
Scott Wapner and the Investment Committee debate the tech wreck and how you should trade it. Plus, the committee making some major portfolio moves, they reveal them all. And later, the desk reacts to the fiery meeting at the White House today and what it means for stocks. Investment Committee Disclosures
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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. Okay, Carl, thanks so much. Welcome to the Halftime Report. I'm Scott Wobner. Front and center this hour, the tech Wreck. Whether today's price action suggests it's now actually the time to buy some of the biggest decliners, we'll ask the investment committee so much to talk about today. And joining us for the hour, Stephanie Link, Jim labenthal, Jenny Harrington and Kevin Simpson. We are up today. It has been a volatile week. As you know, PC did come in as expected. That certainly helped. However, the S and P still pacing for its worst month since April, Nasdaq's worst month since September of 23. So I said, Steph, we got a lot to get to. There is the tech wreck. There's been some really interesting price action this morning as what was red is now in large part green. Sarah was just talking about The Atlanta Fed GDP going negative, negative for Q1. Personal spending was a surprise contraction today. There have already been concerns about a growth slowdown, which is why in part you have had the volatility that we've had in the market.
Kevin Simpson
Yeah. And I think we are seeing a growth slowdown, Scott, from about 3% to probably about 2%. The Atlanta Fed tracker came in at minus 1.5%. All of that was net exports down 3.7. Excluding that, you're running at 2.2%. We are definitely slowing. Is it slower than 2.2. Is it in the ones? Maybe, but I don't think it's a disaster, certainly not a recession. I think that the consumption numbers have been okay. January not so good, right. In retail sales, you even hear it from some of the companies. But you had weather, you had fires, you have a pull in in December because of the holidays. I think the consumer is still fine as long as there are jobs. And oh by the way, personal income today upside surprised 0.9% month over month. That's running at about a 5% level and savings went from 4.6% to 5.5%. So at least they've got cushion if we do see a slowdown. But they also have the potential to spend as they feel better. They don't feel good now because inflation remains sticky. They don't feel good now because of tariff unknowns. But we're going to know on Tuesday what, what's going on with the tariffs.
Scott Wapner
No, we're not going to know what they would not going to know what their impact is.
Kevin Simpson
Well, okay, if you did 25, 2510 Mexico, Canada, China, you do 25, 2520 China, that's about 8% to earnings. We just did 16% in earnings growth. Not to say we're going to continue to do 16% earnings growth but I think in a 2% GDP world you could do 7 to 10% in earnings. And I think that's the important part. We're not going to negative earnings. We're not in a recession. Not even with initial claims at 242 today or yesterday the average is about 225. Now the during a recession that number gets to 350 to 375,000 weekly initial claims. So we're not in a recession, we're slowing down. And one last thing Scott, I think the bond market is easing for us with the 10 year now at 422 that's actually pretty good news. I know they're coming down because growth is coming down but lower interest rates will solve a lot of problems.
Scott Wapner
I think the bond market in some respects you pull up the two year is anticipating a Fed cut more than maybe they were expecting a couple of months ago because that's what that chart seems to be telling me that the Fed is going to have to cut more than they potentially thought because the economy slowing more than they may be expected.
Kevin Simpson
We'll watch. That wouldn't be.
Scott Wapner
Well that's why, that's, that's why you got the numbers you did today, right? Atlanta Fed Goes negative one and a half and the market's up. I think it's all tied together. I think, I think it's all tied together.
Kevin Simpson
Right. But there are some one offs to the Atlanta Fed and the Atlanta Fed Fed is not accurate. It's a real, it's a moment in time, it's a direction.
Scott Wapner
Sure. And we've said that numerous times, many times. By the way, the last time the Atlanta Fed had a negative GDP was July of 2022. So it's been a minute. Yeah. The question we pose at the very top of the program and we looked at the price action today. What was red, including in video, yet again is now green. We can pull up some of these tech names, especially that and some of the other mega cap names because they have gone green. Which raises the question as to whether now is the time to buy some of the beaten down tech names, whether the biggest or a little bit down the market cap scale. Jim Labenthal, Nvidia falling below 3 trillion in market cap. It's down double digit percentage points this week. You bought more. You've answered my question.
Jim Labenthal
I did, I did. So I bought more 27 times forward earnings. A company that looks easily like it, it will grow earnings per share 50% this year. Look, we all know at some point that earnings growth rate is going to continue to drop off. But for right now, you put those two numbers together, it tells me it's a buy. I can't really explain why it was down 8%. If somebody's going to say it's the gross margin projections, fine. But that's something that I think is absolutely trivial when you've got a triple beat and a company that still is the leader in the semiconductor for AI space. So I am happily adding to it. I do want to make a qualification here. I hate making a qualification, but I've got to. The market is heavy notwithstanding today's green tape. I mean, we can, we can just look at the market action. It's been about two weeks, maybe a little less than that since we topped out. Maybe we're in a correction. I doubt we're going to get a full correction, but I think if we do, it's going to be like last August, which was over in a month.
Scott Wapner
We've gotten a correction in the Nasdaq and more in the Nasdaq and well in the mega cap names. Yeah, I mean Nvidia is off 21% from its record high of January 7th. Alphabet's down 18% from its record high of February 4th. Microsoft down 16% from its high last July. Amazon, Mehta and Apple are all down significantly from their own record highs. You made a move to Kev in video today. Tell me more.
Jenny Harrington
Well, yesterday at the close, Scott, we covered a quarter of the position just in case things got a little bit more more dicey today. And there was a lot of premium, as you can imagine, with the volatility. So we wrote a short term, one week call. It's a 123 option. We generated almost $5 of premium. So if I get taken out, I'm out at 128. And that would be great. Jim just bought it. And we still have the other 75% of the shares uncovered. But Scott, I'd be a buyer of any of these down here. Maybe not back the truck up and go all in. But if your dollar cost averaging into positions that you really like, 10 to 20% pullbacks are the times you want to be buying.
Scott Wapner
Unless you think that the pullbacks are going to get potentially greater. Jenny, I mean if you, if you have a prolonged period of at, if nothing else, concerns about a growth slowdown, right. Some of these stocks may have a hard time. That's why the Nasdaq may continue to have a hard time. Nasdaq's down almost 5% on the week. Over a month it's down almost 6. I reflective I think of in part a growth slowdown.
Stephanie Link
Right. So I knew that you were going to come to me with like the other side of it, the negative. And, and I, I wouldn't be buying any of these here. When I look at it, here's what I see. I see, yes, they're off those big numbers from their highs, but they're really not that off that much year to date. Amazon's down 5% year to date. Apple's down 5% year to date. So they just had that huge kind of spiky, euphoric peak. But they're still up 30%, 50%, 60% over the last 52 weeks. And they're almost all of those top 10 mag. Seven almost all are trading at over 30 times earnings. And this goes back to growth slowing. They still have, and this is true for the S and P overall also. They still have extremely great growth ahead. S and P is still expected to grow by 13% but the growth rate is slowing. And that's what's important because when the growth rate is slowing, maybe you don't want to pay 30 times. And I think in the backdrop of all this, when we think about what's really happened to the market. In all these earnings have come out, they're supporting 13%. The economy is still strong. We think that yields are likely to come down, interest rates are likely to come down. So what's underpinning that sentiment starting to fade. And we saw that last Friday with the Michigan, with the Michigan confidence report where. Consumer confidence report where then the market tanked a percent and a half. We saw on Tuesday the, what was it? The conference. The conference bureau put out their, their consumer confidence and it was the lowest reading since August of 2021. When people don't feel confident, they do not want to pay 30 times for a stock, they do not want to pay 21 times for the market.
Scott Wapner
I mean, there's a difference between the consumers who are feeling less confident and the investors, investors who are buying those stocks. You're talking about. It's not all the same cohort of.
Stephanie Link
People necessarily, but one, they're derivatives of each other. So what is the market? What do investors do? They try to look out and say, are people likely to spend at the same rate they spent last year? Are people likely to want to buy stocks at the same rate they wanted to buy stocks last year? And when people are feeling bad, they just don't spend as much. They don't spend with it with as much frivolity. I think it's been an interesting week where we saw the extremes, the crypto area really start to take it, really start to take it on the chin. And to me that's always the canary in the coal mine and then it trickles over. So when you see bitcoin trade down from 100,000 to 80,000 and you see MicroStrategy trade down from 400 and change to what's it at? 260, 250 ish. Now that ends up trickling over. And so if something was trading at 30, 30 times before, which is more reasonable, maybe people only want to pay 25 times in the future. So I would not be buying any of these yet. Hopefully at some point we do. The only one of the Mag 7 that we like and are starting to get interested in is Google, Alphabet, whatever we call it now. It's trading at 18 times, has decent growth ahead, but I still think there's room to go.
Jim Labenthal
So I partially agree with you. I'm not as negative on the economy or the markets. That's fine, but I do think I do well, no, I but a long way to go. But I do think to what you just said, you have to be selective on these stocks. Obviously I wouldn't touch Tesla with a ten foot pole. Okay? It's not just the valuation, it's the chart where the valuation is a little more forgiving. But the chart is just disastrous. As Microsoft, I have a small position I'd like to add to it. I thought about it this morning but I look at that chart and that thing is heavy. That's actually negative over a one year period. Obviously I've made my bet within Nvidia. I'm adding to it. I totally agree with you on Alphabet. I don't think though just painting a broad brushstroke of 30 times earnings or more is always accurate because I look at Amazon, right, you know, if they turned off their R and D spend, if they turned off their expansion efforts, they'd be below 30. And that's a very attractive stock to me. I own a full position in Amazon and Alphabet. I'm underweight Apple and Microsoft and now I'm bigger in Nvidia.
Scott Wapner
The underperformance of Microsoft is stark and it's why when I read to all of you and all of you when it had last hit its record high, you have to go back to July, it sat out the awakening if you will of mega cap tech to somewhat start this year again. These other more recent highs, we're talking January and mostly February. Apple's case this December. But Microsoft, you got to go all the way back to July 5th the last time it was trading at its high. Now you sold a covered call on Microsoft. Tell me more.
Jenny Harrington
Yeah, I just think when you have volatile markets like we're seeing here, writing covered calls is an amazing way to buffer the downside, bring in premium. We had a call expire last Friday on Microsoft. We own another one this week. It's got a 420 strike price. So if you look at the chart and this thing goes to 420 before for the mid March, we'll happily let it go. Scott, because to your point, this hasn't been part of the massive run up that we've seen. But our thesis is always longer term. We like to add to the positions when they're down and certainly when you see a Vix at 20 we can write covered calls and generate massive.
Scott Wapner
Why aren't you adding to Tesla then which you own, which is down 40% from its high. Yeah, I have to own just walked right into that.
Jenny Harrington
I have to own Tesla in this growth strategy because of some of the index that names that we need to include. We have a 3% position like Jim, I would not Add to it here. There's so much that goes on to this name from a cult perspective. I think long term if free self driving comes to fruition, that everything that everyone's dreamed about this company can happen. But for now I think if you own it, you want to write calls against it and you probably want to wait for it to go down a little bit more before you add to this one.
Scott Wapner
You know the other big, big story of the last couple of weeks is momentum. I don't need to tell you how much we've been focusing on it because I feel like it's been the key driver of this market. The Momentum ETF is set for its first back to back negative weeks since December. You could go down the list of the applovins and palantirs and we talked about Microstrategy but Constellation and Vistra and Robinhood and Anet some respects crowdstrike, GE Vernova had a pretty big upset as well. And you've trimmed that, which is interesting to me. Why did you do that?
Kevin Simpson
Well, just simply because I'm up 160% since it spun out last year and it's fairly rich. And I kind of think that there's other opportunities in the same theme. Data Center, Grid power, all of that in other names like Quanta Services and like Eaton.
Scott Wapner
So you bought more of those too by the way, right?
Kevin Simpson
I did and I have been, Scott. I have been for a couple of.
Scott Wapner
Weeks, just to reiterate. So you trimmed G.E. vernova, right? A pretty good chunk of it. And you took the proceeds and you bought more of Eaton and bought more of Qantas.
Kevin Simpson
And the good news is that, the good news is that they both just reported earnings and they both blew it away. The Quantum services, EBITDA up 40%. Backlog backlog up 14%. Electrical up 38%. Eaton Data center up 45%. Orders up 75%. Pipeline up 60, 65%. And their, and their backlog is threefold, normalized levels. And these stocks also have pulled back along with the other momentum names. But I just think the valuations along with the growth, along with the beating expectations and raising expectations, that's what I care about. So I've made these much bigger and even Vernova, guess what? If it pulls back, I would buy it again. I would buy buy it back. But it's just, it's up to so much. I think it's prudent to take, to take games.
Scott Wapner
Dell Technologies is getting slammed today. It's down 15% on the week if you just look at some of these other names, robinhood is down 19%. That is from the 18th of February when really the momentum sell off started to pick up some steam. You have that.
Jenny Harrington
We bought more this week, Scott. I mean we love this name. I think I talk more about Robinhood Network than Vlad does. We had a great conversation on Friday on the closing bell about the covered call that we wrote. It was a one year leap. We sold it for $13 on last week, on Friday, we bought it back this week for $6. So we netted a $7 profit selling a call on Robinhood. We added to the position this week and we actually wrote a call yesterday again bringing in another dollar for a March expiration. So a lot of volatility on this name. We believe in the thesis long term, but we're printing money writing calls against Robinhood.
Scott Wapner
Crouch Strikes down 16% since the 18th of February. Price target today goes to 450 from 418. At JPM. You trim this name?
Kevin Simpson
I did. Well, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. So I was trimming it when it was not down as much, but I was up 95% from the August lows. Great company, fabulous growth. Believe in cybersecurity.
Scott Wapner
Great turnaround.
Kevin Simpson
Really good turnaround. I mean up 95% since the, the kind of the issues that they had, the outages that. That's when I bought it. But it's had a really good run back and I think it was, I thought it was vulnerable for a pullback. I put the money into Palo Alto a couple of weeks ago and then this week, last week I've been adding to Palo Alto just building the position. It's, it's a volatile stock too, but it is lagged, right? It's only up 22% in the past year. It's actually flat the last three months of this year and last year. And that's relative to the group that was up 40 to 50% last year. And so I think this is a company that is a great platform strategy, great products, great solution set. The most comprehensive solutions that nobody has at all. But they have a very, very good platinum platform story and strategy. And I think the free cash flow is growing as well. And it's going to be about 4.5%, 4, 4.5 billion by the end of this year. Gives them a lot of flexibility to continue to invest in the business and to grow. And I think eventually as they execute, the stock will rebound.
Scott Wapner
Well, they're going to, speaking of executing, they're going to report their earnings next week. So you're going to get a real time look at exactly how they continue to execute and rebound from the issue of many months ago that they had. So let's talk software for a moment because the IGV is having its worst. That's a software ETF is having its worst month since, since April. Right. We're on the last trading day obviously of the month. You bought more Salesforce at 295 bucks. Why?
Jenny Harrington
So it's a relatively new position for us, Scott. We own it in both the dividend strategy and the growth strategy. We like the AI play here. I thought that the market sold off because they didn't like the guidance they were getting. It seems like they discount the guidance quite frequently with this position. The Agent force is really what we like behind it. The margins are increasing, they're expanding. They're up to 34%. They have 3,000 paying users for AgentForce. They just rolled this out. And if you are a customer of Salesforce, you love it and you're embedded in the technology and the infrastructure. It's hard to leave a very profitable business. I think it's a buy down here.
Scott Wapner
So you bought it 295. Citi likes it at 350. They're neutral on it. They reiterated that. Actually they cut it to 335. I'm sorry, they, they cut the price target from 350 to 335. Truist has reiterated the buy rating that they had. We didn't talk to you on Snowflake because you were traveling. But what's your take now on the, on that quarter as we stay in software for a minute.
Kevin Simpson
What a difference a year makes. And the CEO is now in, in his role for four quarters and he's got a sea legs more than his sea legs. He's growing better than expected. Expected. Total revenues grew 27%. Product revenue growth 28%. The real piece here is the guidance because I was thinking they were going to guide for the full year like product revenue growth about 2021. They guided for 24. They also guided for 8% margins. I think that's going to be the story going forward, the margin expansion story as they gain momentum, market share and have pricing power. So this company has, it's been a, it's been a certainly a volatile one over the last couple of, last couple of quarters. But I do think they are positioned quite well in 2025. And oh, by the way, they announced a deal with Microsoft, a partnership with Microsoft on another initiative that should be viewed positively.
Scott Wapner
Okay, so software, not that great at all. Nvidia, obviously putting the focus on the chips, which haven't been good this week. It's the worst week for the SMH since last September. It's down almost 9% percent week to date. Taking advantage of part of the slippage there. Also, as it relates to the momentum is Broadcom, which you bought more of.
Kevin Simpson
It's been painful too. Just like in video. Right. They kind of tried together, leaning in. It's down 20% from its highs. I'm not crazy about the valuation, so I only bought a little bit and I will continue to buy if it continues to fall. But I just like the diversification in terms of the revenue mix.
Scott Wapner
Business.
Kevin Simpson
It's not just datacenter and AI and cloud, it's also software. 41% of their business is software. VMware is humming at this company and they have legacy businesses that haven't recovered yet. That I think is going to be the 2025 story. So I like this management team a lot. I think they're going to do more M and A as well. And I just thought down 20%, I have to start adding it someplace. And that seemed like a good place.
Scott Wapner
Okay. And then there is Bitcoin, which we had talked about for just a minute on pace for its biggest weekly drop since the collapse of FTX. That was November of 2022. You've had record outflows as well from crypto. Also interesting price action in the Bitcoin ETFs, which Tenaya McKeel is following that money for us today. And that goes right to the heart of retail, doesn't it?
Jim Labenthal
Yeah, Scott, Bitcoin turning higher here at the end of an otherwise painful week, like you said, heading for its worst week since the 2022 RTX collapse, worst.
Kevin Simpson
Month since June 2022.
Jim Labenthal
And Bitcoin ETFs record outflows this week. About 2.7 billion in outflows as of yesterday's close. We'll get today's numbers later in the afternoon. And the theme this week, Scott, has really been macro headwinds overshadowing these really strong, strong regulatory tailwinds absent a crypto specific catalyst. And investors I talked to say that they expect more of the same heading into March. So, you know, the market seems to like the PC. If you want another silver lining, Bitcoin's RSI, that's its relative strength index, it's now under 30, which suggests, which suggests oversold conditions. So that is giving some investors hope that we find a bottom here soon. But again, Scott, bitcoin, likely to be defenseless against the macro uncertainty, could even pull back to as low as 70k.
Unknown
I know Jenny just said, you know.
Jim Labenthal
She could see a little bit more pullback as well. That wouldn't undermine the positive outlook.
Kevin Simpson
According to the people I'm talking to.
Jim Labenthal
This administration really is moving as swiftly as it said it was going to.
Kevin Simpson
On creating more favorable regulatory conditions.
Scott Wapner
Scott Danaya, thank you for that today, Mikhail, giving us a real time view of what's happening there. You sold MicroStrategy, which is obviously so connected more than anything else to crypto and to Bitcoin. You sold it at the open today.
Jenny Harrington
We essentially got stopped out of it when Bitcoin got down to 80,000. This is a leverage play on Bitcoin. Again, we had an amazing conversation on Friday talking about a leap that I wrote on this thing that netted $126 a share, literally $126 a share. So our cost basis on it's like 150. Getting out at 240 is fine. When you think about all the covered calls that we had written against it, that's the volatile play that you can really have a lot of fun with. So if bitcoin goes to 70,000, I think we'll buy.
Scott Wapner
Mr. Again, I do think of it as a barometer of sorts on where the retail investor's head is right now. If you look at the unwind in the high interest retail names, the Palantirs, the Robinhoods, the Applovins, the Bitcoins, it makes you think about why in some respects step discretionary has been so weak. Also, we're worried about consumers. We talked about this contraction in spending. Discretionary is one of the worst this week in terms of sectors. It is the worst this month. You look at some of the stocks today, cruise lines, builders, Target reports next week you have that Lowe's and Home Depot. I was looking at those stocks today as well, some of the larger decliners over the month. Those are all on their Pulte, Lennar, Horton Deckers, Lulu Shack, Chipotle. What do we think?
Kevin Simpson
Well, housing shouldn't be a surprise, right, because interest rates are still so high. But I think with interest rates coming down, it's going to fix itself. And in the meantime, the homebuilders are doing a really good job as best they can in terms of pricing. They are giving discounts, but there are obviously also focused on cost. And so I actually added to Dr. Horton this past week because it's gotten so cheap at nine times forward estimates. And I think housing is going to rebound. In fact, Home Depot saw the first positive comp in 8, 8/4 two years and so did Lowe's by the way. And I think and also TJX 5% at home goods in terms of same store sales. I think housing is about to turn and I think that that's a place at least on the valuation front. And from the sentiment point of view, everybody is negative on the consumer as a whole. I think they're choosy. Scott we still see ism services and expansion goods have been a miserable but companies that are focused on goods are trying to do the very best they can. And I think you're going to see a solid report next week from Target. I'm still an owner and a buyer on any weakness.
Scott Wapner
Okay, we will take a break. I think you've got the message. We have a lot of moves today, not just the many from Steph that we went through or Kevin. We do have more to talk about when we come back. On the other side of this break.
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Scott Wapner
All right. Well, it is Kevin Simpson who has another move that we need to discuss. It does play into the discretionary space. You sold a covered call on tjx. Talk to me more.
Jenny Harrington
We did this right before the earnings. We thought the earnings would be good, but there was a lot of inherent volatility surrounding the name right before the earnings report. So we sold a 125 call. We brought in a couple bucks on it. We love the report. I mean they crushed it. So this was only on half the position Stephanie mentioned 5% same stale which is amazing. Their international business is growing. They increased their dividend by 13%. They've got $2.5 billion a share buyback. So all the things that we look for in a stock. So why did you write a covered call against it? Well sometimes the market goes down. It doesn't always go straight up and with the volatility being over 20 call writing right now has been something we've been extremely active in.
Scott Wapner
All right. Still in the retail space Gap was reiterated today market perform Telsey does that yong Gap.
Kevin Simpson
I do. I like what Richard Dickson is doing. He's been there for about a year and a half. He's the CEO. He was at Mattel and fixed Barbie.
Scott Wapner
They're, they're bullish on, on the leadership.
Kevin Simpson
Tells he is, he's, he's, he's one of, one of one of the best in the industry and he has hired ahead of Old Navy a new CEO of Athleta. Last quarter athletic saw 5% same store sales growth. They're gaining market share. The overall company is gaining market share for seven quarters in a row. Inventory is coming down eight quarter. Eight quarter quarters in a row. I'm not playing this. Oh Scott. For the quarter we know that the consumer, as I just said they're choosy but I do think what they're doing is the right thing and they will get customers back in that store as they get the product right.
Scott Wapner
Hey Jenny. Stanley Black and Decker top pick and outperform at Mizuho today. They love the valuation less of an impact from tariffs than they originally thought might happen. What do you think?
Stephanie Link
So this is just an interesting company to talk about right now and the upgrade is perfect because less impact from tariffs. So if you look at the chart of this you'll see that it was 107 pre election and it dropped to below 80 as tariff talk amped up and up. Meanwhile they announced earnings three weeks ago and in that call they reiterated what they expected earnings to be and said look we'll manage to these we're still seeing huge strength from our dewalt business for our aerospace fastenings business. So where you are today is you've got to stop stock with 20 plus percent earnings growth ahead for the next two to three years. Trading it 18 times this year, 16 and a half times next year a just shy of 4% dividend yield. It's a dividend aristocrat. It's paid and raised the dividend for 57 years. Paid a dividend for over 100 years. It's a great company. And to see it trade from 107 to under 80 just because of tariff fears and just because of the uncertainty that they brought, that's what I love about the market that we're in. Opportunities created.
Scott Wapner
Okay. Another move from Steph. You bought more Diamondback, which was reiterated today. A buy at truist price target to 238 bucks, quote. Takes the right athletes to run the.
Kevin Simpson
Stack, that's for sure. Yeah, it's been a very busy week for me. Diamondback is a great company, EMP company and with great management, with real discipline. I like the M and a strategy that they have employed in the last several years that's going to be very accretive to their earnings no matter what happens. In terms of oil prices, they've done a good job in terms of cost controls as well. The free cash flow is expanding. They're going to see about 5.9 billion in the share cash flow, sorry.
Scott Wapner
The former AmerisourceBergen now called Syncora. Price targets at 280 from 270 on strong earnings results from February 5th. Kevin, you own that stock?
Jenny Harrington
Yeah, I like the call a lot. 11% year over year revenue growth. This isn't just a distributor anymore. It's an infrastructure global play for medical. They pay a nice dividend, they buy shares back, they reduce their float by 7% for the past three years. Great call.
Scott Wapner
We're getting some headlines now from President Trump's bilateral with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Eamon Javers is at the White House with those details, which I hear have gotten a little bit smaller. Spicy. Eamon.
Jim Labenthal
Scott, that's right. An extraordinarily tense moment here in the White House in the Oval Office as Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is meeting with Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. vance at this moment. Wired reporters inside the room are filing dispatches right now suggesting that the session has gotten extraordinarily tense with J.D. vance. President Trump arguing with Volodymyr Zelenskyy about whether he's been grateful enough for U.S. aid, whether he has agreed to a deal with the United States over mineral rights, whether or not he's being disrespectful. Trump telling Zelensky his comments were very disrespectful. Trump telling Zelensky, you either make a deal or we are out Trump at one point interrupting Zelenskyy and telling him, you've talked too much. JD Vance asking, telling Zelensky, have you said thank you even once? Trump butting in an exchange with Zelensky, Zelensky and Vance saying, you don't tell us what we're going to feel. You're not in a good position. You are gambling with World War Three. Now, we'll have to watch for the body language as this tape plays out. Scott, we'll see that in a couple of minutes because a lot of this can be nuanced in terms of how those lines are delivered, how it's all said, what the tone of the meeting is. But from these wire flashes, it seems like this is a relationship on the precipice of a breakdown at this moment. And that calls into question this idea of a minerals deal with the Ukrainians that the White House has been touting throughout the week, saying that that deal is done. Scott Bessant, the Treasury secretary, said yesterday the deal was done. From the tone of these headlines right now does not feel like that deal is done, does not feel like the future of the U S. Ukraine relationship is in a very good position. But we'll watch for those body language, the tone, all the details in a couple minutes when we get this tape. The two men are then scheduled to go and do a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House here. Shortly after that, we'll see, Scott, given the tension in the room, whether that press conference goes forward. A very dynamic and fluid situation here at the White House right now.
Scott Wapner
Extraordinary details that you just brought us. Eamon, thank you very much for that on the north line.
Jim Labenthal
Scott. Scott, can I give you one more detail here too? The other thing, significant thing that happened here in this Oval Office meeting is that the White House allowed the pool reporters to go into the meeting. One of the reporters who went into the Oval Office was the White House bureau chief for tass. That's the Russian state news agency. His name is Dmitry Krishnov. Krisnyov went into the Oval Office. Now, TASS is a state media organization throughout the Cold War and since a lot of folks in Washington, I've just assumed that TASS officials are Russian intelligence officers. We don't have any information about this particular individual, of course, but TASS is viewed askance in Washington, to say the least. He went into the Oval Office, was approached during Trump's remarks by a Secret Service agent who motioned to him that he needed to leave the Oval Office. During the remarks, the press office then escorted him out of the Oval Office, out of the West Wing entirely, and he has now left the complex. So a dramatic moment there. There will be some questions as to why a TASS reporter was in the Oval Office during a session between President Trump and President Zelensky. So some brinksmanship there in terms of the media. And who has access to the Oval Office? Who has access to Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally as well?
Scott Wapner
Let me just ask you another question about that now that you're bringing it to us. And if you know the answer, my apologies. Is it surprising in the first place that somebody from TAS would even have a media credential for access to the complex itself?
Jim Labenthal
It's not. TASS has had access to the complex for a while. You know, we in the media are very constrained here in terms of where we can go, what we can see. You know, we have a nice view, but we're basically on the outside looking in. And so that that has not been seen as a security threat in recent years. And TASS has been at a lot of briefings and things over the years. To get into the Oval Office, though, is a different order of magnitude. And part of what's going on here is that the White House has changed the rules for who is in the quote, unquote, pool. That's that limited group of maybe call it a dozen reporters who go into the Oval Office to actually be, you know, 10ft from the President of the United States, 10ft or closer to Vladimir Zelensky as well. That dynamics now changed, and it may be that this reporter applied to be a part of the expanded pool under this new process and was simply allowed in. It may be that he was not allowed in. The White House has put out a statement saying that he was not authorized to be in the Oval Office, and therefore that's why they kicked him out. But it's clearly a potential security concern if you have a Russian state media person, you know, within several feet of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Scott Wapner
No doubt. And also, you know, I find it hard to imagine another episode where there was this much tension in that room, the oval between two world leaders. Certainly in your career of covering the White House, can you think of one that might have gotten nearly as tense as this one has?
Jim Labenthal
I can't think of a situation, nor normally, even when there are hostile relations between the countries, the matters to be discussed have been gone over to a fairly well by the diplomats of both countries beforehand. These things are typically enormously carefully orchestrated to Avoid just this kind of diplomatic blowup and sort of mano a mano insults back and forth between the principals. You just never want to see that as a White House. And so, you know, even when it's an adversarial nation, you tend not to see that. In this case, though, this is an extraordinarily personally difficult relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky that dates back to Trump's first impeachment.
Scott Wapner
And let's look at this playback that we're getting now, Eamon, and say, hi.
Unknown
Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal? That doesn't work that way. I'm not aligned with Putin. I'm not aligned with anybody. I'm aligned with the United States of America, America and for the good of the world. I'm aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with. You see the hatred he's got for Putin. It's very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate. He's got tremendous hatred, and I understand that. But I can tell you the other side isn't exactly in love with, you know, him either. So it's not a question of alignment. I have to. I'm aligned with the world. I want to get the thing set. I'm aligned with Europe. I want to see if we can get this thing done. You want me to be tough. I could be tougher than any human being you've ever seen. I'd be so tough. But you're never going to get a deal that way. So that's the way it goes. All right, one more question.
Jim Labenthal
I will respond to this. So look, for four years in the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin. And then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed. Destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden of thumping our chest and pretending that the President of the United States words mattered more than the President of the United States actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That's what President Trump is doing.
Scott Wapner
Can I ask you?
Unknown
Sure. Yeah.
Jim Labenthal
Yeah.
Scott Wapner
Okay.
Unknown
So he occupied our parts, big parts of Ukraine, part of east and Crimea. So he occupied it on 2014. So during a lot of years, I'm.
Scott Wapner
Not speaking about just Biden, but those.
Unknown
Time was Obama, then President Obama, then President President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless now President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took.
Scott Wapner
He killed people, you know what the contact.
Unknown
2015, 2014.
Jim Labenthal
2014.
Unknown
I was not here.
Scott Wapner
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Unknown
Yes, but during 2014 till 2022.
Scott Wapner
Yeah. Was the situation the same?
Unknown
That people have been dying on the contact line?
Scott Wapner
Nobody stopped him.
Unknown
You know that. We had conversations with him.
Kevin Simpson
A lot of conversations.
Unknown
My bilateral conversation. And we signed with him. Me like a new president in 2019. I signed with him the deal. I signed with him Macron and Merkel. We signed. Ceasefire, Ceasefire.
Kevin Simpson
All.
Unknown
All of them told me that he will never go. We signed him with gas contract.
Scott Wapner
Gas contract, yes. But after that he broken the ceasefire.
Unknown
He killed our people.
Scott Wapner
And he didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn't do it.
Unknown
What kind of diplomacy, jd, you are speaking about. What do you mean?
Jim Labenthal
I'm talking about the country kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country.
Scott Wapner
Yes, but he feels.
Jim Labenthal
Mr. President. Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office, try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring it into this conflict.
Unknown
Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?
Jim Labenthal
I have been to. I have actually. I've actually watched and seen the stories. And I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour. Mr. President, do you disagree that you've had problems bringing people into your military? And do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?
Unknown
A lot of questions. Let's start from the beginning.
Scott Wapner
Sure.
Unknown
First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless. You don't know that. God bless. God bless. You are not war. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. I'm not telling you because you're in no position to dictate that. Remember this, you're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. You're gonna feel very good. We're gonna feel very good and very strong. You're right. Now not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. And he's happens to be right about the very beginning of the war. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now with us. You start having cards right now. You don't. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War Three. You're gambling with World War Three. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that's back far more than a lot of people said they should have.
Jim Labenthal
Have you said thank you once?
Scott Wapner
No.
Jim Labenthal
In this entire meeting.
Scott Wapner
Have you said thank you?
Jim Labenthal
You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country.
Unknown
Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war. He's not speaking loudly. He's not speaking loudly. Your country's in big trouble. Can I help you?
Kevin Simpson
Wait a minute.
Unknown
No, no. You've done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. I know. You're not winning. You're not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out okay. Because of us, Mr. President, we are staying in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war, we've been alone and we are thankful. I said thanks. You haven't been alone in this cabinet. You haven't been in this cabinet. We gave you, through this stupid president, $350 billion military equipment, and you met a brave. But they had to use our military. If you didn't have our military equipment, if you didn't have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks. In three days. I heard it from Putin. In three days. This is something maybe less. In two weeks. Of course, yes. It's going to be a very hard thing to do. Business like this.
Jim Labenthal
Say thank you.
Unknown
I said it. A lot of excitement.
Jim Labenthal
Except that there are disagreements and let's go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media. When you're wrong. We know that you're wrong.
Unknown
But you see, I think it's good for the American people to see what's going on. I think it's very important. That's why I kept this going so long. You have to be thankful. You don't have the cars. You're buried there. Your people are dying. You're running low on soldiers. Listen. You're running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing. And then you tell us, I don't want a ceasefire. I don't want a ceasefire. I want to go and I want to this. Look, if you could get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it so the bullets stop flying. And you meant stuff getting killed. Of course we want to stop the war. But you're saying you don't want to cease. I want a ceasefire guarantee. Because you get a ceasefire faster than any. Great. Ask our people about ceasefire, what they think. There wasn't for you. That wasn't with me. That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person. That was with Obama. It was your brother. Excuse me, that was with Obama. Who gave you sheets. And I gave you javelins.
Scott Wapner
Yes.
Unknown
I gave you the javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave javelins. You got to be more thankful because let me tell you, you don't have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don't have any cards.
Stephanie Link
One more question to Martin. Mr. Vice President. I'm sorry.
Unknown
Going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.
Kevin Simpson
What if Russia breaks ceasefire? What if Russia breaks these talks?
Unknown
What do you do then?
Stephanie Link
I understand that it's a heated conversation right now.
Unknown
What are you saying?
Jim Labenthal
She's asking, what if Russia breaks the ceasefire?
Unknown
What if they. What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now? Okay, why did they break it? I don't know. They broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn't respect him. They didn't respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him. And Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. You ever hear of that deal? That was a phony. That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam, Hillary Clinton, Shifty Adam Schiff. It was a Democrat scam and he had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn't end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden's bedroom. It was disgusting. And then they said, oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia, the 51 agents. The whole thing was a scam. And he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff. All I can Say is this. He might have broken deals with Obama and Bush and he might have broken them with Biden. He did. Maybe. Maybe he did. I don't know what happened, but he didn't break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don't know if you can make a deal. The problem is I've empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States. States and your people are very brave. But you're either going to make a deal or we're out. And if we're out, you'll fight it out. I don't think it's going to be pretty, but you'll fight it out. But you don't have the cards. But once we sign that deal, you're in a much better position. But you're not acting at all thankful. And that's not a nice thing. I'll be honest. That's not a nice thing. All right, I think we've seen enough. What do you think, huh? This is going to be great television, I will say that. All right, we'll see what we can do about putting it together.
Scott Wapner
We'll take it back. Just an extraordinary piece of tape from inside the Oval Office and that tense interaction between the Ukraine, President, President Trump, Vice President Vance as well. Eamonn Javors has been standing by this time. Eamonn have to say it's one thing to hear you recap what happened in that room, quite another thing to see it for ourselves.
Jim Labenthal
Scott, I've never seen anything like that. You've never seen anything like that. Nobody in the United States has ever seen a situation like that in the Oval Office before on live television playing out as leaders of two countries effectively shouting at each other, talking over each other. Bitter disagreements, anger, emotion on display there. What that was was a diplomatic meltdown of relations between the United States and Ukraine. Now, you could say this has been coming. We've seen some indication of that. The president taking to social media to call Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator. In recent weeks, the question about whether or not there would be a mineral deal, Zelenskyy rejecting that deal. Initially, some question about whether there'll be a deal today. All of that percolating in the background leading up to this extraordinary break in relations between the United States and Ukraine. In that room today, you wonder just how this relationship can be repaired after that sort of mano a mano argument in front of global television cameras that we just saw a truly remarkable and historic moment there in the Oval Office. This president is adamant that Zelenskyy owes a debt of thanks to the American taxpayer, more respect to him personally, more respect to the United States in general, and needs to sign that mineral deal. Zelenskyy not backing down at all on the history of the war, what his people have gone through, what he intends, and his view of the lack of reliability of any deal that Vladimir Putin would sign. The two men are simply at odds. And you saw that playing out in the Oval Office. An extraordinary thing.
Scott Wapner
Scott saw it playing out in the stock market, too. Eamon, thank you for that. And by the way, as far as you know, we are still expecting that joint news conference at some point in the afternoon, Correct?
Jim Labenthal
The schedule is for a news conference to happen in the East Room just behind me here. Reporters are already lining up for that. The question is whether these two men can simmer down and bring themselves to stand side by side and take questions from media, questions which will be intense. There's a lot of foreign media here for this. Obviously the domestic media are here. There will be questions about this relationship, questions about what we just saw in the Oval. They may not want to answer those questions at this point. You can imagine there's an enormous scramble going on inside the West Wing right now to bring tensions down, to take the simmer down on this stove and try to put this thing back together for the rest of the afternoon. We'll see if they can do it.
Scott Wapner
Eamonn, we'll let you get inside. Thanks so much for that. That's Eamon Javors, as we said, North Lawn of the White House. Just recapping those extraordinary events today inside the Oval Office. I mentioned what the market's reaction was. S and p dropped about 20 points or so as all of that was unfolding. Nasdaq's negative. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is negative two. I'll just get a comment from you, Jim. The market has already been skittish in part because of what had deemed to be the potential breaking of longstanding, long standing. Excuse me, alliances around the globe between the United States and some of the nations that have been our allies for decades and those who have been deemed to be our adversaries for decades.
Jim Labenthal
I'm disturbed by what I just saw. I'm disturbed by what you just said. Not that you said it, but what. But that we have to have this conversation. I have been saying to clients and will say right now we have to strip out politics from policies. Okay, I am just going to focus on the policies here. If the policies in foreign affairs is now to empower Russia and Vladimir Putin, I don't think that's good for the stock market. I don't think that's good for the global economy. I find it hard to make a case otherwise. And I'm not going to elaborate further than that. I think it stands as I just said it.
Kevin Simpson
All right.
Scott Wapner
Well, we'll leave that the last word for that. Let's do this. Let's take a quick break. I do want to get to a few more things within the stock market and we'll watch that very closely, too. We'll be back in two minutes.
Jim Labenthal
Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99 of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com credit card based on the February 2024 Nelson Report.
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Scott Wapner
Bit of a different market picture as we follow what has been a fairly volatile session. Stocks were green across the board and you really had some nice price action coming into this hour. However, the market did turn lower as all of us were watching those extraordinary events inside the Oval Office. A shouting match, really between the president of the United States and the president of Ukraine. Vice President Vance in there as well. We are still expecting a joint news conference sometime this afternoon. Until we hear otherwise, we'll assume that that event is still going. But there is your market picture just adding to what has already been a rather uncertain backdrop for stocks. Talking about a potential growth slowdown in the United States. Atlanta GDP today negative 1.5. Haven't seen that in a while. Yields have been falling as a result of the uncertainty around the economy and growth and will follow all of it. I do want to get to a couple more things of note, however, before we go today. And it is United Health. It's another move. Kevin Simpson has trimmed that name. Stephanie Link has bought more. Kevin, you first.
Jenny Harrington
Well, it's like a Tom Clancy novel where Paul politics can play on a sector and a company specifically. We've owned this stock for over 13 years. It's been a full position. We've simply reduced it to a 3% because we're a little bit concerned that maybe where there's smoke there could be fire. I don't disagree with Stephanie adding to it. She'll give you the bull case on it. We understand the math and believe in all of it. We still own the name, but she had issues back in November when we were talking about pricing problems. You had a Wall Street Journal article in December. You had a senseless murder of an executive and now you have a DOJ that's going after them for billing issues at Medicare. I know it's a long way off. We still own the name, but we're just taking a little risk off the table here and I think it's an appropriate day to do that.
Scott Wapner
Okay.
Kevin Simpson
Steph, it's down 25% since November. So I think all of the issues that you're concerned with, I am too have been and I haven't been involved in the name, but I do think down 25% trading at 6.5 times EBITDA when the historical average is at 12 for the number one managed care company in the world with a good management team, with a good bench, with $20 billion in free cash flow and a new buyback program. And we don't even know if the latest DOJ is investigation is actually an investigation. So there's a lot of unknowns. But I think the stock price and the valuation is reflecting it.
Scott Wapner
You know, if you look at some of the winners and losers for this month, again, this is the final trading day of the month of February. Jim, your best winner this month has been abbvie as healthcare has really sort of picked up to get this year going. Hasn't done that great over the last month the space. But that is your best winner. It's up 12% in this period of time.
Jim Labenthal
I really think it's a well managed company. What do I mean when I say that this is a company that was facing a huge patent cliff with Humira. They've excellently replaced that with Skyrizi and Rinvoak. They've made some key acquisitions to bolster their pipeline and it's all coming together for a stock that has a mid teens multiple and a 3.2% dividend yield, which means to me it's a buy right here.
Scott Wapner
Steph Lilly tops yours. Speaking of, again, a nice move in health care. Lilly's up 11% within the month of February.
Kevin Simpson
Yeah, when you have total revenues growing 40%, that's unheard. Of in pharmaceutical land. And I think you've got the greatest management team. You've got a phenomenal pipeline, good balance sheet. So I'm just starting with this position. I'm going to grow it on weakness over time.
Scott Wapner
What's going on with AT&T? T mobile and Verizon because all three have performed quite well. Jenny, AT&T is your best, up 14 and a half percent in February.
Stephanie Link
Right. So I'm actually using that as a source of cash. But I think the reality here is there's nothing company specific. It's just that overall rotation. And on these stocks you have Things trading at 10 times earnings. AT&T's got a yield of 4 and change. T Mobile doesn't pay a big dividend. Verizon 6 and change. So you've just got a flight to safety. And as we've seen that rotation out of the juicy stuff from last year and into healthcare into these communication stocks that are cheap. That's all it is. It's nothing unique that's happening at them.
Scott Wapner
Kev, T Mobile is up 14. You recently bought it.
Jenny Harrington
Yeah, I almost misspoke on the dividend recently. I thought it was a rounding error and it is over 1%. So we put this in the growth strategy. We love Verizon, we love AT&T mobile. We'll never get a chance to talk about it again like this.
Scott Wapner
All right, well, we are going to follow this market obviously into the close. I'll see on closing bell with Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School. We'll see what transpires in the news conference this afternoon at the White House as well. But let's do final trades.
Jenny Harrington
Kevin got Salesforce.
Stephanie Link
Jenny TripAdvisor from our growth board portfolio.
Scott Wapner
Okay, good name out of the consumer space farmer Jim Disney.
Jim Labenthal
Respect the strength in a wobbly market here.
Kevin Simpson
And Stephanie Link, Diamondback Energy down 14% trading at 9 times earnings.
Scott Wapner
Okay, just the last quick check on the markets. We are still negative on the the Dow, the S and P and the nasdaq. The Russell is just barely positive, but I have a feeling it's going to be very interesting afternoon. I'll see at 3 o'clock when 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.
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Halftime Report: Time to Buy the Tech Wreck? (February 28, 2025)
Host: Scott Wapner
Guests: Stephanie Link, Jim Labenthal, Jenny Harrington, Kevin Simpson
Release Date: February 28, 2025
Scott Wapner opens the episode by addressing the current volatile market conditions. Despite the recent Personal Consumption (PC) data meeting expectations, the S&P 500 is on track for its worst month since April, and the Nasdaq is experiencing its worst month since September 2023. Factors contributing to this volatility include the Atlanta Fed GDP Tracker reporting a negative growth of -1.5% for Q1 and unexpected contractions in personal spending.
"[...] the Atlanta Fed tracker came in at minus 1.5%. All of that was net exports down 3.7. Excluding that, you're running at 2.2%. We are definitely slowing."
— Kevin Simpson [02:17]
The primary focus of the discussion revolves around the so-called "Tech Wreck" and whether the downward pressure on major tech stocks presents a buying opportunity.
Jim Labenthal shares his perspective on Nvidia, which has fallen below a $3 trillion market cap and is down double digits this week. He articulates a bullish stance despite the decline, citing strong earnings growth potential.
"I am happily adding to it. I do want to make a qualification here [...] Maybe we're in a correction. I doubt we're going to get a full correction, but I think if we do, it's going to be like last August, which was over in a month."
— Jim Labenthal [05:52]
Conversely, Stephanie Link offers a more cautious approach, highlighting that while tech giants like Amazon and Apple are down from their peaks, their year-to-date performance remains strong. She emphasizes that slowing growth rates are making high valuations less attractive.
"They are really not that off that much year to date. Amazon's down 5% year to date. Apple's down 5% year to date... when people are feeling bad, they just don't spend as much. I would not be buying any of these yet."
— Stephanie Link [08:17]
Jenny Harrington discusses her strategy of writing short-term covered calls to generate premium income, particularly in volatile tech stocks like Microsoft and Robinhood.
"When you have volatile markets like we're seeing here, writing covered calls is an amazing way to buffer the downside, bring in premium."
— Jenny Harrington [07:50]
Kevin Simpson elaborates on his selective approach, expressing reservations about certain tech stocks like Tesla and Microsoft but showing confidence in others like Amazon and Alphabet.
"I'm underweight Apple and Microsoft and now I'm bigger in Nvidia."
— Jim Labenthal [11:10]
Additionally, discussions highlight moves in the momentum ETF, which has seen back-to-back negative weeks, impacting stocks like Conscript, GE Vernova, and Robinhood.
The conversation shifts to the underperformance of the Momentum ETF, experiencing its worst weeks since December. Kevin Simpson notes significant declines in stocks such as Broadcom and Dell Technologies.
"Valuations along with the growth, along with the beating expectations and raising expectations, that's what I care about."
— Kevin Simpson [14:23]
Jenny Harrington mentions strategies like writing covered calls on Robinhood to capitalize on volatility.
"We netted a $7 profit selling a call on Robinhood. We added to the position this week and we actually wrote a call yesterday again bringing in another dollar for a March expiration."
— Jenny Harrington [16:38]
The discussion briefly touches on the downturn in Bitcoin, which is facing its biggest weekly drop since the FTX collapse in November 2022. Jim Labenthal highlights record outflows from Bitcoin ETFs and mentions a Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicating oversold conditions.
"Bitcoin's RSI is now under 30, which suggests oversold conditions. So that is giving some investors hope that we find a bottom here soon."
— Jim Labenthal [21:45]
Jenny Harrington explains the strategy behind MicroStrategy, a company heavily linked to Bitcoin, emphasizing the use of leveraged plays and covered calls.
"We essentially got stopped out of it when Bitcoin got down to 80,000. This is a leverage play on Bitcoin."
— Jenny Harrington [23:07]
A significant portion of the episode covers a tense meeting in the Oval Office involving President Donald Trump, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and Vice President J.D. Vance. Eamon Javors relays that the meeting was fraught with tension over a mineral rights deal, with Trump pressuring Zelenskyy for gratitude and agreement terms.
"Trump telling Zelensky his comments were very disrespectful. Trump telling Zelensky, you either make a deal or we are out."
— Eamon Javors [33:08]
This diplomatic fallout has had immediate repercussions on the market, causing the S&P 500 to drop approximately 20 points and the Nasdaq to decline further. Jim Labenthal expresses concern over the potential weakening of U.S. alliances and its adverse effects on the global economy and stock market.
"If the policies in foreign affairs is now to empower Russia and Vladimir Putin, I don't think that's good for the stock market. I don't think that's good for the global economy."
— Jim Labenthal [51:22]
The panel continues with analysis of various sectors and stocks:
Healthcare:
Jim Labenthal praises AbbVie for its strategic maneuvering around patents and its strong pipeline, marking it as his top performer. Kevin Simpson also expresses interest in United Health, despite recent concerns over billing issues and executive misconduct.
"They've excellently replaced that with Skyrizi and Rinvoak... it's a buy right here."
— Jim Labenthal [55:43]
Communications:
Stephanie Link and Jenny Harrington discuss the performance of telecom giants like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, noting their rotation into "flight to safety" stocks with attractive valuations and dividends.
"It's just that overall rotation... flights to safety."
— Stephanie Link [56:11]
Energy:
Kevin Simpson highlights Diamondback Energy and Syncora (formerly AmerisourceBergen) for their strong earnings and strategic positioning despite market fluctuations.
"Diamondback is a great company, EMP company and with great management, with real discipline."
— Kevin Simpson [30:18]
As the episode wraps up, Scott Wapner summarizes the mixed market signals amid political tensions and economic data. The impending joint news conference at the White House remains a focal point, with potential further market implications based on its outcomes.
"Stocks were green across the board and you really had some nice price action coming into this hour. However, the market did turn lower as all of us were watching those extraordinary events inside the Oval Office."
— Scott Wapner [58:12]
Jim Labenthal underscores the necessity of separating politics from policy to maintain market stability and global economic health.
"We have to strip out politics from policies... that's what makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy."
— Jim Labenthal [51:59]
Kevin Simpson [02:17]:
"We are definitely slowing. Is it slower than 2.2? Is it in the ones? Maybe, but I don't think it's a disaster, certainly not a recession."
Jim Labenthal [05:52]:
"I did, I did. So I bought more 27 times forward earnings. [...] I think the bond market is easing for us."
Stephanie Link [08:17]:
"I would not be buying any of these yet. [...] the only one of the Mag 7 that we like and are starting to get interested in is Google, Alphabet."
Jenny Harrington [07:50]:
"Writing covered calls is an amazing way to buffer the downside, bring in premium."
Jim Labenthal [51:22]:
"If the policies in foreign affairs is now to empower Russia and Vladimir Putin, I don't think that's good for the stock market."
Eamon Javors [33:08]:
"Trump telling Zelensky his comments were very disrespectful. Trump telling Zelensky, you either make a deal or we are out."
Tech Stocks: Despite recent declines, perspectives vary on whether to buy the dip. Jim Labenthal remains bullish on giants like Nvidia, while Stephanie Link advises caution due to high valuations and slowing growth rates.
Market Volatility: The negative PC data and Atlanta Fed's negative GDP signal potential economic slowdowns, contributing to market instability.
Investment Strategies: Writing covered calls and selective stock purchases are common strategies among the guests to navigate the uncertain market landscape.
Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin is experiencing significant drops and record ETF outflows, though oversold indicators suggest potential bottoms.
Diplomatic Impact: The heated Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy over a mineral rights deal has rattled markets, highlighting the interplay between geopolitics and financial markets.
Sector Highlights: Healthcare and communications sectors show resilience with strategic stock picks, while energy stocks like Diamondback and Syncora present growth opportunities.
This episode of Halftime Report offers a comprehensive analysis of the current market dynamics, blending stock performance insights with geopolitical developments to provide investors with a nuanced understanding of the financial landscape as of late February 2025.