5 Stocks to Buy Before Summer Ends (MAJOR Catalysts Ahead)

Summer is finally here, but that doesn't mean it's time to sleep on the market. Joining us today is market feed analyst Thomas Hughes with a list of five stocks that all have some major potential catalyst coming yet this summer. Thomas, I'm really excited for this list today. You are covering a lot of different sectors with these names and a lot of them could have some big potential moves depending on how big these catalysts end up being. We're going to get to those in just a minute, but first I want to have you talk about what tends to happen to the market in the summertime and how investors habits sometimes change during this time of the year. >> Well, uh, the summer season is definitely a different season for the market. Um, a lot of the institutional traders and big money, you know, sell in May and they go away. They go on vacation for the summer. So, there's a lot of positioning happens in the spring that could influence summer action. Um on top of that you can expect uh lower volumes which just means that there could be some outsized movements provided we get catalyst that could happen in the news economic data. Uh so just you know be aware that uh it's not really standard trading times. Um if we get a rally it's suspect because you don't have the full market behind it. If you get a selloff it could be a buying opportunity as well as a selling opportunity. It just depends on what's driving it. You got to stick uh to what the fundamental story is and uh and just stick to the long-term, you know, strategy and plan and and use those those buying opportunities or selling opportunities as they arrive to take profits and to load up your positions. >> Really good advice for investors to keep in mind really throughout the whole rest of the summer. That can absolutely be the case. There's also plenty of moves that can still happen in the market even with so many investors maybe sitting on the sidelines. And that is why we are talking about this list today. Let's get right into these names. Thomas, I'm especially excited for the last stock that you will be sharing with us today because it's a completely different viewpoint than one that was shared from another analyst we had on the show just a few days ago. So, I'm excited for that last one. But, let's start out with that first name that you are watching for a potential catalyst this summer. >> Yeah. Um, that's Delta Airlines. Delta is the the premier airline. Uh they've been growing at a wicked hot pace, outperforming consensus, and right now they're coming into the summer on record bookings. Their bookings are being driven by uh premium and loyalty traffic, which are higher margin businesses that tend to have those ancillary purchases to go along with them, you know, services and, you know, cocktails and drinks and snacks and whatever. And so it's really just driving the company's outlook. And we're expecting, you know, record setting results, uh, intense profitability and the stock price to continue rising. >> Let's talk about the elephant in the room with any airline, and that is the cost of oil right now. The the the fuel prices are rising. Have we seen that hit Delta stock at all, or has it slowed down any of their earnings at all, or does it seem to be slowing down the consumer? >> Well, that's a very, very good question. And Delta is uniquely positioned in the market because it actually owns its own refinery. It doesn't make all the jet fuel that Delta needs, but it certainly impacts Delta's fuel costs and has helped offset the rise of oil prices. Uh so Delta has shown some increased cost, but not as much as the other carriers. It profitability is still healthy. We're still looking for a very healthy summer this year. Yeah, it's so interesting to see the signs of record uh bookings for the airline heading into the summer season when the economy is starting to show signs of a cautious consumer in other areas like retail and consumer goods. We're starting to see some of the impacts of inflation largely tied to these fuel prices. So, do you see that potentially impacting Delta's story, not maybe this quarter, but towards the end of the year, or do they seem to be immune to those economic factors that are are hitting the market right now? >> Maybe, but what you're saying about the consumer trends kind of plays into what's also driving Delta's business and and people still are shunning goods versus experiences. Uh, so instead of buying towels and and toys and things, they're going on trips. And that's seen in the travel demand which is also it's a recreational but also business travel demand. There's just lots of demand for travel right now. >> Um well my family is certainly one of them. We always take experiences over things. So that that absolutely tracks with what is happening in my own household and I'm sure many other households across the country. Let's talk a little bit more about the stock price for Delta. What have we been seeing in their charts? >> Well, the market has recovered from its lows. Um it corrected earlier this year. We've set a new high. We've broken out to fresh highs, which to me is a very bullish sign. Uh we've been waiting for this high for really some time now. It's taken uh Delta quite a bit of time to recover from its uh its coinduced panic. Uh but now we're back on trend. We're moving to new highs. The charts look pretty strong. Um I would say that this stock will continue to fly higher over the summer. >> Any fears about buying it at a high like this? >> Uh well, you generally want to use, you know, price weakness for entry points. So with the market advancing, you know, maybe you don't want to buy it like right today, but if you get a selloff for a period of few days or a week or so where the market is softer, you may want to use that time to get in. >> All right, so you started out with transportation and travel industry, which sector are we going to next for a potential catalyst coming this summer? >> Uh, well, the next stock is Oracle. Now, Oracle is kind of a poster child for the AI movement right now. um its stock price is down because it's taken on a lot of debt to build out its data center network. Uh but the story that's unfolding is that a virtuous cycle positive feedback loops are forming that when companies spend on AI infrastructure, it creates new demand. Uh so right now Oracle's catalyst is an accelerated plan for its data center buildout. It's aggressively building new um nextgen AI capable data centers uh with capacity coming on like late this year and starting at uh next year really to ramp to new highs and that should all help the company um recognize its immense backlog as revenue. So turn this you know half a trillion dollars of backlog into into revenue and that's the real opportunity. Uh so right now what I'm seeing in the charts is the market is forming a pretty good support base. It's anticipating some good news over the summer. It certainly looks ready to start moving higher again. >> Yeah, it's already starting to move higher. We've seen some really good gains in this one. Like you said, it's fairly strong, but it still has so much more to go to reach the highs it was at just a few months ago. Let's backtrack a little bit and talk about what led to that that deep decline for Oracle. Was it just the expenditures this company was making that had the market pulling back? >> Uh Oracle may have really been the start of this the SAS implosion where uh the market started to fear that AI was going to disrupt Oracle's core business. Uh but what we're really seeing is that AI is disrupting the business but in a good way where the AI models aren't really able to to uh to disrupt SAS companies but the SAS companies are able to use AI to help their business. Uh and so with Oracle, its sell-off was also um amplified by its its debt. It took on a lot of debt to to fund its buildout. But if you look at the debt compared to the backlog, uh the backlog is like four, five, six times as much as the debt. And that's just the initial few years of contracted capacity. So longer term, uh the amount of revenue Oracle will be able to generate off of this amount of debt is is like four or five times even greater than what we think it is now. Uh so the long-term outlook is just really huge for Oracle. This is an execution play. The company needs to build the data centers to recognize the revenue that will help it pull down its debt, improve its balance sheet, improve its cash flow, and just really keep that whole cycle going. >> There's a few other stats I want to talk about, too. One is the positive. Looking at their last earnings report was was a good beat for Oracle. Nothing massive like some of the tech companies we've seen, but definitely a beat. Some other things, it doesn't seem like investors are shorting Oracle either, even though it had this this deep decline. The the short interest on this is almost non-existent. But another stat that we often look at that kind of stands out to me with a company as large as Oracle and as popular as Oracle has been is that institutional ownership is still below 50%. It's hovering just above 40% for Oracle right now. Why do you think that big institutional money seems to be staying away or not at least piling on to the Oracle bandwagon? >> Well, that's because uh the the uh the founder and the chairman, the director uh Larry Ellison owns almost all the rest of the shares. So, institutions and insiders own more than 90% of the stock. Um Larry Ellison really isn't selling. Um he he he likes this stock. He's driving it higher. He knows what's happening. Um, so I I would I would look to that um as the answer to that question. Institutions, the interest is low compared to some other stocks, but when it comes to the amount of shares that they can own, they own almost all of them. >> All right, let's talk about timeline for growth for this one. Again, we're on a runup right now after a pretty big downturn for investors. Of course, it would have been a great time to get in when it when Oracle hit the bottom. But is there still plenty of room left to go on Oracle's climb back towards the highs it did see just a few months ago? >> Oh, 100%. We're at 200 bucks right now. Uh the highs are 340. We're going to see those highs probably, you know, probably before the end of next year and then we'll move up to set new highs. Uh what's happening now is, you know, this data center buildout will start getting some new capacity by the end of this year. That's going to give the company some traction, but that traction is going to start gaining momentum in 2027. We're going to start seeing the aggressive recognition of that backlog um in the back half of next year. That's going to give us more traction along the way. We're going to see more positive news as the backlog continues to grow, give us more traction. So, I think that this market is in the early stage of a rebound, a long-term sustained rally, uh that will continue to gain momentum as the year progresses. >> There's certainly a lot of expectation for Oracle right now. If you're an investor who is really interested in this kind of momentum trading, especially in the AI market, make sure to check out Growth Investor. This is Louis Navalier's proprietary system that helped flag Nvidia back when it was still trading around $1. And now Louie and his growth investor newsletter are sharing his top AI pick for 2026. And he is always looking at those growth names that have some major potential momentum ahead. So, if you want to get that name of his top AI pick for 2026 and also become a member of that growth investor newsletter looking for more of those big momentum stories, you can scan the QR code or click the link in the description for a special offer just for our market beat viewers. Again, it's a great way to get a hold of Louis top AI pick for 2026 and stay ahead of more major growth stories in the market. All right, Thomas, let's get back to your list. What is the third stock you are looking at as a buy in June? >> Um well the third stock is Google or Alphabet. This is another AI play. Um a little bit different kind of parallel a little bit different than Oracle though. Uh Google um really in many ways equals the internet. The company not only commands um search but also a lot of the standards that set the internet but also makes or is involved in the construction of um a lot of the hardware and software that drives the internet. It's engaged in all these factors. It's also um a hyperscaler in its own right um providing many um data center services to consumers and enterprises and it is certainly being supported by the AI buildout AI rollout um in June. The specific catalyst is the integration, the roll out of its Gemini model in Apple's Siri. Uh this is going to really uh put it out there in a in a in a way for consumers to really see and experience. Um it should really, you know, drive more adoption of AI in general, but more specifically for Google's AI, which is very easy to access right from the Google main page. Um, so I'm looking for uh the recent business momentum to continue, but also for the upcoming results to show some impact of uh the Siri integration, but also just the generally accelerating AI momentum that we see uh throughout the ecosystem. >> And that momentum is huge. We're already seeing it for sure. Let's talk about that April earnings report before we even start talking about what could happen in July because that late April earnings report for Google was was wild. This was a huge beat. What's behind some of those numbers in their earnings report from this spring? >> Well, basically the company is firing on all cylinders. Uh but similar to to Meta, the application of AI into its into its uh it's its base uh base platform into its search platform is improving results. It's attracting more users and it's generating a higher quality uh revenue and and earnings return for the company. And that's just allowing it uh to invest in all areas of its technological stack, advancing its data center buildout, advancing its AI capacity, you know, throughout the ecosystem. >> And we can see all these good things happening for Google, great earnings, great outlook of what's coming in the future too for earnings. But I want to address what the naysayers might be saying when you look at this chart for a company one as huge as Google. This is a massive company, one of the largest in the market. just how much further can this kind of giant company actually grow? How much more of a return could investors be looking at if you're buying in this summer? >> Well, looking at the technicals, the chart action, and we assume that the market knows all there is to know, uh, this market is gaining momentum. Uh, the action since April, since late March has been very bullish. We've created a very strong rally with the last four weeks being a consolidation. What I see here is a bullish flag pattern forming. Assuming that we get a positive confirmation, which would be a move to a new high, uh we could expect this rally to continue upward. So, this stock could be pushing uh the $600 range, you know, maybe by the end of this year uh by early next year. Certainly, >> that's a lot of growth for again an already massive company. And just a quick look at what analysts are saying about Google 2. uh right now it is soaring above that consensus price target but all of those recent analyst revisions are moving the stock higher. One more on the the other side of this potential story is is there any risk in Google? I know they're a hyperscaler. They're investing all kinds of capital. Uh let's talk about that potential risk. Is there any down the road for Google and how much they're investing right now in this AI story? >> I mean there is risk for Google. Um there's risk for all companies. Uh but Google is to the point in its cycle that uh the risk are limited because there's really not any company that can disrupt it to the point that it takes over Google's business. Some company might come out with some technology that threatens an aspect of Google's business. Google will either work to match it or buy them. Uh so other companies don't have the scope or the scale to be able to do that. Uh they can work as hard as they want to to try to to deceit Google from its throne. Uh, but I don't I don't think that's going to happen. >> All right. Well, we've had a couple of big tech names on this list. I I said earlier that we have a lot of different sectors covered. And the last stock on the list is a very different view than some guests we had on the show just a little while ago. So, let's get to that fourth name that you have on the list. Which sector are we headed to now? >> That fourth stock is Tesla. So, technically an NI play. Uh, this catalyst is driven more in its um in its car technology. Uh right now what we're looking at is um ramping production of its of its semi and also the expected or the anticipated full approval of full self-driving in the EU. Uh both of those things will help uh to juice the long-term revenue outlook and affirm the company's technology and its its recent uh expenses and R&D expenses. >> It's interesting that we're talking about Tesla for the the car aspect of the company because it's rarely been the reason we talk about Tesla on this channel. Usually people say, "Well, it's good for these reasons, not the car part of Tesla's business." Uh, but I do think that that semi- angle and the the newly automated driving approvals are are a big factor of potential growth for this company. Let's talk about the other growth potential. I Let's talk about the robots, the Optimus. Let's also talk about uh what's happening with Space X. Is that a potential catalyst for Tesla this summer? >> Well, that's another good point to bring up. I think that longer term SpaceX could be a very big catalyst for Tesla. Uh because the chatter that I've started to hear now is that Musk's ultimate goal will be to combine Tesla and SpaceX. Um to me that seems like a smart move on his part. He likes to be in control of what's going on. Um he has controlling ownership of both companies. Um ultimately all these technologies are kind of funneling together to help advance the space race because he really wants to go to space and colonize Mars. And what do you need more for colonization of space than electric vehicles? Um, and then robots and other technologies to support those things. Uh, so I think over time that's that's that's probably going to happen. >> We've had people on this channel talking about that exact speculation that eventually this will be one large company all under the Elon Empire. Let's talk a little bit more about how big of a deal it is to see more countries approving the autonomous driving factor. not only countries but the individual consumer companies who would be using semis to transport their goods. Do you think they're going to be slow to adopt this still relatively new technology uh until they see the proof in the product >> right now? These are two different catalysts. Uh the semi-production is for these long haul trucks and they're starting to ramp productions. Uh the full self-driving is more focused in the in the commercial in the um the passenger vehicles. uh they've gotten approval in the Netherlands and you know based on EU laws, regulations, uh Netherland approval paves the way for accelerated approvals throughout the EU. Uh what this does for for for Tesla isn't so much as expanding its ability to sell cars, but it does open up a new revenue stream. uh because the company is shifting from a one-time a one payment for full self-driving to a subscription service which means that they would open up a new recurring revenue stream for owners of these vehicles. >> One other question, a more sensitive question on Tesla, but it was part of Tesla's story over the last two years or so was the geopolitical tensions of of uh Elon Musk tying himself to an administration that geopolitically has been challenging. Are any of those factors, those headline factors still impacting Tesla at all? Have we seen that shown up in the in the price or in the, you know, the the boycotts of Tesla vehicles or or do you think that the the market, the consumer has gotten over that and is is back on to uh that not really overshadowing the demand for Tesla vehicles? >> Yeah, I think the market's kind of gotten over that. uh the impact on on sales may linger because of the um the incentives that were removed. Uh but I think uh you know that the personal the Musk Trump thing has kind of passed. Um I haven't seen much about it in the news recently and and I haven't thought about it myself very much recently. Um I will say that you know Elon Musk is as eccentric as ever. Uh people that hate him probably hate him more than they did you know before the event and people that like him might like him more. I think that's a great way to put that this company and this this CEO as well. Uh so Tesla is on your buy list in June. Before we move on, let's look at the chart action a little bit. This one is always volatile. There's always moves in it. What do you think about where the chart is today? >> Uh well, it looks like this market is trying to move higher. We're certainly strengthening on the support end. Um resistance is still up there in the, you know, 440 to 480 range, but it looks like we'll be testing that level pretty soon. uh we get some positive news uh good results, improvement in profitability, some you know new pathway to revenue opening up uh this stock could easily move above uh the 500 level and set new highs. >> Always interesting to talk about Tesla. But speaking of this company and its CEO Elon Musk, let's talk about that SpaceX IPO for a minute. I know our crew at Market Beat just put together a special report on the seven best space stocks to invest in before this IPO hits. These names have crazy momentum right now, and it's a really great growth story for the summer, too. Scan the QR code or click the link in the description to get that free report right now on marketbeat.com. All right, Thomas, let's get to this last name on your list. I am excited to hear your reason for why this is a buy right now because it was just on our show a couple of days ago as a stock to sell. >> Well, right, that's Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and really it's for a lot of the same factors that's driving Delta Airlines and that's record demand and improving capacity. So, they've got the demand that come into the summer with record levels of bookings. They've got the capacity to meet that demand. They've got pricing power. Um in the early season early earnings report, they raised their guidance. I'm expecting to see that, you know, follow through with another strong report and uh and see another strong guidance. Um as we were saying before, you know, people are really enjoying the experiences more than the things. And uh cruises are to me a very value uh a valueoriented way to travel. I mean, you may not see the location as well as you might want to if you were to just go and stay in a hotel, but you have a lot of inclusives, a lot of um a lot of amenities, lots of reasons to enjoy yourself while you're on the cruise. Uh so really, I do expect to see the cruise lines continue to be strong over the summer. >> Yeah. One of the arguments against Royal Caribbean was that yes, people are still traveling. Yes, they are still choosing to to book these cruises, but as consumers become more cautious, they're they're opting for more budget cruise lines versus what Royal Caribbean might be at as that more middle to to upper luxury line compared to some of the other cruise lines out there. What are your thoughts about that? >> Well, I mean, Trading Den only gets you so far. Um, you know, Carnival is a great cruise line, too, but it's got a totally different atmosphere. Uh people that don't want to be in the middle of a college frat party are probably going to choose a different cruise line. >> I think that's someone that sounds like some experience talking there, Thomas, about which cruise lines you prefer. For sure. Let's talk about the books for Royal Caribbean. The actual number of bookings they're having in their earnings report. There has been a pretty significant turnaround for the stock and becoming far more profitable really ever since that co decline. The bookings for this spring and summer are well ahead of historical historical norms. We're at record levels and uh right now what we're seeing is onboard spending is also at record levels. So we have this dual tail tailwind of of traffic but also of consumers spending money on the boats. Uh to me this is just a win-win. >> That's so interesting of record consumer spending on the boat at a time when we're seeing retail spending pull back. So people don't want to spend when they're at home at their their their regular stores, but if they're on vacation, seems like the money is flowing. So that that says something about our economy and where we are right now. I think that's interesting in of itself. But let's talk about as investors looking at Royal Caribbean right now. Are you concerned at all about the the economic factors and the impact that could potentially have on the stock? >> Uh yeah, oil prices will have an impact on the stock. The company has cautioned some on on its earnings guidance. Uh but in the realm of um the cruise ships, Royal Caribbean tends to have a lower exposure to oil price spikes than some of the other other cruise lines. Um and they've been pretty effective with hedging their their positions um over the last few years and have helped um mitigate those costs to to a great deal. >> Let's talk about the volatility that we've seen in recent weeks with this stock chart. What's behind some of the ups and downs that we've seen? I think some of the ups and downs may be tied to the uh the conflict in Iran and with the rise in oil prices. Um it certainly presents a headwind for sentiment if not for the actual results. Uh but what I'm seeing in the charts is uh pretty strong support around 260 and right now we're rebounding from that level. Uh we're looking for uh strong results over the summer. I think this market could be heading higher. At the same time, you know, analysts are still very bullish and they've been raising their price targets. uh they're looking at a 25% price increase from the 280 level. Uh so altogether I think that we're just looking at higher higher RCL prices by summer's end. >> All right. Always good to hear a different perspective on the same stock. If you want to hear what our guest had to say about Royal Caribbean and why it made their don't buy list the same week, make sure to watch that full interview here. Again, one of my favorite things about the channel is you hear lots of different perspectives and you get to make your own decisions on how to invest.