Analysts think that consumer-facing names should see the biggest tailwind, led by travel, leisure, media, and beverages, as fans flock to host cities and tune in and gather in groups worldwide. Airlines, hotels, and booking platforms have already pointed to a benefit with more international travel booked this summer in comparison to last year. Meanwhile, advertising-exposed media groups and broadcasters could also profit from premium pricing on live sports inventory, while digital platforms capture brand spend tied to real-time engagement and betting. Payment networks and card issuers are also on the list of World Cup beneficiaries as elevated cross-border travel, ticketing, and entertainment spending flow through their systems.

Among U.S. consumer and travel plays, Goldman Sachs pointed to names such as Booking Holdings (BKNG), Expedia (EXPE), and Airbnb (ABNB) due to strong exposure to accommodation and experiential travel in North American and European corridors. In the airline sector, carriers with robust transatlantic and intra-Americas networks, including Delta Air Lines (DAL), United Airlines (UAL), and American Airlines (AAL), were highlighted as key beneficiaries of World Cup-driven passenger demand.

Hotel and casino operators such as Marriott International (MAR), Hilton Worldwide (HLT), and MGM Resorts (MGM) were singled out as well due to their historic trend of strong pricing power around major events and constrained room supply in certain host markets. In payments, Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) are seen as clear winners.

In beverages, Goldman Sachs singled out brewers and beverage giants with strong U.S. and European footprints, including companies such as Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Heineken (HEINY), Coca-Cola (KO), and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), noting that major football tournaments have historically coincided with higher on-premise volumes.

The Goldman analyst team also noted that Nike (NKE) is well positioned to leverage its scale, innovation pipeline, and wholesale relationships to capture disproportionate attention and market share within global football. Meanwhile, Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) and (ASO) were highlighted as having both started to incorporate World Cup assortment into their stores.

Other apparel companies leaning into sports that could see an incremental sales lift from World Cup tie-ins include Ralph Lauren (RL), PVH (PVH), and Lululemon (LULU).

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Among the program’s 85 partners are SoFi Technologies (

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Since February 24, Visa has gained 4.43%, while Mastercard added 5.29%. The rise came after stocks of both companies declined heavily in the previous session on the back of a research report that revived fears that stablecoin-based technology will obviate the need for traditional card networks. V registered a 4.50% fall, while MA plunged 5.77%

Specific to credit card payment stocks, the Citrini Research note theorized that agentic AI turned to stablecoin-based systems to execute transactions more cheaply.

However, Seeking Alpha analyst Secret Compounders defended Mastercard, arguing that the article ignores deeply ingrained consumer habits and Mastercard’s core value proposition.

“Consumers actively prefer credit cards because they view the friction as a benefit, not a problem. They love being able to easily dispute charges at the end of the month while earning cash back on every swipe. The 2-3% interchange fee is certainly a complaint for the merchants who pay it. Today, many alternative payment systems are formed because of merchant pushback,” it said.

MA’s value-added services segment, which includes cybersecurity and data monetization, is a key and often overlooked growth driver, the analyst additionally noted.

Meanwhile, Ray Merola was bullish on Visa with a Buy rating on the back of record outstanding financial and operational results.

Both companies have been rated as Buy by Seeking Alpha analysts, while Wall Street analysts have issued a Strong Buy call. As per Seeking Alpha’s quant rating, both V and MA have been rated Hold.

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SoFi-USD is the San Francisco-based financial services provider’s fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin, the first to be offered by a U.S. nationally chartered and insured deposit bank on a public, permissionless blockchain.

Both companies will explore how issuers and acquirers can settle card-based transactions with Mastercard using SoFi-USD.

Furthermore, the stablecoin is expected to be supported across Mastercard’s multi-token network, a digital asset platform that helps connect traditional money with digital assets.

Additionally, the unit SoFi Bank is expected to settle its credit and debit transactions powered by the Mastercard network in SoFi-USD. The Galileo technology platform is expected to be among the first to offer its clients and their issuing banks the choice to settle transactions in the stablecoin.

“With SoFi-USD as a settlement currency across Mastercard’s network, card issuers and acquirers can more easily enable the millions of businesses they serve around the globe to instantly settle transactions, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said SoFi CEO Anthony Noto.

“Bringing stablecoin settlement on our network will connect regulated stablecoins with the reliability, security, and reach that consumers, businesses, and financial institutions expect. And this effort expands choice and flexibility across the payments ecosystem in how people pay or get paid,” said Sherri Haymond, global head of digital commercialization at Mastercard.

SOFI shares were -1.58% to $18.10 Tuesday pre-market, while MA was -1.22% to $514.62.

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The fund, in its Q4 shareholder letter, stated that Alphabet (GOOGL), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (TSM), and Broadcom (AVGO) were the top contributors, while Meta Platforms (META), Blackstone (BX), and Microsoft (MSFT) were top detractors for the quarter.

During Q4, the fund initiated new positions in Quanta Services (PWR) and strengthened its holdings in Danaher (DHR), CME Group (CME), Welltower (WELL), TransDigm (TDG), and MSCI (MSCI). The purchases were funded by reducing seven other holdings.

The fund reduced its holdings in Broadcom (AVGO), Mastercard (MA), S&P Global (SPGI), Intuit (INTU), and Arch Capital Group (ACGL) during the quarter.

Source: Q4 shareholder letter

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Mastercard (MA) stock fell 0.4% in Tuesday morning trading after

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Here are some of Monday’s biggest stock movers:

Biggest stock gainers

• Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) +33% – Shares surged after the U.S. FDA approved Bysanti (milsaperidone) to treat bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia. The drug is an active metabolite of Fanapt (iloperidone), with studies showing bioequivalence. Bysanti is also being evaluated in a Phase 3 trial as an add-on therapy for major depressive disorder.

Biggest stock losers

• Novo Nordisk (NVO) -10% – Shares plunged after its experimental obesity drug CagriSema failed to meet a key endpoint in a head-to-head study versus Eli Lilly’s (LLY) tirzepatide, adding to competitive pressure in the weight-loss market. The setback comes as Novo faces rising competition despite the success of Wegovy and Ozempic, with the stock already down sharply in 2025.
• VF Corp. (VFC) -4% – Shares fell after JPMorgan downgraded the stock to Underweight from Neutral and cut profit forecasts. Analyst Matthew Boss lowered FY2027 EPS to $0.99 and FY2028 EPS to $1.26, both below consensus, and set an $18 price target, implying about 15% downside.

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“We are highly dependent on international [payment] solutions,” said Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI, an alliance of 16 European banks and financial services companies.

According to the European Central Bank, Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) accounted for almost two-thirds of card transactions in the Eurozone in 2022.

“We have nice national assets like domestic [payment] card schemes… but we don’t have anything cross-border,” Weimert said. “If we say independence is so crucial and we all know it’s a timing issue… we need action urgently.”

Weimert’s comments come as European officials are increasingly concerned that U.S. payment companies’ dominance could be weaponized if there’s a serious breakdown in diplomatic ties.

The EPI launched Wero in 2024 as a European alternative to U.S. payment solutions. Wero, which has more than 43.5M registered users, is live in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Last week, the EPI and other European payment providers signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at enabling seamless cross-border payments across Europe by 2027.

As for the digital euro, which the ECB is preparing to issue by 2029, Weimart said it could arrive too late. “The problem with the digital euro is it will come in a couple of years, maybe after the mandate of Donald Trump. So I think we are a little bit out of time.”

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The BoE has formed a Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB) comprised of banks and societies, merchants and fintechs, as well as Pay.UK, the existing retail payment system operator, and Payment Systems Regulator colleagues, the BoE’s Sarah Breeden said in a speech at the City & Financial Payments Regulation and Innovation Summit.

She pointed to payment systems in other countries as models — UPI in India, Pix in Brazil, and Swish in Sweden — which operate along with cards for retail payments. The central bank is also looking at tokenization and distributed ledger technology for ways to enhance the functionality of real-world retail payments – “including through greater customisability, conditionality, and automation in payments, compared to the standing orders and direct debits of today,” she said.

UK authorities are focusing on three enhancements they want in the next generation of retail payments in the kingdom: 1) account-to-account payment option in-store and online; 2) seamless exchange of traditional and tokenized money; and 3) improved cross-border retail payments that are faster and cheaper than the current system.

The RPIB will oversee the delivery of the new infrastructure design to a new industry-led Delivery Company that will procure and fund the creation of the infrastructure. That’s in the process of being established with involvement from across the industry under chair designate Vim Maru, CEO of Barclays UK, and with support from UK Finance, Breeden said.

The BoE is also looking ahead. “To serve new and unknown needs, the next-generation infrastructure must be built on principles of extensibility, modularity, and flexibility,” Breeden said. “RPIB is now working at pace on what that infrastructure might look like, as well as the scheme design required to support it. We will publish consultations on these issues in the spring.”

The new payment infrastructure will take time. But in the near term, the central bank is encouraging private sector innovations in retail payments that could produce some of the same outcomes, including tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins, she said.

“Taken together, these initiatives enable us to encourage innovation now while the new retail payments infrastructure is being designed and built — and to take a proportionate approach to mitigating any risks to our public policy objectives,” Breeden said.

U.S. card network stocks were mixed in Monday premarket trading — Visa (V) stock rose 0.6%, Mastercard (MA) edged up 0.1%, American Express (AXP) slipped 0.2%, and Capital One Financial (COF), which owns the Discover card network, rose 0.3%.

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