Research firm Citrini sees airlines, assisted living and other sectors as overlooked
International World Cup fans have been falling in love with America. Citrini says that's a boost for beleaguered airlines.
If the recent tech selloff dented some confidence around the artificial intelligence trade, Micron Technology may have just restored it, with futures pointing to a powerful tech rally after blowout results from the memory maker.
However, our call of the day from Citrini Research, says with nearly all investor attention focused on the AI trade for the past few years, it's looking crowded to say the least.
"We think the risk of 'AI exhaustion' is high and it's probable that we will see some degree of rotation into things that people have seemingly stopped caring about," said Citrini, the author of a viral AI Doomsday report earlier this year.
In a report that published Wednesday, Citrini revisits a few "small themes" that aren't big or market-disrupting, but "below-the-radar narratives in less popular sectors that can surprise."
First up is airlines, which the firm expects to benefit from capacity constraints as well as renewed travel interest in the wake of World Cup fans posting love stories about America on social media. Citrini says as oil prices normalize "we think tourism to the U.S. will see a sustained uplift," and spark airlines to start cycling higher.
The second theme is senior living as the oldest baby boomers hit 80 this year. Occupancy in senior housing hit 89.5% in the first quarter, the 19th consecutive quarterly increase, while supply collapsed. The incremental dollars from rising occupancy are "crazy high margin significant." On the shopping list: REITs and operators like Welltower $(WELL)$, Brookdale Senior Living $(BKD)$ and Janus Living (JAN). While those have performed well recently, they're still playing catch-up from years of underperformance.
Live events is also on the radar for Citrini as "physical presence became a luxury good," over the past few years. "Sports franchises, and to a greater extent - all IRL [in real life] events - are benefiting from a desire to be present. With that comes an increased opportunity to monetize through attendance, premiumization, and promotion," said the researchers.
Live Nation $(LYV)$, TKO Group $(TKO)$, Atlanta Braves $(BATRK)$, Madison Square Garden $(MSGS)$ and Formula One $(FWONK)$ and even Imax $(IMAX)$- "the future of moviegoing" - are among their top picks.
Financial exchanges are another overlooked theme, as Citrini sees "CME's monopoly coming to an end" due to a landmark shift in March 2026 when S&P Dow Jones Indices licensed the a 24/7 equity-index perpetual. They suggest investors short incumbent players like CME $(CME)$, CBOE $(CBOE)$ and ICE $(ICE)$, and buy adopters chipping directly at that monopoly - Robinhood (HOOD) and Coinbase (COIN), along with index-license toll takers such as S&P Global $(SPGI)$.
The final theme is buy-now-pay-later companies, unloved and branded by some as "the next domino to fall," alongside private credit. Citrini pushed back, flagging a "fundamental misunderstanding of the business model." Under U.S. GAAP accounting, these lenders must make upfront provisions for credit losses and revenue recognition happens over the life of the loan. Citrini suggests looking at Klarna $(KLAR)$, Sezzle $(SEZL)$and Affirm (AFRM).
The markets
U.S. stock futures (ES00) (YM00) (NQ00) are higher, led by tech, and oil prices (CL.1) (BRN00) are dropping. Stocks in Japan JP:NIK and Korea KR:180721 surged.
Key asset performance Last 5d 1m YTD 1y S&P 500 7358.22 -0.83% -2.16% 7.49% 20.78% Nasdaq Composite 25,476.64 -2.09% -4.49% 9.61% 27.55% 10-year Treasury 4.413 -4.70 -3.50 24.10 17.40 Gold 4004.9 -5.27% -11.54% -7.56% 19.85% Oil 69.49 -7.98% -21.51% 21.04% 6.55% Data: MarketWatch. Treasury yields change expressed in basis points
The buzz
Driving those tech gains is Micron stock $(MU)$, poised for its best post-earnings performance ever after the memory-chip maker reported blowout profit and revenue growth.
Qualcomm $(QCOM)$ at its investor day quantified its planned diversification from its handset business.
Personal consumption expenditure price index data for May, weekly jobless claims, durable-goods orders and a first-quarter gross domestic product revision are due at 8:30 a.m. The Treasury will announce results of a $44 billion 7-year note auction at 1 p.m.
IBM $(IBM)$ announced the first sub-nanometer microchip.
Germany's Merck KGaA said it's buying life-science tool maker Bio-Techne $(TECH)$ for $11.3 billion, or $73 per share, in cash.
Passive income is the new American dream.
The chart
The chart shared by tech newsletter author and AI critic Ed Zitron is from SoftBank's recent annual shareholder meeting. The company portrays itself as the goose and its portfolio companies as eggs with a message that seems to be saying SoftBank is worth more than investors believe. Each egg is worth 1 trillion Japanese yen. "So the things that you have to count is not only the number of golden eggs that you see now, but you have to look at potential eggs that the goose can lay in the future, that are data centers and everything." SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said, according to a FactSet transcript. "You have to find the value of the goose because the goose has the capacity to keep laying eggs for 40 years." The Japanese investment group (JP:9984), which invests in OpenAI and controls U.K. microprocessor designer Arm $(ARM)$, is one of the country's biggest companies by market cap, with shares up 189% in one year.
Top tickers
These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m.:
Ticker Security name MU Micron SPCX SpaceX NVDA Nvidia TSLA Tesla TSM Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing AMD Advanced Micro Devices MSFT Microsoft INTC Intel GME GameStop SNDK Sandisk
Never mind the World Cup, when the World Stinging Nettles Eating Championship is on.
-Barbara Kollmeyer
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June 25, 2026 07:10 ET (11:10 GMT)
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