Best stocks: Entertainment stocks are unlikely winners this year — One to watch if it can break $120

CNBC

23-06-2025

(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — Sometimes I'm surprised by what's working in the market. If I had to guess, I probably would not have picked entertainment-related companies to be among the best industry groups in the S & P 500 on a year-to-date basis and neither would you have. And that's despite the fact that we've been writing about Spotify and Netflix here an awful lot. Turns out there's more to the story than just those two tickers, as Sean will reveal. Within that group of names, Disney (DIS) popped onto our list as Wall Street begins to give the company more credit for its 125 million global Disney Plus subscribers, 12% market share in streaming video on demand (SVOD) and almost $3 billion in streaming revenue in the first quarter of this year. We'll show you the chart below, but first some Best Stocks stats: Sector Leaderboard As of 6/23/2025 morning, there are 115 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list Top Sector Ranking: Top Industries: Top 5 Best Stocks by Relative Strength: Sector Spotlight: Entertainment Sean — Within S & Ps classification, companies like Disney , Live Nation , and Roblox all land within the entertainment sector, which interestingly is not in the consumer discretionary sector, but is classified as communications. The lines between media, technology, and communication have blurred. From Netflix's growing streaming platform to Roblox's virtual worlds and Live Nation's global concert footprint, these platforms have become less cyclical. We highlighted this defensive trait in some of these stocks in our first piece for The Best Stocks in the Market. We aren't just seeing less volatility in these stocks — we're seeing growth. Just last week, Roblox hit a new all-time high for concurrent users with 25.8M players utilizing the platform at the same time. Nielsen just put out rankings and data for television inclusive of streaming platforms, and 50% of the top 10 best performing shows (ranked by viewers over a 35 day period) came from Netflix. The entertainment industry has done quite well despite the increased recession risk. Looking at every entertainment-classified stock in the S & P 500 (there are 10), the median year-to-date return is 17.5%. The median return for a stock in the S & P 500 is less than 1%. Ninety percent of the entertainment industry within the S & P 500 is within 10% of a 52 week high, the only stock not within a 52 week high is Warner Brothers (WBD). Only 35% of the S & P 500 is within 10% of 52 week highs. We currently have 7 entertainment industry stocks on our list: Disney, Liberty Media , Live Nation, Netflix, Roblox, Spotify, and Take-Two Interactive . Disney makes the list This is a 5 year price chart for Disney: It has been a struggle for Disney, but the stock just rocketed off its early April lows. If the stock can meaningfully break out above that $120 level, there is a ton of room for the stock to run. Disney is dominating the box office thus far. Three of the top 5 best performing movies this year are Disney releases. Lilo & Stitch is the second best movie grossing $386M, Captain America: Brave New World is 4th taking in $200M, and Thunderbolts is in the 5th spot at $189.5M. This industry has quietly become one of the strongest performers in the S & P 500 this year. With user growth accelerating on platforms like Roblox, dominant streaming engagement from Netflix, and a resurgent box office led by Disney, this group is performing well in what has been a challenging environment for consumer-sensitive names. Risk management: Josh — Let's keep this one simple. The $120 level is resistance. You can see that clearly in the chart below. Each attempt to get above was smacked down as the sellers swamped the buyers. That will happen until it doesn't, and then look out. I'm showing you a longer term chart here because I want you to see the whole consolidation. I'd use the $100 level as my line in the sand. If it gets below there the momentum is dead — that's the market telling you to look for a better set-up. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. 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