Closing bell 10/21/26

Meta Platforms

Across the shows: 18 speakers in other episodes, 16 bullish and 6 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Dan IvesBullish

  Meta's heavy capex is now justified because Muse monetization is starting to show; investors will accept it.

  Ives says Meta's spending in recent quarters was excessive with no visible results, but results are now arriving. He expects a strong advertising-growth quarter from the Muse-driven gains. He thinks investors will tolerate even a capex increase because Muse monetization of the 3.5 billion-user installed base is starting. He also argues that parts of the story could add $100-150 per share over time. He compares this to Microsoft and the other hyperscalers, where monetization has to be shown to justify spending.

  “the whole issue is they're just spending money like nineteen eighties rock stars. You're not seeing the actual results. Now you are.”at 4:40

• Stephanie Link · Hightower AdvisorsBullish

  Muse is a game changer for Meta; its early adoption and engagement gains support a bullish view.

  Link expects Instagram time spent growth to accelerate to about 19% from 14% last quarter, and expects impressions to accelerate too. She cites Muse's early traction: 11 million downloads in the first 40 days and 2.5 million daily active users. She calls Muse a game changer that can leverage Meta's roughly 4 billion users and generate ROI. She still wants to see monetization come through. She also expects capex to be heavy and may bring an equity offering, but her focus is on fundamentals.

  “time spent in Instagram can actually get to 19% growth from 14% growth last quarter. So that acceleration is exciting to me.”at 5:36

• Bryn Talkington · Requisite Capital ManagementBullish

  Muse is taking off and Meta's consumer AI opportunity will let investors excuse heavy capex.

  Talkington uses Muse daily and calls it amazing, asking why Apple's Siri isn't as good. He says there is a lot of excitement that is just getting started. He expects a good print and thinks investors will excuse the capex because of Meta's huge consumer total addressable market. His view rests on consumer adoption of Muse, not on near-term monetization numbers.

  “I use Muse all the time. It's amazing. Like, why isn't Apple... Why isn't that Apple Siri? It's so good. There's so much excitement. It's just getting started.”at 21:53

• Mark Mahaney · Evercore ISIBullish

  Meta's Muse proves strong consumer appetite for AI agents, which Mahaney sees as a key validation.

  Mahaney says Meta has proven with Muse that there is a lot of appetite for a consumer AI agent. He expects many companies to chase the space. He adds that mass-market consumer AI agents cannot sit behind a $10 to $50 a month paywall, which points to ad-supported reach as Meta's path to winning.

  “I think Meta is sort of proven with Muse that there's a lot of appetite for a consumer AI agent. I expect a lot of companies to come after this space.”at 42:59

• Mark Mahaney · Evercore ISINeutral

  Meta stock likely flat into earnings; limited downside near 20x earnings, and he would buy an aggressive-capex selloff.

  Meta was not given a pass in recent quarters because of its spending plans. This quarter investors get a partial pass because Muse and Wonderful show some return on the content and R&D spend. Mahaney expects guidance for expenses above Street estimates, so he does not expect the stock to rise aggressively and expects it to stay flattish. He thinks the stock holds around 20 times earnings, so there is not much downside. If it corrected sharply on an aggressive capex outlook, he would buy.

  “So I I I think it's a different setup. That said, I think they're gonna be guiding expenses above where the street is... I expect the stock to kinda stay flattish. I think it does hold on the downside 20 times earnings... If the stock were to correct a lot on a aggressive CapEx outlook, I'd be buying that.”at 44:52

Tesla

Across the shows: 7 speakers in other episodes, 5 bullish and 1 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Bryn Talkington · Requisite Capital ManagementBullish

  Tesla has more upside than SpaceX over the next year because SpaceX may end up buying Tesla.

  Talkington expects Tesla to trade in the high $400s once the deal is done, in line with RBC's roughly $480 target. He cites SpaceX's 2025 purchase of 480 million dollars of Megapacks and its plan for 10 gigawatts of energy deployment, plus the TeraFab joint venture with Intel. He says about 20 percentage points of Tesla shares are set to be released into the market in coming months, which is a near-term overhang. He still thinks Tesla has more upside than SpaceX over the next year, because the likelier direction of any deal is SpaceX buying Tesla.

  “I still think Tesla has more upside right now than SpaceX just because you still have about 20 percentage points of shares that are gonna be released into the market over the next few months.”at 11:24

• Dan IvesBullish

  Tesla's Europe demand is bouncing back as Musk steps back from political theater.

  Ives says Europe had strong anti-Musk and anti-Tesla sentiment, but sales have now bounced back. He ties this to Musk getting out of political theater. He thinks the consumer buy-in is starting to show, though he calls the situation a balancing act while Musk runs SpaceX and Tesla from a position of strength.

  “Europe, huge, huge, obviously, anti Musk, anti Tesla, but now you've seen a bounce back. The reason that is is ultimately because, politically, he started to get out of that sort of political theater”at 13:52

NVIDIA

Across the shows: 27 speakers in other episodes, 21 bullish and 11 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Stephanie Link · Hightower AdvisorsBullish

  Link owns Nvidia as a selective semiconductor pick with a strong balance sheet.

  Link says she wants to be selective in semiconductors and to own companies with good balance sheets. She names Nvidia as one of the chip stocks she owns. Her reasoning ties to data-center demand outstripping supply for several years, though she gives no Nvidia-specific numbers.

  “I wanna be selective on semiconductors. I wanna own good balance sheets. You know which ones I own, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Micron.”at 20:10

Broadcom

Across the shows: 4 speakers in other episodes, 3 bullish and 2 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Stephanie Link · Hightower AdvisorsBullish

  Link owns Broadcom as a selective semiconductor pick with a strong balance sheet.

  Link says she wants to be selective in semiconductors and to own companies with good balance sheets. She names Broadcom as one of the chip stocks she owns, tied to data-center demand outstripping supply for several years.

  “I wanna be selective on semiconductors. I wanna own good balance sheets. You know which ones I own, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Micron.”at 20:10

Micron Technology

Across the shows: 10 speakers in other episodes, 4 bullish and 5 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Stephanie Link · Hightower AdvisorsBullish

  Link owns Micron as a selective semiconductor pick with a strong balance sheet.

  Link says she wants to be selective in semiconductors and to own companies with good balance sheets. She names Micron as one of the chip stocks she owns, tied to data-center demand outstripping supply for several years.

  “I wanna be selective on semiconductors. I wanna own good balance sheets. You know which ones I own, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Micron.”at 20:10

Wells Fargo & Company

Across the shows: 1 speaker in other episodes, 0 bullish and 1 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Stephanie Link · Hightower AdvisorsBullish

  Link is adding to Wells Fargo after a very good quarter.

  Link says she is adding to financials and points to Wells Fargo's very good quarter as the reason. She sees financials as part of a broader rally beyond AI. Her case rests on the quarterly result, with no further detail.

  “I'm also adding to financials. Wells Fargo, they had a very good quarter.”at 20:19

Anthropic

Across the shows: 35 speakers in other episodes, 22 bullish and 40 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Kate Rooney · CNBCNeutral

  Anthropic is a laggard in AI agents, playing catch-up with its late consumer agent launch.

  Rooney says Anthropic has been a laggard in the agent space because it did not have its own AI agent. Competitors such as OpenAI and ChatGPT already moved into this arena. The launch is a move into consumer for a company that had been mainly business-to-business. She frames it as the company playing catch-up with the late move. Her view rests on the timing of the launch and the competitive field.

  “Anthropic has been sort of a laggard in this space. They have not had their own version of an AI agent.”at 38:50

Alphabet

Across the shows: 7 speakers in other episodes, 6 bullish and 1 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Mark Mahaney · Evercore ISIBullish

  Google is best placed to compete in consumer AI agents because of its large advertising monetization.

  Mahaney argues that a consumer AI agent that competes with Meta's Muse cannot be sold behind a subscription if it is to reach the mass market. He says the company that can really do this is Google. To do it, a company needs large advertising monetization behind the product, and he believes Google has it.

  “The company that can really do this is Google... You really have to have a large advertising monetization behind it. And I think they have it.”at 43:05

Amazon.com

Across the shows: 11 speakers in other episodes, 7 bullish and 3 bearish calls, past 30 days

• Mark Mahaney · Evercore ISIBullish

  Amazon is Mahaney's top pick; compute and cloud demand is underappreciated, driven by AWS Bedrock.

  Mahaney says the recent data points show how strong demand is for compute and cloud. He calls Amazon an almost underappreciated and surprisingly good way to play that demand right now. He credits AWS, particularly the Bedrock platform within AWS, as the reason.

  “Amazon's our number one pick here. I think all of these data points show just how strong the demand is for compute, how strong the demand is for cloud, and I think Amazon's probably the almost underappreciated... way to play that right here right now.”at 43:47

US stock market outlook

• Mark Newton · Fundstrat Global Advisors

  Market rally has broadened and looks resilient, but choppy until midterms unless yields and crude peak.

  Newton says the share of stocks above their 20-day moving average roughly doubled in two and a half weeks, from about 20% to 45%. The equal-weighted S&P 500 is at its highest since early September, and the S&P is less than 100 points from its all-time high. He acknowledges elevated bond yields, high crude and two wars. He ignores headlines as a technical analyst, but expects choppy trading until the midterms and needs to see bond yields and crude start to peak and fall.

  “I think it's gonna be a choppy time until we get past the midterms. I think we need to see evidence of bond yields, crude starting to peak and fall.”at 16:58

• Bryn Talkington · Requisite Capital Management

  Expect more market chop into the midterms, driven by hedge fund deleveraging and high oil.

  Talkington says the war is unpopular, oil is high, and the midterms are close, so investors will be more sensitive to war news. This comes on top of the large hedge fund deleveraging seen last week. He concludes the market will settle into more chop. Oil also feeds inflation, which adds to the caution.

  “I think we're all gonna be much more sensitive to this type of news because it's not a popular war. Oil's high. We have midterms right now.”at 18:13

• Courtney Garcia · Payne Capital Management

  Rally should broaden into economically sensitive industrials and financials if rates stabilize and growth continues.

  Garcia says that if rates stabilize and growth continues, capex spending should keep feeding back into the economy. Economically sensitive areas such as industrials and financials should benefit. She expects this broadening to continue and says it does not depend on the AI trade doing well.

  “if rates do start to stabilize here and growth does continue, which will be continue to see this CapEx spending and that that money going back to the economy, that likely continues. But I think your economically sensitive areas can benefit from that.”at 21:18

AI infrastructure & data centers

• Stephanie Link · Hightower Advisors

  AI capex is rising and demand will outstrip supply for years; data-center builders down 30% are buys.

  Link says capex numbers are going higher, not lower, and that demand is outstripping supply now and will for the next several years. Industrials exposed to the data-center build-out are down about 30%. She says she will buy them now and that Joe Terranova also wants to buy them. She sees the rally as broadening beyond AI to financials and industrials.

  “CapEx numbers are going higher, not lower. And demand is outstripping supply at this moment in time and will for the next several years.”at 19:56

• Courtney Garcia · Payne Capital Management

  AI trade isn't over; the key question is when hyperscaler capex will produce realistic ROI.

  Garcia says the AI trade is not over. Capex concerns will keep being scrutinized, and investors will focus on the timing of ROI, not on whether companies are spending too much or too little. She is watching Meta's Muse adoption and asking for real ROI evidence. If rates stabilize and growth continues, the capex spending that flows back into the economy should continue.

  “I don't think the AI trade is over by any means. I do think the CapEx concerns are gonna continue to come under scrutiny here”at 20:42

• Bryn Talkington · Requisite Capital Management

  Cloud growth is accelerating with AI, so Amazon, Microsoft and Google cloud should beat.

  Talkington says cloud growth started accelerating last quarter and will accelerate further. He notes a strong correlation between AI and cloud growth. He expects the major cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft and Google) to crush their upcoming prints. He also expects investors to excuse heavy capex because of the large consumer TAM, which keeps tech leadership intact.

  “Amazon, Microsoft, and Google cloud providers are gonna crush it because we saw last quarter, guess what? Cloud growth is starting to accelerate. It's gonna accelerate even more.”at 22:28

Middle East & Iran

• Courtney Garcia · Payne Capital Management

  Gulf geopolitical headlines matter little for markets unless they hit consumer spending or earnings.

  Garcia says geopolitical headlines usually have less market impact than people assume. They matter only if they affect consumer spending or companies' business and earnings. She says to keep the Gulf embassy report in the back of your mind. She sees oil as the more important thing to watch, because it affects stock sentiment.

  “these geopolitical headlines don't have as much of an impact, I think, on the markets as one would lead you to believe. I think as long as it's nothing that's gonna affect how the consumer is spending or companies are doing business”at 17:32

Oil & fuels

• Scott Kirby · United Airlines

  Jet fuel prices will stay high into 2027, pressuring airline costs.

  Kirby says he expects jet fuel to stay high into 2027. Phil LeBeau notes jet fuel costs are up 60-65% depending on the airline, and United's costs were up 61% year over year. Kirby says the industry must act: airlines will have to stop flying routes that lose money. Given the cost pressure, United's fourth-quarter profit is forecast to be smaller than a year earlier.

  “I think we'll stay high into 2027.”at 27:35

Sports, betting & prediction markets

• Michael Ozanian · CNBC

  NFL's new PE fund could significantly lift team values over the next several years.

  Ozanian says the NFL's 32 Equity arm already produced gains from investments such as Fanatics and Hyperice, and the league has captured upside. The new fund, with General Atlantic, will invest in a global portfolio of sports-adjacent businesses as the league adds more games and grows internationally. The fund sits outside the 50% player revenue share, so all risk and reward goes to owners. He cites a 10% Falcons stake sold at a $10.6 billion valuation, above the Seahawks deal, as evidence of demand.

  “I think this has the potential to move the needle for NFL team values tremendously over the next several years.”at 33:26

Private equity

• Michael Ozanian · CNBC

  Private equity buyers of NFL team stakes are a smart move; demand for NFL partnerships is tremendous.

  Ozanian says demand to partner with the NFL, through ownership or on the business side, is tremendous. He notes the NFL is opening its ownership pool to more private equity firms. He calls General Atlantic's outside-investment move smart because it partners with the whole league rather than taking just 10% of one team. He cites the success of earlier investments such as 32 Equity.

  “We've seen what's happened with 32 equity. We've seen the tremendous success these investments have. We don't want just 10% of a particular team. Here, we're basically partnering with the entire NFL.”at 36:57