AFTER-HOURS % GAINERS

AFTER-HOURS % DECLINERS

Position: None

Volume

– NYSE volume 49% above its one-month average 

– NASDAQ volume 23% above its one-month average

 – VIX index: down 4.02% to 14.82

Breadth

S&P Sectors

% Movers

Nasdaq 100 Heat Map

S&P 500 Heat Map

Position: None

“Just one more thing.”

– Lt Columbo

S&P futures are +20 handles and Nasdaq futures are + 240 handles.

On the strength of the runoff and option expiration I am back shorting the indices:

* SPY $762.97

* QQQ $722.85

Position: Short SPY (VS), QQQ (VS)

Well it’s been a long week and a long two months.

I still have a patient who recently had surgery to attend to.

So I am going to call it a day early.

I hope I have made a contribution to your trading and investing thought process, progress and profits.

Enjoy the weekend.

Be safe.

Position: None

If GLD leads SPY as I suggested it might, the strength in GLD augurs well for stocks into the expiration.

Position: None

Here are today’s things: 

* I covered the balance of my short indices:

SPY $760

QQQ $717.65

* I added to MSOS common at $4.81 and calls, and to Trulieve (TRLV) at $10.85 and Green Thumb (GTBIF) at $7.29.

* I added small to PEP at $130.09.

* I added to GRNY short at $27.71

Position: Long MSOS common (VL) and calls (M), TRLV (VS), GTBIF (S), PEP (VS); Short GRNY (M)

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid is a hawk and “non voter”:

*  Price growth is not just about energy; Prices have been hot across a broad set of goods and serves 

*  High inflation a sign supply and demand are out of balance

* Outside of inflation economy is performing well

* He agrees with Fed Chair Warsh’s framework on why bond yields have risen: Driven by economic growth, demand for capital from AI investments, and geopolitical changes

Position: None

Thirteen years ago a bunch of us flew on my friend’s plane from New York City to attend Warren Buffett’s “Woodstock For Capitalists,” a.k.a. Berkshire Hathaway’s 2013 Annual Meeting, in Omaha, Nebraska.

We arrived for dinner (the night before the annual meeting). It was 11 of us including my son Noah, Mario Gabelli, Miles Nadal, Marty Cohen (Cohen and Steers), Lee Cooperman, Steve Roth (Vornado Chairman) and his son in law (my friend) Mike Salzhauer.

That evening, we sat down at Warren Buffett’s favorite restaurant, Gorat’s Steak House and ordered.

Lee Cooperman asked the waitress for Angel Hair Primavera.

The waitress looked at Lee like he was from Mars. Then she asked him to describe what he wanted. He repeated: Angel Hair Primavera (thinking that everyone knew the dish).  

Finally, one of our guys said he wants spaghetti with meat sauce and some vegetables on it.

That is what Lee received several minutes later.

And all was well with the World.

Positions: None 

Added to very small Trulieve (TRLV) (as posted I lost alot of stock during a recent option expiration) – I had sold $10 calls when the stock was $8 1/2.

Buying back now at $10.85.

Added aggressively to MSOS common and calls.

Position: MSOS common VL calls M TRLV S

– NYSE volume 155% above its one-month average; 

– Nasdaq volume 28% above its one-month average; 

– VIX index: down 0.32% to 15.39

Breadth

SOURCE: Interactive Brokers

S&P500 Indices

SOURCE: Barchart

% GAINERS, DECLINERS

SOURCE: TipRanks

Nasdaq 100 and S&P500 Heat Maps

SOURCE TheFly

I posted this last night (many missed it) about GLD correlating to short-term moves in the S&P Index SPY.

So far, so good, with S&P cash -14 handles this morning:

Post Script

* Looking at correlation between GLD (leading) and SPY (lagging)…

Not exactly an awful close, but the S&P Index did fall about 11 handles (as GLD fell by over -$3) —modifying this post:

Just Wishin’ and Hopin’?

Just a quick observation.

Gold seems to be moving with equities.

Actually it has been moving slightly ahead of stocks — by anticipating some short-term movement.

If that is the case, with GLD trading down from $401.44 to $388.75 — some stock weakness may lie ahead over the balance of the day.

Or I may be wishin’ and hopin’ like Dusty Springfield. 

Wishin’ And Hopin’ (Stereo Version)

Position: None

BY Doug Kass · Sep 17, 2026, 2:50 PM EDT

This might be a reasonable tool for short-term traders. I will watch the correlation in the days ahead.

Position: Short SPY (S)

BY Doug Kass · Sep 17, 2026, 5:37 PM E

Positions: None.

Here is a brilliant exercise from Sir Lawrence:

Lawrencenewman

13m ago

question to grok:

Doug kass in his blog is always railing against cnbc and how their guests make a lot of bad suggestions and it’s dangerous for viewers. But do viewers really listen to such advice don’t they use cnbc for breaking news and entertainment and recommendations as just a launching point for their own research and decisions?  If a viewer listened to every suggestion they would own 90% of the entire market

—————-

You’re thinking about it the right way. Doug Kass (TheStreet Pro “Daily Diary”) has spent years arguing that CNBC guests cherry-pick winners, skip timestamps, talk with too much certainty, and rarely own the losers. That critique is not imaginary. The format rewards confidence and a bullish default more than a full track record.

That does not mean the typical viewer is sitting there with a checklist, buying every name that gets mentioned.

What actually happens

Studies of Mad Money and other CNBC segments find a real but narrow effect:

•  Mentions spike attention (SEC EDGAR lookups, StockTwits, Robinhood popularity).

•  There is often a next-day pop (“Cramer bounce”), bigger in smaller, less liquid names.

•  A lot of that move fades over the following weeks. Long-term, following the pile of TV buys has not been a reliable way to beat a simple index.

So some people do act — especially on the names that get a spotlight and a simple “buy” — but it is a minority slice of the audience, and it is usually short-horizon noise trading, not “I now own this for a decade.”

CNBC’s own audience mix is closer to what you described: breaking news, futures, Fed/earnings color, interviews, and background noise for people who already have a process. Daytime linear ratings are not huge. A lot of the “viewership” is professionals with the channel on in the office, plus retail who treat it like sports radio for markets. Entertainment and narrative are features, not bugs.

Your “90% of the market” point

If someone literally implemented every guest idea, they would not own 90% of the market in a clean index sense — they would own a chaotic, overlapping, constantly churning mess: Mag 7 plus mid-caps plus crypto-adjacent names plus “great setup into earnings” banks plus whatever was hot last Tuesday. Position sizes would be undefined, sell discipline would be missing, and the portfolio would look like a highlight reel of the last six months of talking points. That is not how serious capital is run, and most viewers are not doing that.

Kass is useful as a governor: “this guest was wrong last cycle and is back with the same tone.” Viewers who treat the show as a source of questions (“why is everyone suddenly talking about this?”) rather than a source of orders are using it closer to its actual product.

The dangerous subset is not “people who watch CNBC.” It is people who confuse a 90-second segment with completed due diligence, especially in names that are small enough for a TV mention to move the tape. For everyone else, your framing is the healthier one: news + entertainment + a launching pad, not a fiduciary.

Positions: None.

Upside

– MEDS +30% (litigation settlement is expected to extinguish about $19 million of liabilities and retire 364,099 shares)

– USDE +17%, PURR +7.0%, MSTR +2.8%, HOOD +2.2% (crypto and tokenization-linked stocks rise as Bitcoin rallies and regulators grant temporary relief for tokenized U.S. stock trading)

– STUB +6.0% (Citi upgrades to Buy from Neutral)

– GOOGL +2.0%, GOOG +1.9% (no clear fresh company-specific catalyst identified; unusually strong megacap premarket outperformance)

– ETSY +1.1% (BTIG upgrades to Buy, citing improved valuation, positive demand tracking and a better cost structure)

Downside

– XENE -22% (pauses new enrollment in Phase 3 depression trials after a liver-related safety event, overshadowing the focal-seizure NDA submission)

– AEMD -9.9% (reverses part of the prior-day merger-driven surge; existing holders are expected to own about 4.75% of the combined company)

– ARRY -4.2% (UBS downgrades to Neutral and flags growing cash preferred-dividend obligations that could pressure free cash flow)

– NFLX -3.2% (Wells Fargo downgrades to Underweight, citing weakening engagement and a softer original-content slate)

– NUE -2.3%, STLD -2.1% (steelmakers fall after STLD’s Q3 earnings outlook missed expectations)

– DLR -2.0% (rate-sensitive stocks fall as Treasury yields edge higher)

Source: TipRanks

Source: TipRanks

Warren Buffett has stepped down as Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. As planned, his son Howard G. Buffett will become the new Chairman.

Here is the press release: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. News Release

When I appeared as “the credential bear” at Berkshire Hathaway’s 2013 Annual Meeting (Buffett Picks Douglas Kass as His ‘Bear’ for Annual Meeting – The New York Times) one of the more controversial questions I asked related to this anticipated move.

Here is the transcript of my question and the responses from Warren and Charlie:

Kass: Warren, like you I have two sons that I love. Like you I have a son in the audience today. This question is not meant to be disrespectful.

Buffett: Sounds like it is going to be, but go ahead! 

Kass:  But it is a question I have to ask.

Buffett: Okay.

Kass: Someday your son Howard, will become Berkshire’s Non Executive Chairman. Berkshire is a very complex business, growing more complex as the years pass. Howard has never run a diversified business nor is he an expert of enterprise risk managment. Best as we know he hasn’t made material stock investments nor has he ever been engaged in taking over a large company. Away from the  accident of birth, how is Howard the most qualified person to take on this role?

Buffett: Well, he is not taking on the role you describe. He is taking on the role of being Non Executive Chairman in case a mistake is made terms of who is picked as CEO. I think the probabilities of making a mistake are low but they are not zero in a hundred. And I have seen such a mistake made in other businesses.

It is not his job to run the business, allocate capital or do anything else. If a mistake is made in picking the CEO having a Non Executive Chairman who cares enormously about preserving the culture and taking care of the shareholders of Berkshire – not running the business at all – it will be far easier to then make another change. Howard would be there as a protector of the culture and he has got an enormous sense of responsibility about that. He has no illusions at all about running the business. He would have no interest in running the business. He will not be running the business at all. He won’t get paid for running the business. He only has to think about whether the Board may need to change the CEO.

I have seen many many times over 55 years as a Director, at times when a mediocre CEO, likeable, not dishonest but not the right person. Its hard to do when that person is in the Chairman’s position. Its a bit easier now that you have the procedure that the Board meets once a year without the Chairman. Thats a very big improvement in my opinion in Corporate America. The Board is a social institution and it is not easy for people to come to Chicago or New York or Los Angeles every three months and have doubts about who is Chairman. Who’s going to make a change? That’s the position Howard (the non Executive Chairman). I know no one who will bear the responsibility of doing the  job as it should be done. 

Munger: I think the Mungers are much safer with Howard there. You gotta remember the Board owns alot of stock. We are not trying to gum it up to the shareholders

Buffett: After my death, whatever it maybe in terms of value then, perhaps $50 billion of stock will, over a period time. go to help people around the world. It makes an enormous difference if the company behind the stock is doing well or not. Both Charlie and I have seen more than one example of where a CEO, who might be a six on a scale of ten), is perfectly likeable and perhaps has helped select some of the Directors but someone else can do it better. Its very hard to make the change when the Chairman controls the agenda. And keeps everyone busy when they come into town for a  little while.

Munger: You can have a CEO who is 9 out of 10 with deep flaws, too. It helps to have an objective person with a real incentive sitting in the position Howard will be in.

Buffett: An example I have used in the past: ‘Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.’ But after they inherit the earth will they stay meek? That could be a problem. The CEO could be a position where someone throws his weight around. in various ways. You may have noticed that in our Annual Report in terms of our newspapers I said am not going to tell them who I endorsed as President (I voted for Obama). When I write that sort of thing I am trying to box in my successor to some degree, too. We do not want someone to use Berkshire Hathaway as a power base in the future. We want the CEO to think about the shareholders.

Munger: Sometimes somebody becomes CEO , characteristic of a  once famous California CEO. They used to say about him  that he is only man who could strut sitting down!

Here is the tape of my appearance (please go to the 20 minutes 14 seconds mark to find the question about succession!). 

I will end by extending my best wishes to THE GOAT, Warren Buffett.

Kudos.

Positions: None

Fed Speakers:

9:30 a.m.: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman (Voter) participates in a fireside chat titled “Final Chapter on Bank Stress Test Reforms” at an event hosted by the City of London Corporation. 

11:45 a.m.: Fed Bank of Kansas City President Schmid (Non-Voter) speaks on “Payments, Banking and the Federal Reserve” at the Independent Community Bankers of Colorado Annual Convention at The Hythe in Vail, CO (Text available, audience Q&A expected. Media access: Audio-only livestream planned)

Economic Calendar:

Source: TipRanks

Wolf Street howls about the unappetizing yields (to central bankers and governments) in U.S Treasuries.

Treasuries Have Become Badly Unappetizing for Foreign Central Banks & Governments | Wolf Street 

Position: None

The S&P Short Range Oscillator remains stubbornly oversold at -4.23% vs. -4.36%

Position: Short SPY (VVS)