Panel = CNBC's investment committee; "View" is the panel's net take this episode and the cell names which member(s) held it. This is an audio podcast: the Spotify transcript carries real (m:ss) cues (shown in the cells, the talking-point headings and transcript.txt), but there is no YouTube id to deep-link, so each "At" cell opens the episode. Speaker names were mapped from context (Spotify labels only "Speaker N"). Order: Positive → Neutral → Negative. Research: QT Qualtrim · SA Seeking Alpha · STK Stock Analysis.
| Ticker | Name | Research | View | What the committee said | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVGO | Broadcom | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Sechan's final trade (42:05). "Up relatively little year to date, it's re-rated a bit lately, 60% revenue growth this year, 60% next. I think it's a relatively attractive valuation at 20 times." | listen↗ |
| ANET | Arista Networks | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Snipe's final trade (42:21). "Data center networking is still extremely robust." Fits his broader call that AI-infrastructure capex runs from $900 billion this year to $1.6 trillion next. | listen↗ |
| CSCO | Cisco Systems | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Lebenthal's final trade, riding Snipe's networking call (42:26). "This has been a winner all year and I think the last couple of months of consolidation sets it up for the next leg higher." | listen↗ |
| ITUB | Itaú Unibanco Holding | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Raskin's final trade — a relatively new holding (42:36). "It's a little risky with the Brazilian election next month, but nine times earnings and if the election goes the right way, we think there's a lot of upside." | listen↗ |
| GS | Goldman Sachs | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Snipe owns it through the week's worst financials drawdown (32:40). Solomon guided FICC trading slightly softer for Q3, but "I think fixed income trading will be fine… Goldman is best of breed in IB" — one of his two "favorite picks." Sechan (31:12) counts it among the "haves" that gain from deals, capital raises and fixed-income volatility. | listen↗ |
| APO | Apollo Global Management | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Snipe owns and holds it despite the alt-manager selloff (33:06). Realizations and fundraising "will probably get a little bit tougher," but Apollo is "a little bit more diverse than the typical alt manager, like I really like their insurance business. So I'm still going to hold" — with Goldman, "our favorite picks." | listen↗ |
| JPM | JPMorgan Chase | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Sechan's "haves" in a split bank group (31:12). "The JP Morgans, the Morgan Stanleys, the Goldman Sachs I think are going to do incredibly well in this environment" — deal activity, capital raises and trading-desk volatility; this week's drop was "more of a scare." | listen↗ |
| MS | Morgan Stanley | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | In Sechan's "haves" list (31:12) — capital-markets banks that "make markets, but they also take positions and they happen to be pretty good at it." Picker also cites Morgan Stanley's call for two more Fed hikes (4:33). | listen↗ |
| BRK.B | Berkshire Hathaway | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Raskin and Lebenthal both own and hold it as Buffett steps down as chairman (28:01–30:10). Raskin: "when you have a war for capital, which we have going on right now, Berkshire, which has a lot of capital, should win in the longer term" — the multiple "is actually not very high compared to its own history." Lebenthal: the move fits Buffett's governance standards and frees Greg Abel ("what if Mr. Abel wants to initiate a big dividend?"). Shares up only ~1% this year. | listen↗ |
| DIS | Walt Disney | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Lebenthal owns it and keeps it after the CTO hire (13:31–14:12). CEO Josh D'Amaro hires Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first CTO. Lebenthal: too new to judge, but Disney must "co-opt AI" (an OpenAI partnership "really didn't go anywhere") — "this is still a very cheap stock… I think it's worth hanging on to." | listen↗ |
| NFLX | Netflix | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Wells Fargo downgrades to Sell; both owners (Snipe, Sechan) hold (14:50–16:22). Snipe: down ~20% since the Paramount deal fell through, YouTube and short-form pull engagement, "even though I believe Netflix is the streaming winner" — sports and a doubling of ad revenue ahead. Sechan: "you've been able to add to the name after it's re-rated"; "it's about the eyeballs… you can always monetize that." Down ~24% YTD. | listen↗ |
| NVDA | NVIDIA | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Bill Baruch is buying more with his Apple trim proceeds (25:43). "We want to own the names more heavily that are going to drive the breakout in that Mag 7 ETF. We're buying more NVIDIA" — he expects the largest names to lead one of the year's two "risk-on thrusts." | listen↗ |
| AMZN | Amazon | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | The other name Baruch is buying more of (25:59) — "we're buying more Amazon… to lean into that right now," to own the drivers of the Mag 7 ETF's breakout to a new high. | listen↗ |
| GOOGL | Alphabet (YouTube) | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Sechan owns YouTube through Alphabet as his hedge on Netflix (15:40). "A nice hedge to the other side of that is also owning YouTube, which we own through our other ownership stakes" — streaming "can be more than a one horse race." Snipe names YouTube's short form as the engagement threat to Netflix. | listen↗ |
| META | Meta Platforms | QT · SA · STK · FA | Positive | Sechan extends his Netflix "eyeballs" case to Meta (16:22). "It's about the eyeballs that they have and the subscribers that they have. You can always monetize that. I feel very similarly about Meta in the engagement with the ecosystem." | listen↗ |
| AAPL | Apple | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Everyone owns it; the committee splits on sizing at 35–36× forward (20:03–25:43). Raskin holds, "not sure I would be adding right now" — stable earnings, capex not blowing out, pricing power. Sechan: "Apple owns the customer, period, full stop… you can't be underweight Apple" — the benefit moves to the application layer and "every app is going to have to pay them." Lebenthal "trimmed it in half back before the last earnings" (keeps a $15-basis core). Baruch (by phone) is trimming 14% → 8% at "2 standard deviations above its median valuation." iPhone 18 Pro on sale; the $2,000+ foldable Duo next month. | listen↗ |
| NKE | Nike | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Loses Mbappé to On; Sechan says the group has to wait for the consumer (37:35–38:18). "Nike's crafted a niche" (Haaland, Ronaldo), and challengers "forced Nike to wake up," but "you need to get real disposable income up a little bit… Now is not that time." Down big this year. | listen↗ |
| DECK | Deckers Outdoor | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Passing mention — Sechan (37:53) cites Deckers' Hoka, with On's shoes, as the new entrants that "forced Nike to wake up." No stance on the stock. | listen↗ |
| ADDYY | Adidas | QT · SA | Neutral | Referenced only — Sechan (37:35) on the athlete-endorsement race: "Messi's with Adidas and Mbappé's with On now." | listen↗ |
| 005930.KS | Samsung Electronics | QT · STK · SA | Neutral | Cited as evidence, not a stance — Sigalos (17:16, 19:06): Apple "reportedly just agreed to pay Samsung even more for memory starting early next year," and Samsung has had the foldable market to itself since 2019 (8th generation) before Apple's Duo arrives. | listen↗ |
| MSFT | Microsoft | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Passing mention — Epperson (39:18) lists it with NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon as the five tech giants that make up ~30% of the S&P 500, hence of most 401(k)s. | listen↗ |
| RSP | Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF | QT · SA · STK | Neutral | Cited as evidence, not a stance — Lebenthal (2:41) uses the equal-weight RSP and small caps as proof of rotation under a flat S&P; later (41:46) suggests 401(k) savers look for an equal-weight option "as the rally broadens." | listen↗ |
| PSKY | Paramount Skydance | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Referenced only — Snipe (14:50): Netflix has been "a tough story ever since kind of the Paramount deal didn't happen." | listen↗ |
| Character.AI | Character.AI (private) | — | Neutral | News item, not a stance — Boorstin (12:07–13:02): Disney hires Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand (ex-Meta, Microsoft) as its first CTO, with part of Character.AI's technical team expected to join; Disney might add interactive characters to Disney+. | listen↗ |
| OpenAI | OpenAI (private) | — | Neutral | Referenced only — Lebenthal (14:12): Disney's "OpenAI partnership… really didn't go anywhere." | listen↗ |
| Holtec | Holtec International (private; IPO postponed) | — | Neutral | Referenced only — Picker (11:00) recalling Flatt: his main AI build-out worry was compute and energy access, not safety or "Holtec… delaying its IPO." | listen↗ |
| BN | Brookfield Corporation | QT · SA · STK · FA | Neutral | Referenced only — Picker (11:00) recaps CEO Bruce Flatt's view from the prior day's show: the binding AI constraint is "compute and the access to energy… still just a supply issue." Raskin: rising energy cost raises the return bar further. | listen↗ |
| ONON | On Holding | QT · SA · STK · FA | Negative | Signs Mbappé away from Nike, but Lebenthal (a former owner) won't buy back (36:25). Now "well below the market average, very much value territory," but only because estimates fell: "the earnings are not good enough… until those earnings estimates start going up, this is a no touch." Raskin: heavy competition and a stretched consumer (~18 months of negative real income). | listen↗ |
Broadcom designs custom AI chips and networking chips for the big cloud companies. Sechan's point is about price versus growth: revenue is growing around 60% a year, yet the stock trades at about 20 times earnings and has lagged this year, so he thinks investors are paying a reasonable price for a very fast-growing business.
Arista sells the high-speed switches that connect thousands of servers inside a data center. When companies build AI data centers, they need much more of this networking gear. Snipe's pick rests on AI spending still rising sharply next year, which keeps orders for Arista's equipment strong.
Cisco is the older, larger maker of networking equipment. Lebenthal's pick is partly a chart call: the stock rose all year, then went sideways for a couple of months (a "consolidation"), which he reads as a pause before the next move up, supported by the same data-center demand Snipe described.
Itaú is Brazil's largest private bank, traded in the US as an ADR (a US-listed stand-in for the foreign share). At about nine times earnings it is cheap. The catch is Brazil's presidential election next month: Raskin admits it is risky, but if the result is market-friendly she expects the discount to narrow and the stock to rise a lot.
Goldman fell more than other banks this week after its CEO said bond, currency and commodity trading would be a bit softer this quarter. Snipe thinks that is a short-term blip: Goldman is the top investment bank for mergers and stock/bond sales, and a busy deal market plus volatile bond markets are good for its business.
Apollo manages private investments (private credit, private equity) and also owns a large insurance business, Athene. Private-market managers sold off on worries that higher rates make it harder to raise money and sell holdings. Snipe agrees that part gets harder but holds Apollo because the insurance arm earns steady income that other managers lack.
Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman, with his son Howard taking the role and Greg Abel already running the company as CEO. Raskin says Berkshire usually lags in a hot momentum market but shines in downturns, when its huge cash pile lets it buy businesses cheaply. Lebenthal sees the change as good governance: it gives Abel room to make his own decisions, even ones Buffett resisted, like paying a large dividend.
Disney hired the head of Character.AI, a chatbot company, as its first chief technology officer, signalling it wants to use AI in its streaming service and its characters. Lebenthal says it is too early to judge the move, but the stock is cheap enough that he is holding while the company works out its AI plan.
Wells Fargo told clients to sell Netflix, which is down about a quarter this year as YouTube and short videos compete for viewers' time. Both committee members who own it disagree: Snipe still sees Netflix as the streaming leader with room to grow in sports and advertising, and Sechan sees the lower price as a chance to buy a dominant subscriber base more cheaply.
Everyone on the desk owns Apple and admires the business; the argument is about how much to own at about 36 times expected earnings, near the top of its historical range. Sechan says Apple controls the customer relationship, so it will collect a toll from AI apps for years and no professional manager should hold less than the market does. Lebenthal and Bill Baruch trimmed because the price already reflects that; Raskin holds but won't add.
Baruch runs a concentrated 10-stock portfolio. He sold part of his Apple stake because it looked expensive and put the money into NVIDIA and Amazon, which he expects to lead the next leg up in the biggest tech stocks.
On makes premium running shoes and just signed soccer star Kylian Mbappé away from Nike. The stock now looks cheap, but only because analysts cut their profit forecasts. Lebenthal won't buy until those forecasts start rising again, and Raskin adds that shoppers are squeezed by high gas prices and mortgage rates.
Summary derived from the public CNBC Halftime Report audio episode (Spotify auto-generated transcript in transcript.txt, read from the episode page's transcript data with its (m:ss) cues) for personal study. Speaker names mapped from context. Not investment advice. © CNBC for source material.