Speaker · Updated
Marta Norton: latest market views
Empower
Summary
Marta Norton, CFA, is Chief Investment Strategist at Empower Investments, a role she took in 2024 after 18 years at Morningstar, where she was CIO for the Americas.
Chorus has 9 views from Marta Norton across 2 episodes on CNBC Fast Money and CNBC Closing Bell since October 13, 2026. Their latest calls: bullish on Meta Platforms; bearish on Chipotle Mexican Grill and CoreWeave.
Where they stand
Their latest bullish or bearish call on each company.
- Chipotle Mexican GrillBearish ·
- CoreWeaveBearish ·
- Meta PlatformsBullish ·
What they talk about most
The latest views
Newest first. Every quote is checked against the episode's transcript.
Meta PlatformsBullish
Meta's valuation is less stretched than other AI names, so she is not skeptical.
Norton says the hyperscalers, including Meta, are not as expensive as some of the rest of the AI trade. She is therefore less skeptical of them even though the Muse monetization is still unproven and the Muse payoff is uncertain. She frames the AI build-out as a long-term play and recommends a long time horizon.
“I don't think it's quite as expensive, the hyperscalers generally, as some of the rest of the AI trade. So I'm not as, I guess, skeptical of it.”at 7:52
CNBC Fast Money: Big Tech Earnings Filter In… And Coreweave’s Tangled Web 10/21/26 ·
International Business MachinesUncertain
IBM's enterprise AI payoff is unproven; she needs faith in management's vision.
Norton says that deploying AI effectively in enterprises takes a great deal of vision, so investors need significant faith in management. She says the jury is still out on IBM for that reason. Software is an area that got crushed earlier this year, but she thinks it requires careful selection.
“it takes a lot of vision to deploy AI in a... in an effective way. And so I guess the jury's out to me on IBM on that.”at 27:11
CNBC Fast Money: Big Tech Earnings Filter In… And Coreweave’s Tangled Web 10/21/26 ·
Chipotle Mexican GrillBearish
Chipotle is lagging as a pricier fast-food name in a consumer that is weaker than spending implies.
Norton says restaurant performance has become bifurcated this year. Affordable sit-down restaurants are doing well, while Chipotle is more expensive for a fast-food brand and is not doing as well. She sees this as reflecting a consumer that is less strong than retail spending data suggests, which traces back to wages and inflation. Chipotle's price increases could help longer term, but the consumer is in a tricky spot.
“I think when you look at some of these more affordable sit down restaurants, they're doing great. Some of these other companies, I would consider Chipotle a bit more expensive on the fast food front, and it's not doing as well.”at 29:53
CNBC Fast Money: Big Tech Earnings Filter In… And Coreweave’s Tangled Web 10/21/26 ·
CoreWeaveBearish
She would not want to own CoreWeave's neocloud business for the long term, despite credit protections.
Norton says the credit team was not overly concerned, because lenders have layers of protection when they buy CoreWeave's debt. She still thinks about the businesses she wants to own in the long run, and does not particularly want to own a neocloud business. She suggests this is part of why investors are weighing on the stock despite its high-profile backers.
“...was talking with our credit team earlier this week... They didn't seem overly concerned about it, but I guess if I'm thinking long term about the kinds of businesses that I wanna own, I don't particularly wanna own a [neocloud] business.”at 33:49
CNBC Fast Money: Big Tech Earnings Filter In… And Coreweave’s Tangled Web 10/21/26 ·
Memory and semiconductor names have little room left to run this year.
Marta says the first half of the year already borrowed a lot of returns from the back half, so she does not see much distance left for memory and semiconductor names through the rest of this year. She acknowledges that supply and demand dynamics look supportive, but the upside is limited after the first-half run.
“I feel like the first half of the year borrowed so much in returns from the back half of the year that it feels like I don't really see a lot of these names, the memory names, the semi name having a lot of distance to go for the rest of this year.”at 37:00
CNBC Fast Money: Big Tech Earnings Filter In… And Coreweave’s Tangled Web 10/21/26 ·
AI infrastructure & data centers
AI spending commitments may prove not money good over the next few years.
Marta says supply and demand dynamics for AI infrastructure look to be in place, but the question is the payback later on. She points to the large financial commitments companies have made and to how the technology could change, and asks whether today's spending will turn out to be money well spent a few years from now. The concern is about returns on capex rather than near-term demand.
“the pound of flesh that comes later on down the line when we think about some of these financial commitments that they've made and how the technology could change and whether the spending today was actually money good, you know, a few years down the line.”at 37:30
CNBC Fast Money: Big Tech Earnings Filter In… And Coreweave’s Tangled Web 10/21/26 ·
Chip demand is strong, but the question is how much valuation headroom remains after the rally.
Norton says the fundamentals for chips are very strong and hard to argue with on the demand side. But much of that information was already understood and helped fuel the first-half rally, so the concern is how much valuation is left in the space, not whether the business is good. For index investors, she notes semis are roughly 19% of the S&P 500, so they may already have AI exposure and need not look for new ways to access the trade.
“So I don't know if we necessarily question how good those business fundamentals are as much as we question how much valuation is left in the space.”at 15:47
Bonds are the one attractive valuation area; with the 10-year near 5.3%, investors are paid for risk.
Norton says the valuation discount investors look for is not obvious in equities, with the exception of the bond market. The 10-year yield has moved up toward 5.3%, which she says prices real risk that hasn't been priced for some time, and she says investors are now being paid for taking that risk. In her view, investors can dollar-cost average into bonds, and she would fund that from areas that have run, such as the AI trade or health care.
“But now you're seeing the ten year move higher, close to 5.3%. You're getting paid for some of that risk. And so, in my mind, you can dollar cost average in here into the bond market.”at 21:43
Health care stocks look aggressively expensive after their run, so they may be a trim candidate.
Norton says health care is now screening aggressively expensive in her view, after doing pretty well this year. Given that valuation, she suggests trimming the sector and redeploying the proceeds, for example into bonds, rather than adding to it.
“Health care is now screening pretty aggressively expensive in our view, so that may be an area you could trim as well.”at 22:09
Shows
- CNBC Fast Money · 1 episode
- CNBC Closing Bell · 1 episode
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