Position: None

Volume

– NYSE volume 1% below its one-month average 

– NASDAQ volume 16% below its one-month average 

– VIX index:  down 10.93% to 15,89

Breadth

Sectors

% Movers

Heat Maps

Position: None

Wolf Street howls about a hotter CPI. 

Inflation Not Going Back into the Bottle: CPI, Core CPI, and Core Services CPI Bounce Back | Wolf Street

Position: None 

From Peter Boockvar:

Positives,

1)  Initial claims at 206k were about in line and the 4 week average dips to 206k from 208k. Continuing claims were little changed at 1.774mm.

2)  The 10 and 30 yr Treasury auctions were great.

3)  From Signet Jewelers: “We had a solid quarter with comps up over 2%, reflecting high single-digit comp growth at price points over $2,000, including a strong Mother’s Day…Time pieces continue to deliver strong category comp growth, up almost double digit to last year. We delivered low single digit comp growth in bridal, led by a stronger sales performance. Fashion saw a 1% comp decline.”

4)  From MSC Industrial: “And now we’re starting to see the throughput increase on those machines (vending machines they have on plant floors)   and in those programs which means that our customers’ actual demand is picking up. So we’re most excited. Aerospace has been strong for this whole period…We’re starting to see machinery and equipment get turned positive. Automotive, we had some early signals, heavy truck. So we’re optimistic.”

5)  In Japan, July base pay growth of 4.1% in Japan seen today, the most in 34 years, gives them even more reason to hike.

6)  As the ECB cut rates to a real rate of zero last year to just 2%, they continue to recalibrate by hiking its deposit rate to a still low 2.50%.

Negatives,

1)  The August CPI rose .4% m/o/m headline and .3% core vs expectations of up .4% and .2% respectively. The y/o/y gains for each were 3.4% and 2.4% vs 3.4% and 2.5% in July. Energy prices rebounded by 2.1% m/o/m after the two prior months of declines. They remain up by 16.3% y/o/y. Food prices were higher by one tenth m/o/m and 2.7% y/o/y with ‘food at home’ prices up by 2.2% and by 3.4% y/o/y for ‘food away from home.’ Services inflation ex energy, still the main driver of CPI, rose .3% m/o/m and 3% y/o/y. Core goods prices rose .1% m/o/m and .7% y/o/y.

2)  The August PPI rose .4% m/o/m as expected but with a one tenth upward revision to July. The core rate was as forecasted when including also an upward revision to last month as it rose .2% m/o/m after the .3% rise in July. Versus last year, wholesale prices are up 5.4% headline and 4.6% core. Energy prices rebounded by 4.2% m/o/m after two months of declines and up 24% y/o/y. Food prices were up .1% m/o/m and by a like amount y/o/y. On the core goods side, prices rose .4% m/o/m and 5.1% y/o/y. With services, prices rose .1% m/o/m and 4.5% y/o/y with truck and air transport leading the way.

3)  The August NFIB Small Business Optimism index slipped to 98.7 from 99.8 and vs 97.4 in June. The bottom line from the NFIB, “Uncertainty remains elevated among small business owners as they face a mixed set of challenges with weakened sales, supply chain disruptions, and inflation pressures. While expectations for the overall economy dimmed, Main Street owners remain largely positive in the health of their own businesses.” As for the Single Most Important Problem, “In August, the top reported issue was labor quality or availability, with 23% of small business owners reporting it as their single most important problem. This was a 4-point decline from July, though the current reading is 11 points above average. Seven percent of business owners reported labor costs as their single most important problem, down 1 point from July and the lowest level since March 2021. Reports of inflation as the single most important problem rose 2 points from July to 16%. August’s reading remains elevated, with the historical average at 7%.”

4)  The preliminary September UoM consumer confidence index fell to 47.8 from 51.7 and below the forecast of 51. Most of the decline was in the Expectations component. One year inflation expectations rose to 4.6% from 4%. Expectations for employment softened as they did for income. The mean % of those expecting income will exceed inflation in the coming 5 years fell to just 23.4%, the 2nd lowest read since at least 1998 when this figure was calculated. Spending intentions on big ticket items like vehicles and homes fell while little changed for major household items. From the UoM and not surprisingly, “With a resurgence in fuel prices and trade tensions, consumers anticipate greater pressures on their pocketbooks to come…Consumers perceive rising pressures on their cost of living both now as well as the future. About 56% of consumers cited high prices as a negative factor for their personal finances, up from 53% last month and 44% a year ago. After declining for two straight months, spontaneous references to gasoline increased this month at 29% of consumers amid rising fuel prices. Unsolicited comments about tariffs rose for the second month in a row, from 24% in July to 36% in September.”

5)  Existing home sales in August fell to 3.98mm annualized from 4.06mm and still plumbing 30 year lows. Months’ supply rose to 4.9, the highest in more than 10 years from 4.6 while the median home price rose 1.6% y/o/y. Hopefully more home supply will lead to better affordability to offset the 7% mortgage rate.

6)  With another rise in the average 30 yr mortgage rate, refi’s fell 6.2% w/o/w and down by 25% y/o/y. Purchases fell a touch, by .2% w/o/w and still up 3.7% y/o/y.

7)  With respect to container rates, from Shanghai to NY, the cost of a 40 foot container rose another 1.5% w/o/w to $9,726, the highest since August 2022. The journey from Shanghai to LA got 2.3% more expensive w/o/w at $7,352, just below the most since July 2022.

8)  The Baltic Dry Index, taking stuff like coal, iron ore and grains, fell yesterday but off its most expensive since October 2021.

9)  The average gallon of diesel rose above $6.00 to $6.06 according to AAA. Gasoline rises to $4.30.

10)  With regards to the US consumer broadly, the August NY Fed’s Consumer Expectations survey said one yr and 5 yr inflation expectations held at 3.6% and 3% respectively. Not surprisingly gas price expectations were higher and “Labor market expectations were mixed with unemployment and job finding expectations deteriorating while job loss and quit expectations improved somewhat.” Disappointingly, “Expectations of an increase in unemployment reached the highest level since April 2020.” And, “Perceptions and expectations about households’ financial situations both deteriorated with larger shares of households reporting a worse financial situation compared to a year ago and expecting a worse financial situation a year from now, and smaller shares of households reporting or expecting a better financial situation.”

11)  From Oracle: “Q1 was another record quarter, driven by strength in both our cloud infrastructure and cloud apps businesses…Cloud infrastructure revenue for Q1 was $7.4 billion, up 121%, reflecting strong execution as we brought record levels of new megawatt capacity online, supported by a continued strong demand environment for compute and our database services…Our CapEx for the quarter was $28 billion, leading to negative free cash flow of $5 billion…We continue to anticipate $90 billion to $95 billion in CapEx for the full year, with not more than $70 billion in net cash CapEx.”

12)  From RH’s Gary Friedman: “So $109, like, I mean, oil is $63 at the beginning of the war. You’re not going to be able to mitigate that. Costs are going up, inflation’s going to go up. There’s a reason why the administration said that the war was ending and we were going to have a deal in a day or two, 38x…So yes, we’re in a time of conflict. We’re going to be in a time of inflation. I don’t think they’re going to be able to keep a lid on interest rates. So I keep thinking, gosh, it’s like my entire career, and I’ve been doing this a long time, I never saw a housing market that was down longer than 18 months. So it looks like we’re going to go into year five….Yes, there’s a massive increase cost. Nobody’s got a magic wand. Nobody’s going to get that much of a better price than somebody else…So we’re going to be in a higher cost world for probably at least the next six to 12 months. I mean, even if tomorrow they end the war, there’s too much inflation in the pipeline. All the raw materials are going up everywhere on everything. Everything is impacted by oil. You’re seeing crazy things, right, trying to manipulate currencies, buying back things like this. It’s a crazy time.”

13)  From Casey’s General Store: To the consumer reaction to higher gasoline prices, “we’re seeing exactly the type of behavior that we would expect to see. Fewer gallons per trip, but more trips made, which ultimately accrues to our benefit if we have more people coming to the store. People are trading out of premium and mid grade and opting for regular or higher ethanol blends of fuel, the higher ethanol blends of fuel carry a higher margin for us than clear gasoline…I would say that the trends that we saw in the first quarter were similar to what we’ve seen over the last several quarters…One is that the lower income consumers are being slightly more impacted than the other income cohorts. If you look at our business, all three income cohorts that we measure had positive growth in the quarter…But I would say that more of the impact we saw on the grocery and general merchandise side is really driven by category trends versus demographic trends. And what I mean by that is, if you look at the three areas where we had some softness is beer, snacks and cigarettes. And those categories have all been challenged for different reasons. And that’s an industry wide phenomenon. We’re not immune to that.”

14)  From Macy’s: “Our consumers remained resilient and engaged in the 2nd quarter, responding positively to newness across our product offerings and our line-up of marketing and events. Across nameplates, we continue to skew toward middle and upper income consumers where performance remains stronger…And as we’ve noted before, at the lower end, a little more choiceful, but those trends have remained.” Also of note, “we are not seeing anything dramatically different in the competitive environment right now and expect our promotional activity to be in line with last year.”

15)  From Chewy: “During the second quarter, while we did not see a meaningful recovery in the more pressured consumer backdrop for the pet market, importantly however, we did not see further deterioration. The environment has broadly stabilized to the trends we observed exiting the first quarter…Pressure on premiumization and discretionary spending materialized broadly in line with our expectations during the quarter, affecting both the consumables and hard goods categories…In the second quarter, treats sales growth slowed more sharply than growth in core food, reflecting moderation in discretionary purchases and the broader macroeconomic pressures we have been describing.”

16)  From Kimberly Clark: “the freight market and logistics market in North America is tightening. So, we’ve seen the prices go up there. We’re a little more exposed to that than we usually would be because of the Los Angeles distribution center fire…And that will also be a significant impact in the quarter of about $30 million to $40 million of incremental costs.”

17)  From General Mills: They reiterated their cost inflation at 4-5% “even if it’s tipping to the higher end of that range.” And one reason is higher logistics costs. “They’re up about 40% from where they were this time last year…So they are higher than we thought, but that’s a spot rate. We don’t pay the spot rate on all of our freight. We probably pay the spot rate on probably about 7% of our freight.”

18)  The rise in oil prices, along with other commodities, including copper, drove a 3.8% rise in China’s August PPI figure. That is up from 3.5% growth in July and 2 tenths above the estimate. CPI was up by .8% y/o/y and by 1% ex food and energy.

19)  China continues to run an annualized trade surplus above $1t and which came in at $119b in August vs $112b in July. Exports grew by 25% y/o/y while exports were higher by 28.2%, both just under forecasts. And China continues to diversify their export markets to Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

20)  Germany’s July exports fell .8% m/o/m, below the estimate of up .3% and due to a drop in exports to the EU. Total exports are still up by 6.1% though and highlighting the rebound in manufacturing. Competition with China was reflected in the 9.5% m/o/m and 12.7% y/o/y drop in exports to them from Germany.

21)  This day always brings back awful memories but a day that must happen each year in order to teach those who didn’t live it, the history of it.

I am again re-engaging on the short side of JOET and GRNY.

I continue to expand my short SPY on a scale on market strength.

Position: Short JOET (S), GRNY (S), SPY common (VS), calls (M) puts (S)

Professor Scott Galloway’s No Mercy No Malice... “One Ring To Rule Then All”

Position: None

I received this email from Denny just now:

Dougie, of all the things written today concerning 9/11 yours was the finest and truly the most heartfelt!

Your old friend, Dennis

From Charlie!

The Week in Charts (9/11/26) – Charlie Bilello’s Blog

Position: None 

Volume

– NYSE volume 3% below its one-month average 

– NASDAQ volume 19% below its one-month average  

– VIX index: down 11.32% to 15.82

Breadth

Sectors

% Movers

Nasdaq 100 Heat Map

S&P 500 Heat Map

Position: None

From Peter Boockvar:

CPI Review

The August CPI rose .4% m/o/m headline and .3% core vs expectations of up .4% and .2% respectively. The y/o/y gains for each were 3.4% and 2.4% vs 3.4% and 2.5% in July and to remind us, compares with 5.4% headline and 4.6% with PPI seen yesterday.

Energy prices rebounded by 2.1% m/o/m after the two prior months of declines. They remain up by 16.3% y/o/y. Food prices were higher by one tenth m/o/m and 2.7% y/o/y with ‘food at home’ prices up by 2.2% and by 3.4% y/o/y for ‘food away from home.’ Specifically beef prices seem to be stabilizing but at high levels. I was at Bobby Van’s in NYC last night and never paid such a high price for a steak.

Services inflation ex energy, still the main driver of CPI, rose .3% m/o/m and 3% y/o/y. Owners’ Equivalent Rent, the biggest component, rose .2% m/o/m and 3.1% y/o/y. Rent of Primary Residence was up .2% m/o/m and 2.7% y/o/y. Both are more in line with the reality of national blended rental rates. After a .6% monthly gain in July, medical care services fell by .2%, though up 2.5% y/o/y. Health insurance is still badly reflecting reality, telling us that prices fell .5% m/o/m and by 8.5% y/o/y.

Airline fares continue to skyrocket, up another 2.7% m/o/m and by 23.4% y/o/y. Hotel prices jumped by 2.7% m/o/m and 2.9% y/o/y. Fixing a car cost 1.1% more vs July and by 5.2% y/o/y. On the other hand, car insurance continues to moderate after the post Covid spike. Prices here fell .8% m/o/m and by 5.1% y/o/y.

Core goods prices rose .1% m/o/m and .7% y/o/y. Vehicle prices bounced with new ones up by .3% m/o/m and .6% y/o/y while used car prices rose by .4% m/o/m but still down 2.3% y/o/y. Apparel prices were unchanged m/o/m but up 3.6% y/o/y. Furnishings and other household supplies saw no change in prices m/o/m and up .6% y/o/y. Medical care commodity prices fell .2% m/o/m and by 2.7% y/o/y driven lower by drug pricing.

Bottom line, if all we did was look at CPI, a core rate of 2.4% y/o/y would be comforting but knowing that what happens with higher energy prices doesn’t stay with just energy prices, we have to assume there will be spill over, particularly with this move higher in diesel prices. And I’ll repeat myself again, ignoring PPI in one’s inflation analysis I believe is a mistake and only tells one half the story.

Rate hike odds for next week now up to 86%. The 2 yr yield, after initially jumping post data release, is back to flat but higher by 10 bps over the past two days. The 10 yr yield is now down 2 bps vs 8:29am est after initial popping but still up 4 bps since right before PPI was released. The 30 yr yield is flat over the past two days.

I think it’s now a lock that the Fed will hike next week but still believe this should be considered a tweak more than anything. The rest of the curve has already adjusted the cost of capital much higher and will continue to do so if it feels necessary.

Headline CPI y/o/y

Core CPI y/o/y

Position: None

Here are today’s things:

* Shorted indices:

SPY $765.03

QQQ $716.23

* Added to short SPY calls (October monthlies)

* Added to GLD at $398.84

* Added to MSOS common at $4.85.

Position: Long MSOS common (VL), calls (S), GLD (S); Short SPY common (VS), calls (M), puts (S), QQQ common (VS)

I am pressing my index shorts on a scale higher.

Position: Short SPY common (S), calls (S), puts (S), QQQ common (S)

With S&P cash +72 handles I am adding to my short SPY calls (October monthlies).

I am also reshorting the indices:

* SPY $764.81

* QQQ $716.11

Position: Short SPY common (VS), calls (S), puts (S), QQQ common (VS) 

Upside:

-ACVA +45% (Copart confirms to acquire digital vehicle marketplace ACV for $10.50/shr cash tender offer)

-AENT +35% (earnings, color)

-FEIM +31% (earnings, guidance)

-RENT +8.5% (earnings, guidance; files rights offering for up to 4.2M shares at $3.55/shr)

-ATEC +7.2% (conference comments, guidance)

-RH +6.9% (earnings, guidance)

-CPRT +6.8% (earnings, color; confirms to acquire digital vehicle marketplace ACV for $10.50/shr cash tender offer)

-ORCL +5.7% (earnings, guidance)

-GME +4.2% (CEO Ryan Cohen discloses buy of 1M shares at $20.38/shr on 9/10)

-FTEK +3.1% (awarded $2.8M in air pollution control contracts)

Downside:

-PMTS -16% (prices secondary offering of 2.34M shares at $21.50/shr)

-ZUMZ -16% (earnings, guidance)

-FIZZ -6.7% (earnings, color)

-OKLO -4.0% (establishes $1B ATM equity offering)

-SMR -3.6% (UBS Cuts SMR to Sell from Neutral, price target: $6 from $10)

-ADBE -3.3% (earnings, guidance)

Position: None

Position: None

Position: None

I remain of the view that equities are overvalued — perhaps materially so.

I also remain of the view that, given the market structure dynamic and continued optimism on the part of most market participants (“the buy on the dip mentality continues uninterrupted”) that a sharp and extended market decline is unlikely (but not improbable). 

Instead, a sawtooth pattern lower is my baseline expectation.

For now, my objective is to take advantage of specific/unique trading opportunities. I don’t see many high-confidence buy-and-hold ideas (particularly on the long side). That said, some of my short holdings have been on my books for several years — and will remain there.   

In this backdrop and over the balance of the year, opportunistic trading seems the most appropriate tactical approach to delivering alpha. I am currently long about 12 positions and short approximately 18 positions. 

While the proximate causes for the recent market weakness are sticky inflation and higher interest rates, I continue to see other substantial headwinds that argue against new highs in equities this year:

* The likelihood that the unprecedented AI capital spending spree fails to return the cost of capital (See my More Tales From Nvidia series)

* Undisciplined fiscal policy

* Improvisational geopolitical policy that may have adverse economic reprecussions

* An equity risk discount (the ERP measures the relationship of earnings to the risk free rate of return)

* Historically high valuations

* Today’s market structure and leverage risks have not been seen in prior market cycles 

As noted recently we have rejected the notion of market broadening so popularly transmitted by Perma Bulls on Fin TV. See Mr. Market Is Not Broadening Out from August 31 in which I made the following points (H/T The Divine Ms M):

* The McClellan Index (NYSI) is faltering, the Mid Cap Index (MDY) is weakening, the Russell Index (IWM) is not “crowing” nor is the equal weighted S and P Index (RSP) participating in the markets’ recent advance…

Contrary to the near universally bullish narrative of most of the “talking heads” in the business media, the market is not broadening out — at least not as measured by the McClellan Summation Index, the Mid Cap Index, Russell and Equal Weighted S&P Indices. 

Let’s look at the facts and charts, delivered by The Divine Ms M (Helene Meisler) on TheStreetPro this morning…

Since that column, the IWM has declined from $300 to $288 and the RSP has dropped from  $222 to $214! 

That said, there remains a non-trivial chance that a sharp decline could materialize at any time. After all, the massive shift from active to passive management means that machines and algos rule the day. And those machines have no sense of value (but think they know everything about price).  Accordingly, “buyers live higher and sellers live lower.” So a clear momentum change lower (and I am not talking three trading sessions!) could develop into a deeper drop that I currently expect. 

Tactical Strategy

For now I am emphasizing tactical trading (shorting strength and buying weakness) — especially in shorting/covering the Indices. (I went delta neutral on my short SPY position with the S&P cash -50 handles yesterday).

Be forewarned.

Position: None

Position: None

* On this day, as has been the case for the past 25 years, my eyes remain full of tears.

* The losses are still surreal, those wounds remains fresh and, especially today, it doesn’t get easier as time goes by.

In the last few years we’ve seen:

– The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer

– The storming of the Capitol and pipe bombs left at the RNC and DNC

– The break-in to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi

– Multiple assassination attempts on President Trump

– the assassination of Minnesota’s House Speaker Melissa Horman and her husband

– The shooting of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife

– Luigi Mangione’s assassination of Brian Thompson

– The assassination of Charlie Kirk

“Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all. The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be blind not to see that.”

– Ezra Klein

I repost this opening missive annually with a heavy heart…

Death leaves a heartache that no one can heal but love leaves a memory no one can steal.

What do you want me to do
To watch for you while you’re sleeping?
Then please don’t be surprised
When you find me dreaming too

It’s just a box of rain
I don’t know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
Or leave it if you dare

But it’s just a box of rain
Or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long, long time to be gone
And a short time to be there

– Grateful Dead, Box of Rain

As many are aware, on every anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy on Sept. 11, I honor my closest friend who was lost 25 years ago — Chuck “Brown Bear” Zion — as well as the other victims of the terrorist attacks that day.

After 2 1/2 decades, it doesn’t get easier.

Sadly, Chuck Zion’s dad, Rabbi Martin Zion, has passed away, years ago. The lovely Jane, Chuck’s mom and Rabbi’s wife, recently died. They have joined Brown Bear after all these years of separation.

Please read this column, “Keys to a Life Well Lived,” that I had written about Rabbi Zion, based on a letter he sent me in October 2016, two months before his death:

“Who is wise? One who learns from every man … Who is strong? One who overpowers his inclinations … Who is rich? One who is satisfied with his lot … Who is honorable? One who honors his fellows.”

– Ben Zoma, Ethics of the Fathers

Today marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 World Trade Center tragedy. (Please take some time to watch Ground Zero Rising, Jim “El Capitan” Cramer’s brilliant documentary on the attack and the subsequent rebuilding).

Sept. 11, 2001, is a day that we will forever remember with clarity and disbelief. I lost my best friend, while members of TheStreet community lost one of our own — the late Bill Meehan.

It still seems like only yesterday to me, and it’s a day that I’ll forever remember vividly. As I’ve written before, 2001 will for many of us forever be annus horribilis, the year of disaster.

On this day, as has been the case for the past 25 years, my eyes remain full of tears. I’m drafting this column in memory of all of those I knew (and didn’t know) who lost their lives in the World Trade Center, in Pennsylvania and in Washington, D.C.

As I’ve written previously, it’s said that death leaves a heartache that no one can heal, but that love leaves a memory no one can steal. And so it will be today as we observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

As I’ve done in each of the intervening years, I want to use my opening missive to repeat the thoughts that I’ve often expressed about Sept. 11. As always, I dedicate this column to those who were lost — especially to my best pal, Chuck Zion (a.k.a., “Brown Bear”):

Chuck worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage firm that lost nearly 700 employees 18 years ago. It was the hardest-hit company in the World Trade Center tragedy, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the building’s deaths that day. I lost many friends at Cantor on Sept. 11: Eric, Pat, Timmy — too many to count. So did many others. And of course, we all lost one of TheStreet‘s own, Bill ‘Budman’ Meehan.

In Cantor Fitzgerald’s equity division, none had more of a presence (literally and figuratively) than Chuck Zion. He was known to his friends and clients as “The Brown Bear,” a sensitive, giving and caring friend; father to Zack; son to Martin and Jane; and husband to the amazing Carole (“Cheezy”). His love was pure, and there was never any pretense — not wordy, he was on point.

The largest producer over the past decade at Cantor Fitzgerald, Chuck was master of his universe. He was straightforward and clear-cut, a no-nonsense and respected partner who was remarkably generous but never, ever wanted others to know it. He gave often and substantially but always anonymously, without strings attached. Chuck, who also worked at Salomon Brothers and Sanford C. Bernstein, put on some of the largest trades in the history of the equities market. He was the player the “big boys” went to when they wanted anonymity. And I am talking multimillion-share trades, the really big prints.

And it was Chuck who introduced me to Bill Meehan. He even had me fill in for Budman on a few occasions in the Cantor Daily News.

I cherished and loved Chuck Zion, spending many nights hanging with him in his Round Hill Road home in Greenwich, Connecticut — he was my confidante and a brother that I never had. When I moved to Florida in the late 1990s, Chuck introduced me to his father and mother — asking me to take them out once or twice a year, to look after them a bit. In time, Rabbi Zion and Jane became more than casual dinner mates; they became my mother and father, so Chuck and I really were like brothers (though absent the same blood).

I spoke to Chuck every morning at around 6:15 a.m. If I didn’t call him on my direct line to Cantor’s trading desk by 6:20 a.m., he’d get angry and yell at me in no uncertain terms! Invariably, legendary money managers Neil Weissman, Stanley Shopkorn, Dan Tisch or Phil Marber (Cantor’s former CEO) would interrupt our daily calls. He would take their calls, and then shortly, Chuck would call me back. We rarely talked about the stock market, preferring to talk sports and food (his favorite activity!). Sometimes Chuck would tell me to check out Maureen Dowd’s editorial piece in The New York Times (“Dougie, she is mandatory reading”), or who was on Imus that morning. I got him to buy a couple of harness horses with me for fun and he got a kick out of them as we followed their losing races. “We’ll get him next time,” he would say (his credo) — though we never did!

We played golf together (Chuck wrote the word “Lost” on each of his golf balls because he lost so many of them that he wanted the other players to know they were his), usually with Phil Marber or SAC’s Andy Smoller. We talked NCAA football and basketball, especially about Syracuse University’s teams (his alma mater). But mostly we talked about our children.

The Friday before Sept. 11, 2001, was my last day in the office, as I was leaving for Europe for 10 days. That day we spent a lot of time talking about his son Zack, reminiscing about the trip Zack and I had recently taken to New Haven to Yale University, where he watched me lecture at Dr. Robert Shiller’s class on short-selling.

Chuck was so proud of the way Zack had become a man. And he was nervously awaiting Greenwich High’s football season with such anticipation. (They had won the state title the previous year, with Zack playing the offensive line.) Every time he talked about the upcoming season, his voice would rise several decibels. He was the proudest father on the face of the earth.

That Friday morning, the last day I spoke to Chuck, I was playing a Grateful Dead song in the background and I had Chuck on the speaker. Chuck was never what I would call “into” music. He was certainly not a fan of the Grateful Dead — maybe Motown, but not the Dead. Surprisingly, in our early morning talk, Chuck remarked how beautiful the song was. The song was Box of Rain, and the lyrics captured the concept of how short life can be.

Chuck’s New York Times obituary is still taped to my stock monitor in my office as a forever reminder of his loss. The paper is now aged, yellowed and torn, but the scars still seem fresh.

Today, after writing this missive, I will again share Chuck’s memories with his many friends (like Phil Marber) and with numerous longtime subscribers to TheStreet and TheStreet Pro (like Don Gher who has already sent me a note and prayer posted earlier). They were all Brown Bear’s business associates, recipients of his wise advice or just friends — and who, as they have every year, will pass on their day’s thoughts to me in e-mails or phone calls, which I eagerly anticipate and will always cherish.

TheStreet Pro subscriber Don Gher mailed me a classic story [four years ago] about Brown Bear. Don was thinking about Chuck and relayed that one of his pals, ex-Cantor Los Angeles and Dallas trader Eddie Weber, told him that one day he was at Cantor’s NYC office, and he and Brown Bear walked out of the World Trade Center to grab lunch. There was a hot dog vendor there, and Chuck asked how many he had left. The guy said 12, and Chuck said, “Sold!” And then they proceeded to eat all of them. That was my brother, Chuck — an original.

I will never forget Mark Haines’ report on CNBC of the first, second, third and fourth incidents that day, as I watched the horror on a television on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

And I will never forget the real-time reporting — the confusion and emotion — at TheStreet on that fateful day, the revelation of the extent of the tragedy and the follow-up tributes by our contributors. (TheStreet‘s headquarters were physically very close to Ground Zero.)

Ironically or sadly, the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) quickly followed on the heels of Sept. 11, 2001.

The most poignant recollection on TheStreet was the following post by Jim “El Capitan” Cramer, who recalled an incident at his synagogue. To this day, it always brings me to tears:

“At our synagogue last night on the eve of the Jewish New Year, our rabbi asked us to shout out the names of friends and family that we’d lost that day. There were so many names, it was frightening and I was glad we had left the kids at home. I felt honored to yell out Bill’s name. And I feel honored to have gotten to meet and work with him in his short time on earth. Oops, wanted to cry as I wrote that. Could feel it coming on. Nope, no can do. Not with that picture of him in my mind wearing that funny floral shirt. He wouldn’t want us to remember him in any other way than with laughter. God bless your soul, Bill. God bless the Meehan family.”

– Jim Cramer, Remembering Bill Meehan

Today I will also share my fond memories of TheStreet‘s and Cantor Fitzgerald’s Bill Meehan with his good pals Jim Cramer, Tony Dwyer, Herbela Greenberg and others, and we will all toast him as so many subscribers did in the fall of 2001.

“All that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”

– Edmund Burke

Fortunately, on May 2, 2011, some very good and courageous men gained revenge for Osama bin Laden’s deeds some 10 years earlier. I hope bin Laden rots in hell, but revenge doesn’t reverse the loss of so many.

As Samuel Johnson once wrote: “Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.”

I suppose that living and remembering are the best forms of revenge.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for letting me wear my feelings on my sleeve.

… As you watch the annual tribute in downtown New York City this morning, I think about our lost loved ones and how lucky we all are. We all miss you, Chuck.

Below is a plaque memorializing Chuck at Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa, where his dad Rabbi Martin Zion led the congregation:

Finally, I dedicated my book, Doug Kass on the Market: A Life on The Street to Chuck Zion — so that every time I pick up my book, I think about and feel ever closer to my pal.

__________

Though decades ago, the wound is still fresh as I think about Chuck often — I know I will for the rest of my life.

That was the way it was meant to be.

With tears in my eyes and with such respect for the first responders, last night I was watching a replay of 60 Minutes, which devoted a full hour to 9/11 and the FDNY — and the many that gave their lives to rescue others.

I suppose what separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.

I mourn them all and I am in awe of the ultimate sacrifice that so many made twenty-five years ago today.

RIP Brown Bear.

* Most importantly, after three down days in a row, I covered my medium-sized SPY short yesterday afternoon …

* I covered my short SPY into the teeth of yesterday’s decline. 

From The Comments Section:

Dougie

With s and p cash -50 handles i am shorting october monthly puts against my short calls.

I also covered some of my short spy calls.

Essentially on the short oct puts i am taking in premium and locking in some profits from the drop in the indices over the last week.

I plan to reshort strength/rally…

* I added to my MSOS common and calls.

* I reshorted Coreweave (CRWV) at $99.34 (New)

* I shorted ARKK at $86.12. (New)

* I added to CVNA short.

* I covered most of my GRNY and JOET shorts.

* Bought back GLD at $397.01

Position: Long MSOS common (VL) and calls (M), GLD (S); Short SPY calls and puts (M), CVNA common (VS) and puts (VS), CRWV (S), GRNY (VS), JOET (VS)

The S&P Oscillator shifted into a more meaningful oversold at -4.95% vs. -3.82%.

Position: Short SPY calls (M) and puts (M)