Disney (DIS) is cruising for a higher stock price this summer, according to Jefferies analyst James Heaney.

Heaney lifted his rating on Disney to Buy from Hold on Monday. His new price target of $144 assumes 18% upside ahead from the entertainment giant's current level of $124.84 per share.

Yahoo Finance data shows Heaney is now one of the most bullish on the Street with respect to Disney.

"We upgrade Disney to Buy for four primary reasons: 1) Now see limited risk of a second half parks slowdown from Epic Universe/Macro [economy]; 2) More positive on FY26 cruise [business] upside, Jefferies estimates $1 billion plus revenue uplift; 3) Continued direct-to-consumer margin expansion (0% FY24 to 13% plus by FY28 estimate); 4) View next six months content and sports slate favorably, including ESPN direct-to-consumer launch, Zootopia 2 and Avatar 3," Heaney wrote.

Disney stock rose 2% in premarket trading on Monday. The stock is up 10% year to date, compared with a 4% advance for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI).

"Disney has failed to grow operating income in FY16-FY24, but we believe this dynamic is set to change," Heaney added.

His more bullish stance on Disney comes despite several headwinds facing the media giant.

First, the media industry itself continues to face upheaval.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) said this month it will split up amid a shift to streaming that has financially hammered its legacy TV assets. The company joins rival Comcast (CMCSA) in separating TV operations from streaming assets. Meanwhile, Paramount (PARA) is still trying to close its merger deal with Skydance.

Disney has repeatedly said it has no desire to spin off its TV networks, such as ABC, despite the industry challenges that have weighed on sales and profits.

"I think it's harder [to split up] than most people realize. And the interesting thing is, for the past five to 10 years, we have been putting them together — linear TV content creates the streaming content. Now all of that has changed," former BET CEO and current Warner Bros. Discovery board member Debra Lee told Yahoo Finance earlier in June.

Second, Disney is still smack in the middle of appointing a CEO to succeed Bob Iger.

Four internal candidates are reportedly being considered for the coveted position, which Iger held from 2005 to 2020 before returning in November 2022. Those four are entertainment division co-chiefs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, parks division head Josh D'Amaro, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.

Walden and D'Amaro are rumored to be top contenders.

It's the leftover economy headed into July 4 grilling season.

"There's more going on than just consumers focusing on leftovers. We see a big convergence right now. Consumers seeking value but also health and wellness. And it's really creating a lot of growth opportunity for McCormick," McCormick (MKC) CEO Brendan Foley said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid (watch above).

Foley added that consumers are looking for value in flavor products and buying bigger sizes. They're also purchasing more meat and produce to make meals at home.

"They're making more trips to the grocery store, maybe putting a few items fewer in the basket. But largely they're still exploring with flavor, and they still need flavor," he said.

With shoppers battling higher prices for everything from sneakers to snack foods in part due to tariffs, growth continues to be a tough slog for packaged food players such as McCormick.

McCormick's second fiscal quarter sales rose 1% from the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share was unchanged year over year but beat analyst estimates by $0.04.

Sales for the consumer segment rose 2.9%, powered by demand for hot sauce and mustard.

The flavor solutions segment, which supplies products to restaurants, remained under pressure. Sales for the segment dropped 1.3% from a year ago.

"Broad weak CPG and QSR trends remain a watch-out in the Flavor Solutions business, but despite the softer environment, margin progression remains on track," Stifel analyst Matthew Smith wrote in a note.

Smith maintained a Hold rating on McCormick shares.

For the full fiscal year, McCormick forecasts sales to range from flat to up 2% year over year. Adjusted operating profits are expected to jump 3% to 5% as the company pushes through price increases.

Podcast: Visa's chief economist on one of the biggest consumer shifts he is seeing

This week, fellow food player General Mills (GIS) warned that more-cautious shoppers are pressuring sales of cereal and snack foods. The company missed profit estimates and had an underwhelming earnings call.

Investors have generally soured on Big Food stocks amid the various headwinds on the business and relatively high valuation multiples, which are partly driven by their often-defensive business models in times of weak economic growth.

McCormick shares are up 1.7% year to date relative to a 4.5% advance for the S&P 500 (^GSPC). Campbell's (CPB) shares are down 26%, and Kraft Heinz (KHC) is off by 16%. PepsiCo's (PEP) stock is hovering near a 52-week low after a 15% decline this year.

Coinbase (COIN) and Circle (CRCL) shares rose sharply on Thursday as both the crypto exchange and the stablecoin issuer emerged as major winners of growing enthusiasm around digital tokens.

Coinbase gained 5% to notch its first all-time high since November 2021. The stock has surged more than 40% since the Senate passed the GENIUS Act last week. The landmark legislation is aimed at establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins, digital tokens backed by assets such as the US dollar and short-term treasuries.

Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani this week dubbed Coinbase the "Amazon of crypto financial services." His team raised their price target on the stock to a Street high of $510 from $310, with an Outperform rating.

On Thursday, shares traded near $375 each, more than 950% above their "crypto winter" lows in late 2022 following the collapse of FTX.

Today, analysts point to Coinbase's buildout of a suite of crypto financial services beyond trading, including the stablecoin industry. Earlier this month, shopping platform Shopify (SHOP) partnered with Coinbase and payment processing company Stripe (STRI.PVT) to launch digital wallet stablecoin payments, allowing merchants to accept the tokens globally.

Read more about Coinbase and Circle's stock moves and today's market action.

Meanwhile, shares of Circle, of which Coinbase owns a minority stake, have also soared.

The stock is now up more than 575% from its IPO price of $31 per share as investors bet on the rapid global adoption of the company's flagship product, USDC stablecoins.

"We view Circle as a top-tier crypto 'disruptor' with a sizeable future opportunity," Jeff Cantwell wrote last week. The firm sees "the stablecoin 'market cap' potentially reaching $2T over the longer-term, from roughly $260B today."

Momentum around Circle has also been fueled by a wave of new stablecoin initiatives from major financial players.

Read more: Can you buy crypto with a credit card? See the pros and cons.

On Monday, fintech firm Fiserv (FI) announced plans to launch a digital asset platform, including a new stablecoin (FIUSD) by the end of this year using existing infrastructure from issuers Paxos and Circle.

One analyst, however, warned of possible share price pressures later this year as competition in the stablecoin space intensifies.

"We expect competition to accelerate after stablecoin legislation passes," Compass Point analyst Ed Engel wrote in a note Tuesday. "This influx of competition could reduce long-term market share expectations and pressure CRCL shares in 2025."

Nvidia (NVDA) stock continued to tick higher Thursday, rising about 0.5% after notching a record high above $154 the prior day.

The gains come amid bullish predictions for the AI chip market on Wall Street.

Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah on Wednesday raised his price target on Nvidia shares to $250, the highest of Wall Street analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance, implying that the AI chipmaker's market capitalization could soar to $6 trillion. Baruah expects the market for AI chips to grow to $2 trillion in 2028.

Baruah said that "we are entering the next 'Golden Wave' of Gen AI adoption and NVDA is at the front-end of another material leg of stronger than anticipated demand." He cited emerging demand for AI chips from governments, commitments from Big Tech "hyperscalers," and the availability of Nvidia's latest Blackwell AI chips.

"While it may seem fantastic that NVDA fundamentals can continue to amplify from current levels, we remind folks that NVDA remains essentially a monopoly for critical tech, and that it has pricing (and margin) power," he wrote.

Read more about Nvidia's stock moves and today's market action.

Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya wrote in his own note to investors Wednesday that he forecasts demand for AI chips reaching a more modest but still impressive $650 billion by 2030, up from $201 billion in 2025. Arya said Nvidia is set to be a "key beneficiary" as it's "still far ahead" of new entrants in the sector.

In another bullish sign for Nvidia, Micron (MU), which supplies memory chips for Nvidia's GPUs in data centers, beat Wall Street's expectations for its third quarter earnings results Wednesday, with executives citing strength in its AI business amid robust AI data center growth during a call with analysts.

To be sure, there has been investor skepticism over whether Big Tech can continue its torrid pace of investment in AI, as companies are still working out how to monetize the technology. That skepticism was amplified when a new cost-effective AI model from Chinese firm DeepSeek caught the world’s attention in January. News of DeepSeek’s latest AI model in January sent Nvidia shares plummeting at the end of that month.

Before its high Wednesday, Nvidia last hit a record close of $149.43 on Jan. 6. Nvidia stock had struggled in the months following its record close in January with the emergence of DeepSeek and as President Trump embarked on his trade war, which included the enactment of a ban on sales of the company's chips to China.

It’s a huge week for Formula One, but the action isn’t on the racetrack.

“F1 The Movie” premiered in the US this Friday, June 27. The blockbuster with a rumored $200 million production budget backed by Apple (AAPL) and distributed by Warner Bros. (WBD) aims for glory in the highly competitive summer release calendar. As of Saturday, the movie was on track for a $140 million global opening weekend.

The film is based on a tried-but-true formula (forgive the pun). Fictional aging racer Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is brought on to an upstart team to help guide its rookie driver, but along the way he comes face to face with his own personal demons, and of course redemption.

But that's the boring part. What has everyone, or at least car buffs, salivating is the access the filmmakers had to the sport: filming at real races using real F1 cars and technology, embedding themselves in the sport, and capturing footage that brings the viewer right into the driver's seat.

A movie like this, especially with a big focus on the US audience, would have been a surprise only a few years ago.

Part of this is because F1 — considered the most technically advanced, and glamorous, racing league — is finally growing in the US. In 2024, the sport reached about 30 million viewers across ESPN (DIS) platforms, with an average of 1.1 million viewers per race during the season. That's pretty good for a sport that used to count viewers in the thousands less than ten years ago.

US fans, who discovered the sport and grew with it as shows like Netflix’s (NFLX) “Drive to Survive” brought drivers into viewers' living rooms, have become a coveted group to market. That's both for the sport, which is owned by Liberty Media (FWONK), and the many brands that have now signed on as sponsors.

“[The F1] fanbase across the world is over 800 million; fanbase in the US is 50 million. But the really important thing is doubling year on year,” said James Vowles, the head of Williams F1 and a former longtime Mercedes team exec. “So great trajectory commercially, and if we look at all of the partners and sponsors that we have, a third of them are from the US, which just tells you how important it is.”

Moviegoers, from the hardcore F1 fans to those who just want to see Brad Pitt drive a race car, will be most impressed by how close the filmmakers were to the sport in capturing the action.

“It's not a documentary, but it is authentic to us as a sport,” Vowles said. “[Producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer], [director] Joe [Kosinski], and the team were really, really impressive at integrating themselves across [the last two seasons], such that as far as I went, we had an 11th team alongside us. It was really seamless in terms of integration.”

Tesla's (TSLA) recent high-profile robotaxi test in Austin, Texas, comes as more negative data emerges in its core auto business, with the company's stock dropping in the process.

Per the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Tesla EV registrations (a proxy for sales) in Europe fell 27.9% to 13,863 in May compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, overall EV registrations in the region, which includes the UK and the European Free Trade Association, rose 25% in May, with overall registrations down 0.6%.

May's total marks the fifth straight month of declining Tesla sales in the European region. May's total was better than the fall seen in April, however, when sales dropped a whopping 49% year over year.

Tesla stock was down over 5% in early trade.

Read more about Tesla's stock moves and today's market action.

The wider availability of the Tesla Model Y may have helped, but sales numbers in May were down compared to April. Tesla sales year to date in Europe through May are down 37.1% to 75,196 units.

Reuters' report of country-specific data was not confidence-building. France's PFA national auto lobby reported new Tesla registrations dropped 67% in May to 721 units, with overall sales down 47% year to date. Mobility Sweden reported Tesla EV registrations tumbled 53.7% to 503 units in the country in May from a year earlier.

Reuters reported Tesla registrations fell 30.5% in Denmark, 36% in the Netherlands, 19% in Spain, and a massive 68% in Portugal. Norway was the only territory in Europe to show sales gains for May.

Demand weakness in the EU came after CEO Elon Musk's foray into Trump administration politics, causing some Tesla owners to become disillusioned with him, specifically by his right-leaning tendencies, support of right-wing leaders in Europe, and leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US.

Musk's recent return to his businesses from politics is seen as a welcome move, per analysts, including Wedbush's Dan Ives, but many wonder if Musk's escapades will permanently damage Tesla's reputation. Musk's recent attacks on President Trump now have both liberals and conservatives upset with the mercurial CEO.

Tesla does not report sales by region or monthly, meaning next week's second quarter production and delivery report will be a big one.

Read more: How to avoid Tesla car insurance sticker shock

Last week, Wells Fargo's Colin Langan wrote in a note to investors that Tesla's fundamentals are coming in worse than expected. The bank is expecting second quarter deliveries to be down 21% compared to a year ago, with the firm's 343,000 estimate approximately 17% below the Street consensus of 411,000.

Circle (CRCL) stock fell 15% on Tuesday, retreating from a stunning rally fueled by optimism over stablecoin regulation and adoption, as Wall Street shifted its focus to the rising risk of competition in the digital token space.

Shares of the issuer of the USDC stablecoin (USDC-USD) snapped a three-day winning streak to close just above $223. The stock soared after the Senate passed the GENIUS Act last week — legislation that would establish a federal framework for digital tokens backed by assets such as the US dollar.

“In the near term, we expect CRCL to continue trading off bullish momentum around stablecoin adoption,” Compass Point analyst Ed Engel wrote in a note Tuesday.

But the same regulatory clarity that lifted Circle shares is also expected to open the floodgates for new competition once the bill is finalized later this summer, Engel wrote.

“We expect competition to accelerate after stablecoin legislation passes,” Engel wrote. “This influx of competition could reduce long-term market share expectations and pressure CRCL shares in 2025.”

Engel and his team initiated coverage of the stock with a Neutral rating and $205 price target.

Circle generates most of its revenue from "reserve income" — interest earned on assets backing its USDC stablecoin, a large part of which are short-term US Treasurys.

The company also earns income from services such as blockchain integration, where developers pay Circle to integrate USDC into their applications, and also fees for redeeming USDC for dollars.

Engel emphasized that distribution will be the key driver of market share growth going forward, especially as more regulated companies begin launching their own stablecoins.

"Circle already pays ~60% of reserve revenue to distribution partners, primarily to Coinbase but more recently Binance," Engel wrote. "While Coinbase and Binance are ideal partners for capturing demand from crypto speculators, we believe USDC needs to partner with mainstream businesses to capture market share within payments."

On Monday, fintech firm Fiserv (FI) announced plans to launch a digital asset platform, including a new stablecoin (FIUSD) by the end of this year using existing infrastructure from issuers Paxos and Circle.

"For CRCL, we like seeing its inclusion as a leading partner of FI as FI develops its own stablecoin — this is a nice 'win' for CRCL which highlights the company's ongoing rise," Seaport Research Partners analyst Jeff Cantwell wrote in a note on Monday.

Last week, Cantwell initiated coverage on Circle with a Buy rating and a $235 price target. Shares have soared roughly 620% from their IPO price of $31 on June 5.