area limitation and exclusions apply.

[Scott Wapner]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Joe Terranova]

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[Josh Brown]

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[Joe Terranova]

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[Heather]

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[Scott Wapner]

We do have Josh's best stocks in the market list as well. A new addition that you need to know about. We'll do all that when we come back. All right. We have a move to tell you about. It's from Stephanie Link and it's a sale. Yeah, it is.

[Stephanie Link]

I indicated Accenture last week when they reported earnings. It really was a crummy quarter and book gains were very soft, down 6% year over year. They're restructuring their services business, which I'm still trying to figure out why they're doing that and what that's going to mean for growth. They had a gross margin. Ms. There was nothing really good. So I just think there's so many other technology stocks, IBM is one of them that I think is taking market share that I prefer.

[Scott Wapner]

All right, let's hit some calls of the day. Heiko and Leidos initiated or resumed with buy ratings. That's its default. Its Heiko a record high today. You own both of these names, Joe.

[Josh Brown]

Heiko is the number three ranked stock out of all the 22 industrial names that we own. You're experiencing double digit revenue growth here. The commercial aerospace component of it, remarkably strong. Leidos in a little bit of a different direction. I think. Stephen Weiss gave this as his final trade yesterday. They're still recovering from the sell off that they had in November, a significant sell off related to government contractor concerns. They're recovering from that slowly but not in the best place. I like Heiko clearly over Lido.

[Scott Wapner]

What about how met target to 205@Jefferies. Let's look at that one target was 195. It's a record high today for that stock.

[Josh Brown]

Yeah, and that's number one. That's the number one rank industrial stock that we own in the etf. We've owned it for quite some time. This company is executing remarkably well and they have relationships in commercial aerospace that allows them to see their balance sheet continue to be fortified and to see revenue growth accelerating. Number one, holding. Very proud of what it's done.

[Scott Wapner]

All right, Snowflake has new coverage over at Morgan Stanley and they raised the stock to overweight, better executing and faster innovating. That's the headline here. 52 week high for that stock there, Steph.

[Stephanie Link]

So they have a, a new CEO. He's been there for about a little over a year. And they have new products and they're all coming to market. And as a result, product revenues are growing something like 28, 29% and that's leading to 70% earnings growth and 25% in revenue growth. So I like this story. It's not cheap. It's had a nice comeback. But I do like it for the data center.

[Scott Wapner]

Let's see. Electronic Arts, please. Upgraded to buy from neutral. That's at Roth. Target 185 from 175. They say they have increased confidence in this company's ability to execute and deliver double digit EPS growth over the next three years.

[Josh Brown]

And that's been the story and that's been the reason why it decelerated from the November all time high that it had. It's the weakening revenue growth. You want to see that pick up. There's a lot of expectations here that this potentially is an M and A target because of what we witnessed with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. I'm not necessarily sure if that that's the case moving forward. You need to see better growth. That's the story here. The balance sheet's gotten a little bit better. It's in a place where I would really identify as. You just kind of want to wait and see and let it prove itself. I don't think it's a call to action right here.

[Scott Wapner]

Okay, GE Vernova, let's look at that one. Morgan Stanley feel like they're chasing us a little bit. They raised the target to 511. Okay. See what the stock is. It's 507. They love the stock. No, they love it. They reiterate the limb, they reiterate the overweight. They've liked it. Guess they just didn't think it was going to go up as much. As it did, they also increased their bull case. And maybe this is a more fair way to look at this. $727 is the bull case on this name.

[Stephanie Link]

I mean, look, it's up 200% in the past year. It's electrification theme, which we're going to spend, spend $4 trillion between now and 2050. So you can own GE Vernova, which has margin expansion and free cash flow growth coming or you can own Quanta Services, Eaton Rockwell Vertiv, that's a new name for me. So I'm in this theme in a big, big way. It is one of my favorite themes for the next decade.

[Scott Wapner]

Joe. Lastly, EQT buy it Roth, 69 bucks.

[Josh Brown]

Remarkable. Natural gas prices down 11% this quarter. This next natural gas tethered stock continues to move higher. Here, this, here's the challenge that you have and understand. I have a double in this stock so I could sit and wait with this. But they are hedged in 2025. They're not hedged in 2026. So tell me where you think natural gas prices are going to go and that'll allow you to determine what you do with the position.

[Scott Wapner]

All right. Let's get the headlines now with Silvana. And now. Hi, Silvana.

[Silvana]

Hey, Scott. Good afternoon to you. Classified briefings the Senate and the House worst set to receive today on the Iran strikes have been postponed. Sources tell NBC News they were pushed back to give Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth time to return from the NATO summit and attend the briefings. Sources say the Senate's briefing will now be on Thursday while the Houses has yet to be rescheduled. A federal judge has ruled that startup anthropic use of books without permission to train its large language model model named Claude was legal under US Copyright law. But the judge late Monday also ruled the company violated the author's copyrights when it stored the books in a central library. Anthropic and attorneys for the authors have yet to comment. And the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has formed, the National Hurricane center said today. The storm named Andrea is forecast to weaken today, tonight and dissipate tomorrow night. The storm comes as a heat dome continues to sit over the eastern half of the US Delivering triple digit highs and humid conditions from Florida.

[Heather]

Heather is a nurse practitioner from UnitedHealthcare.

[Scott Wapner]

We meet patients wherever they live.

[Heather]

During a house call, she found Jack had an issue.

[Scott Wapner]

Jack's blood pressure was dangerously high. It was 217 over 110.

[Heather]

So they got Jack to the hospital and got him the help he needed.

[Stephanie Link]

He had had a stent placed in his heart preventing a massive heart attack.

[Scott Wapner]

If it wasn't for my guardian angel, I wouldn't be here.

[Heather]

Hear more stories like Jack's at unitedhealthcare.com benefits, features and or devices vary by plan. Area limitation and exclusions apply.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is a apparently a thing.

[Scott Wapner]

Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium wireless.

[Joe Terranova]

Everybody get 30, 30 better get 30.

[Josh Brown]

Better to get 20, 20, 20 better.

[Joe Terranova]

Get 20, 20 everybody get 15, 15, 15, 15. Just 15 bucks a month.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront.

[Heather]

Payment of 45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of network's busy taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com to Massachusetts.

[Silvana]

Scott, I'll send it back to you.

[Scott Wapner]

Thank you. Silvana Hanau Straight ahead, Josh Brown's best stocks in the market. A new name just added to the list to the reveal coming up, we have a new best stock in the market according to Josh Brown on his list. It's Disney. How did this make the cut?

[Joe Terranova]

Yeah, I was very surprised myself. You know, one of the reasons why we keep this list is so that rather than just accept what the narratives are, just generally speaking on social media or in the media, we can see what's going on with our own two eyes and what's actually working. And this is a big surprise for me. Seven entertainment industry stocks are now on the list. Disney is one of them. Liberty Media is on their Live Nation. Netflix, which we've talked about. Spotify, the same. Roblox is on there and so is Take two. And if you're not paying attention to stocks and you're just listening to broad market commentary, sometimes you could miss the forest for the trees. I think what's, what's going on here is very simple. Stephanie said this in the A block and she's exactly right. The consumer is consuming the median yield year to date return for these seven media stocks on my list is 17 and a half percent. The median return for every other stock in the S and p is about 1%. So this area of the market is outperforming. Despite everything that we hear about how stressed the consumer is, 90% of the S&P entertainment names are within 10% of a 52 week high. The only one that isn't is Warner Brothers, which has its own problems. Disney is a really great setup in my opinion. The stock popped onto our list because Wall street is now giving the company a lot more credit. For 125 million global Disney plus subscribers. They have 12% market share in streaming video on demand, which is probably their most important growth business right now. They did about 3 billion in streaming revenue last quarter quarter and they're having a pretty decent box office summer so far. Not amazing, but not bad. The stock, the setup here is very simple. A break below 100 bucks tells you the momentum is gone and the market's opinion has shifted. That's a, that's a really easy stop loss to implement on the way up. About 120 would be a pretty massive breakout given how long it's been consolidating. I don't know what the catalyst needs to be for that to happen, but if and when it goes, there just aren't a lot of sellers left here. So I really like the setup for investors, maybe not short term traders, but for investors, I think this one could work.

[Scott Wapner]

Yeah, I mean the others on the list, Netflix record high. Roblox 52 week high. Spotify record high, take two record high as well. All right, up next, and Tola, he's here with his midday word. Our senior markets commentator Mike Santoli has sat down at this desk to talk about the market. Less than 1% from a new high on the S and P where the highs of the day across the board.

[J]

Yeah, so market just sort of unclenching and relaxing the next increment. Right. You've notched up one more percent. We're in that kind of 14 fortuitous slow motion upward grind throughout the day yields down the market. Choosing to hear Powell as being somewhat flexible about looking through tariff inflation, whether there's really a change there or not. The market sort of took that as a little bit of a message. I also don't think all of a sudden the case for needing a rate cut starts to go away when the Vix is at 17 and credit spreads are great and the markets at a new high. And we're all insisting that the economy's in a good spot. Right. So I think that's the way the market prefers it. We might get one, but we don't need.

[Scott Wapner]

Even those who are calling for rate cuts, on the other hand, admit well, the economy is doing well.

[J]

Well, not only that, a lot of the same people calling for rate cuts are promising you that the new Budget bill is going to create growth nirvana in this economy forever and a productivity boom. So whatever, you don't have to have that all match up.

[Scott Wapner]

No, you take it for what it is.

[J]

What I do think is interesting. Interesting though is, you know, once we got up to within 3% of the old highs, that's a couple of weeks ago, it just felt like it was going to get there. That you almost never rebound that much and the market sometimes really needs a scare and relief cycle. I honestly believe that like you, you did better by getting shaken out and then recovering because it was less bad than expected than if nothing happened. That goes for Iran, arguably even for tariffs. So I think that's a fascinating dynamic in this market. We almost have to get tested and then maybe you have the, the courage to go to the next step.

[Scott Wapner]

The tech sector in the S and P is just right on the cusp of a new high. The Qs aren't that far away. This remains very much a tech story.

[J]

And I've used the phrase revving. The market has been revving its engines in that area and you see it in the speculative IPO stuff, the wildness that's in there. Honestly, this market wants to just finish the bubble. Like let's just do it because that seems like if that's going to be the 9899 scenario. You had the near bear market and then it was off to the races. I don't think it's going to get as crazy as 99 or even, you know, maybe we get something in the way before that. But that's where it looks like the energy flow is.

[Scott Wapner]

I just don't even understand how you could think about 99 versus the current period. That the stocks leading now.

[J]

Yeah.

[Scott Wapner]

If this is in fact inflating some kind of bubble, at least the stocks leading now are the most profitable.

[J]

That's why I'm saying I don't really think it matches up in the sense of the level of speculative nuttiness. On the other hand, yesterday Circle on Interactive Brokers platform traded had twice the number of customer orders than in video. Okay. It had four times. The number is Palantir. It's a fraction of the market cap. So there are, there are pockets where it's like off to the races and that kind of energy can engender its own muscle memory.

[Scott Wapner]

We're very fair. And the other thing to note I think is that we've seen many instances of this over the past few years and in every instance the market has self corrected itself. The issues at hand, whether it's spacs.

[J]

That's why I'm not saying. I'm not saying 99 as a. Oh, no, it's scary. I'm saying 99 as in it's trying to build momentum in that direction.

[Scott Wapner]

All right, good stuff. I'll see you on closing bell. That's Mike Santoli back of course, with us in a couple hours. Finals are next. Well, with the S and P within 1% now of a new all time high. I'll see you on closing bell. As we track this last hour of trade, tech is getting to that level too. Liz Ann Saunders is going to be with us, among others. I hope you'll join us. Josh Brown, what's your final.

[Joe Terranova]

JP Morgan Chase, new all time high. Raise the roof.

[Scott Wapner]

Thank you. We'll talk about that more at 3 o' clock too, with our Leslie Picker following that money for us. Kerry, what do you got?

[Kerry Firestone]

Apollo Group, a private equity firm, focuses on fixed income with lower rates coming sometime this year. That's good.

[Scott Wapner]

Okay.

[Stephanie Link]

Stephanie Link, Morgan Stanley. I expect a good quarter and great guidance.

[Scott Wapner]

Yep, we said a lot of these banks doing well today. All right, Joti, the one name in.

[Josh Brown]

The Jyoti that we've owned since inception of November of 2020 has been Amphenol. Another all time high today. If it wasn't rules based, Scott, I probably would have sold it.

[Scott Wapner]

Okay, just to underscore it, can't say it enough. We're less than 1% away on the S and P from a new all time high. I'll see you in a couple hours on closing bell. The exchange begins now. You've been listening to CNBC's Halftime Report, the podcast. You can always catch us live weekdays at 12 Eastern only on CNBC.

[Heather]

All opinions expressed by the Halftime Report participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of cnbc, NBC Universal, 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 Ten years from today, Lisa Schneider will trade in her office job to become the leader of a pack of dogs. As the owner of her own dog rescue. That is a second act made possible by the reskilling courses Lisa's taking now with AARP to help make sure her income lives as long as she does, and she can finally run with the big dogs and the small dogs who just think they're big dogs. That's why the younger you are, the more you need AARP. Learn more at aarp.org skills.