Wedding Season: Celebrating Our Top Stock Picks at the Halfway Point of 2026

Plus, some reflections on an end of an era..

We’re now more than halfway through 2026. We’re also halfway through wedding season.

Thanks to Wedding Crashers coming out when I was an impressionable 17 year old, I always looked forward to weddings as an adult. They may be exhausting but at the end of the day, you cannot beat celebrating among friends, family, and loved ones. My own wedding remains the best day/weekend of my life.

I’ve been mopey all week because the last of our college friend group just got married. Going to a small liberal arts school and playing a sport meant lots of friendships spread across four years. That also meant from ages 25-36, a LOT of weddings. The next one was always around the corner.

Until now. It felt like the ending scene in Stranger Things.

For the past few days, I’ve been mourning the end of our group’s wedding era. There will always be weddings, but never with that entire crew under one roof. We’ll all obviously see each other again, but not in such numbers, hopped up that magical potion of nostalgia, celebration, and free alcohol.

Weddings are a chance for exhausted parents to get a sitter for the weekend and let loose with their oldest friends, unburdened by life’s usual responsibilities. Where small talk is replaced with nothing substantial, just an immediate reassembly of dynamics, a reheating of old bits. And at the end of the night or weekend, we all Irish goodbye and return to our group texts, where 50% of plans never leave the chat.

But people always show up to weddings. Coming to grips that I’ll never share the dance floor with that certain group of idiots is just another sign of how fast life moves. The end of the era has been equal-parts depressing and inspiring, in that the spice of life is maintaining these bonds through the trials and tribulations of adulthood.

If you’re reading this and are in the middle of wedding era, cherish it. If you’re past that stage, call up your buddies right now and catch up. And if somehow you’ve yet to enter it, I envy you.

If any of you morons are reading this, I love you.

Now. What on EARTH does this have to do with stocks?

Because I refuse to let wedding season die, I’m going to review our Top Stock Picks of 2026 under the guise of my favorite wedding songs. I hope this list causes strife, because it has been painstakingly curated.

There is no Mr. Brightside (my wife and I HATE it and leave the dancefloor in a dramatic huff). These are the songs that resonate most with me at weddings, and it just so happened that many of them reflect how our Stock Picks of 2026 are performing.

Here’s how our picks have done two quarters in:

• Nine of the 15 are in the black

• Year-to-date equal-weighted return: +21.17%

• Q1 YTD equal-weighed return: -0.2%

• Four stocks pivoted from red to green from Q1 to Q2

• 11 stocks gained overall ground from Q1 to Q2

Now, let’s head to the dance floor.

---

Some of these work, and some are absolute reaches. Bear with me

Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM)

Kesha, ft. Pitbull— Timber

We’re goin’ down. I’m yellin timberrrr. Agnico Eagle Mines’ (AEM) Q2 is what happens when you tie yourself to a commodity. Gold was the darling of Q1 but has completely shut down since, and miners like AEM paid the price. Here’s hoping $150 holds (gold did reclaim $3k this week, so there’s that)

Baidu BIDU)

Shakira—Hips Don’t Lie

More like dips don’t lie, amirite?! China-based BIDU fought its way back from one dip already in 2026, can the e-commerce name do it again?

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)

The Proclaimers, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)

Probably not a stock (or song) that’s for everybody, but it gets the job done (the crowd singing). In a world of growth stocks and exciting technology, there’s BMY, humming along.

Cameco (CCJ)

John Denver, Country Roads

Even if you don’t like country, roads, country roads, or West Virginia, this song just sucks you in. It doesn’t feel like a wedding song, until it is. The same can be said for uranium and CCJ. I’m watching that trendline of higher lows, hoping it takes me home to the place where I belong.

Colgate-Palmolive (CL)

ABBA—Dancing Queen

Right now, CL is having the time of its life, trading at its highest level since March 5. $100, which was a pipe dream in Q1, is now within reach.

CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP)

The Isley Brothers, Shout

The gene-editing staple has added 9.4% in the first two days of July and is currently trading at its highest level since March 4. Keep an eye on the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) creeping up to 75, but with nearly 30% of its total available float sold short, CRSP is one post-earnings pop away from entering another stratosphere. And that makes me want to kick my heels up and shout.

DigitalOcean Holdings (DOCN)

Neil Diamond—Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good for DOCN. The top-performing pick of the report, with plenty of contrarian potential left, to boot. The RSI is almost somehow “oversold,” the 80-day moving average is stepping up, and the pullback is running out of steam at its prior highs.

So good, so good, so good.

Dollar Tree (DLTR)

Usher ft. Lil John, Yeah

Appreciated by a certain generation, a little confusing to others. Kind of like discount retailers. Nevertheless, you kind of need it in the rotation. DLTR has fought its way back to breakeven for the year.

Energy Vault Holdings (NRGV)

Journey—Don’t Stop Believin’

Finished Q1 as one of the worst-performers, and has halved those losses since. And that’s even with a 16.3% post-earnings selloff on May 6. Watch that 200-day moving average and don’t stop believing in double digits.

GigaCloud Technology (GCT)

Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz—Get Low

From trading as high as $51.86 on April 17 to $33.24 as of this writing, no stock has gotten lower as quickly. The good news? At least the 320-day moving average (roughly coinciding with that trendline connecting lows) is stepping up.

IonQ (IONQ)

Mark Morrison—Return of the Mack

IONQ is the mack daddy of the quantum computing sector. And it sure has returned. IonQ made up for lost time in Q2, adding over 113% in April and May, thanks in large part to the Trump administration backing quantum computing. What’s crazy about that two-month run is sandwiched between it is a 9.3% post-earnings selloff on May 7. Watch round-number $50 during this inevitable rotation.

Stake For Dinner: How Government Deals Have Impacted Stocks

Nebius Group NV (NBIS)

Marvin Gaye—Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

Had to reserve one of the best-performing stocks a timeless Motown classic about mountain top peaks. No wind, no rain here. Winter’s cold (this 28% pullback) can’t stop NBIS. I’m confident in that 50-day trendline, and short interest near 52-week highs.

Tetra Technologies (TTI)

Whitney Houston, I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Hazardous waste engineering stock TTI briefly filled the 18.7% post-earnings selloff from Feb. 26. But the uptrend is still there, as is the contrarian potential. I want to feel the heat of this rally.

QuantumScape (QS)

Bon Jovi—Livin’ on a Prayer

QS never really got off the bus this year. Seven-straight weekly wins from April through May was then followed by a 15.8% loss in June. A top-line beat from the lithium battery producer only resulted in a muted 1.2% post-earnings move, and the trendline from November highs to the 2026 peak in June is firmly intact. Per the chart below, maybe a floor at $7 steps up, and there’s still massive short squeeze potential. But we’re livin’ on a prayer.

VELO 3D (VELO)

Earth, Wind, and Fire—September

I’m never wrong, just early. My exact words, back on April 2, were ‘watch this space for a melt-up.’ The 3D-printing stock bounced off a stable floor at $10, an area – we called as a floor -- that roughly coincides with its 200-day moving average. Then, a 49.4% post-earnings explosion from May 13 reset expectations, with the Velo trading as high as $31.75 on June 11.

Keep on keepin on