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Back in late March, we power ranked our Top Stock Picks of 2025. There was some success and lessons to be drawn, but if we’re being honest, this wasn’t the entire story. There was red ink everywhere and combined with the looming threat of unilateral tariffs on ‘Liberation Day,’ fear had grown surrounding a potential recession hitting by the time a second-quarter check-in came around.
Below are the power ranked top picks, with one week left in the second quarter, and the narrative has completely flipped from March. Now, the script for the rest of the year has become; which of these stocks can hold onto their gains, and which ones can finish the second half of 2025 strong?
Per the table above, there’s been a green wave; 13 stocks went from the red in Q1 to comfortably green right now. Only two stocks are in the red for Q2. Of the 13 stocks in the black for the year, 10 boast double-digit year-to-date gains. Year-over-year, there are only three underperformers. If you had bought every single top pick to start the year, after the first quarter your loss was -163%. Now, with one week left in the second quarter, your year-to-date return would be roughly 271%. There’s never been a better endorsement for exercising patience with the stock market. Below is a quick rundown of where all 18 picks stand with the second half of 2025 coming up.
Biotech Beam Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BEAM) has taken a more than 50% haircut off its Feb 18, 12-month high of $35.25. The shares have traded in a tight range for the last two months, with a confluence of moving averages above as resistance. With 14 of 17 in coverage maintaining “strong buy” ratings, downgrades could pressure BEAM even lower.
Bloom Energy Corp (NYSE:BE), despite below its year-to-date breakeven level, has massive short squeeze potential and could build on its 10% quarterly gain. The shares have been testing their 126-day moving average, which could be a pivot point going forward. Headwinds from legislation are an overhang that could spoil the party, though.
Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) may have pulled back from a June 9, 18-month high of $218.80, but the 40-day trendline has stepped up as support.
Fertilizer stock CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) surged past its early January multi-year highs near $100, hitting $104.29 on Monday. Now the equity is consolidating below the resistance-turned support.
Auto retailer Carvana Co (NYSE:CVNA) is down 2.7% in June, but the shares have been vaulting up the charts in Q2. The recent pullback also has support at its upward-curling 40-day moving average.
Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) got a boost from some political tailwinds this week and could be forming a bullish flag pattern.
Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) has spent most of the last 30 days trading in a tight range, but just logged its highest close since mid-February. Should the shares break through that $120 barrier, look out.
Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) remains a beast, with a host of moving averages supporting recent consolidation.
EZCORP Inc. (NASDAQ:EZPW) may be a rare laggard for Q2, but $13 looks like a stable floor, an area that hasn’t been breached on a closing basis since early February.
Fintech stock LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC) is showing signs of life but must contend with a declining 100-day trendline overhead.
Nebius Group NV (NASDAQ:NBIS) took my ‘artificial Intelligence (AI) could be nearing a top’ theory from March and torched it. Some understandable overbought consolidation and a June 9, more than three-year high of $55.04 is now forming a bullish flag pattern on the charts.
Opera Ltd (NASDAQ:OPRA) bounced quickly off early April lows and has spent the last 30 days rangebound. NBIS could go anywhere from here but doesn’t have a lot of contrarian potential.
Rocket Lab USA Inc (NASDAQ:RKLB) remains a success story. An absurd 522% year-over-year gain has been replaced with a more steady grind higher in Q2, with $30 proving to be a pesky level.
Singapore-based Sea Ltd (NYSE:SE) has a profile similar to NBIS; a race to multi-year highs earlier this month, then some profit-taking pullback that’s getting met with technical support.
SEI Investments Co. (NASDAQ:SEIC) scored a 7.8% post-earnings bull gap in late April and has since traded around its year-to-date breakeven level.
Fintech staple SoFi Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SOFI) just logged its highest close since Feb. 20, but don’t be surprised if there are some fakeouts around the 2025 breakeven level.
Dutch-based STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE:STM) is enjoying a price-target hike from Deutsche Bank Friday morning and is nearly 60% up off its April 8 five-year bottom of $17.25. An ascending 20-day moving average has contained pullbacks along the way.
We skipped Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) because the streaming stock is worth a deeper dive. While its V-bottomed with the rest of Wall Street, ROKU is still only 10.5% higher year-to-date. A newly-announced Amazon.com (AMZN) partnership could prove lucrative, and there’s massive contrarian potential that indicates the best may still be ahead for the shares. Short interest increased by 25% in the two most recent reporting periods, and the 9.80 million shares sold short now accounts for 7.6% of the stock’s total available float. And despite the momentum, roughly one-third of the brokerages are on the sidelines with “hold” or “strong sell” ratings. All it takes is one stellar earnings report for ROKU to melt up, with a rush of revised price-target hikes adding tailwinds to the rally.
With all these V-shaped rallies, which picks have more pessimism to be wrung out? Despite the frenetic rallies, there’s still lingering negative sentiment from the underperformance of the first quarter and broader market malaise. EZPW has 18.1% of its total available float sold short, Rocket Lab has 12.5%. COIN and CVNA also have moderately high short interest to float ratios. And with second-quarter earnings season in the rear view mirror, options premium everywhere is affordably priced in a post-earnings volatility crush. Nine names on the list all have a Schaeffer’s Volatility Index (SVI) that ranks in the 15th percentile or less.
What stands out from this whiparound is that very few of these technical backdrops righted the ship on singular, outsized moves. Almost all of the rallies have been steady climbs up the charts, with pullbacks handled by technical support. While volatility can be a valuable tool for options traders, equities with longer time frames tend to favor resiliency. With nearly six months down, these picks have proven their mettle.