Halftime Report · Oct 9, 2026
With Steve Weiss, Founder and Managing Partner of Short Hills Capital Partners · Jason Snipe, Founder and CIO of Odyssey Capital Advisors · Stephanie Link, Chief Investment Strategist at Hightower Advisors · Rob Sechan, CEO and Co-Founder of NewEdge Wealth
The S&P fell its worst day since August on Thursday, triggered by one OpenAI revenue report.
CNBC's Investment Committee opened Friday's show arguing the market's reaction proved its own point: it didn't wait to find out whether the OpenAI numbers were even accurate before it sold off.
"What's worrisome is the funding and the circular funding that's through all these companies."
The panel — Steve Weiss, Jason Snipe, Stephanie Link and Rob Sechan — worked through the AI trade's biggest risks: the private financing behind OpenAI and Anthropic, the market's dependence on a handful of mega-cap stocks, and whether Nvidia's own numbers still justify the spending.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 3 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
The market "just reacts" to any whiff of doubt about an AI story, Weiss said, without waiting to learn whether the concern is even legitimate
Weiss calls the financing behind OpenAI and Anthropic "circular," and worries what happens if one of these companies can't raise capital
A failed Australian IPO is a warning sign for AI company valuations going public, Weiss said, and a slowdown in hyperscaler spending would hit the private market before the public one
Snipe says OpenAI's revenue "discrepancy" was just an accounting error, and the brief sell-off has mostly reversed, though not fully
Link says Nvidia spent $24 billion on AI R&D last year and has locked in supply agreements worth almost $400 billion, which gives her comfort the AI trade is still in its early innings
Sechan says a 44% share of the stock market's wealth effect now comes from the Mag-7 and AI infrastructure stocks, meaning the whole economy, not just equities, rests on one pillar
Link estimates AI accounts for about 70% of current US economic growth
1. The Market "Just Reacts"
The S&P had its worst day since August on Thursday, on an OpenAI revenue report — and the panel says the selloff proved the market doesn't wait to check the facts first
Weiss said even the day's bounce wasn't a convincing one, after the prior day's selloff
"Today's not a very convincing return, you know, after what we saw as a sell-off. So I wouldn't say you're making lower highs, but it is worrisome. Look, I think about it all the time." — Steve Weiss
He flagged what he calls "circular" financing among the AI labs as the real worry
"What's worrisome is the funding and the circular funding that's through all these companies. And if one defaults on it, or if one can't raise capital right now — there seems to be an insatiable appetite, and their spend in some of these companies is far from their revenues." — Steve Weiss
Even stocks outside the official "Mag-7" group — Oracle, AMD, Broadcom — lost roughly $270 billion of market cap the day before, on the same worry about how dependent the whole ecosystem is on OpenAI and Anthropic.
