Thursday marks the 2025 CNBC Stock Draft in which financial professionals, athletes and celebrities are pitted against each other. Each team will make two selections from a list of 60 stocks and commodities. CNBC will track the performance of each team’s investments until Feb. 6, 2026. The team with the best average gains will be crowned victorious. Those participating in this year’s competition include chef Bobby Flay, NBA and CNBC Stock Draft Champion Andre Iguodala and comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. Follow our blog for live updates as each team makes its picks. All times ET. 2:55 p.m.: Maniscalco picks Amazon Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco chose Amazon as his final selection. “I look at the founder Bezos. If this guy ain’t worried, I ain’t worried. He’s buying yachts, he’s sending people up into space. Seems to be a carefree guy,” Maniscalco said. More seriously, he added that the stock is trading at an “attractive price” down from its 52-week high. Amazon shares are down 15% this year. — Pia Singh 2:51 p.m.: Austen Kroll drafts Delta Air Lines Kroll selected Delta due to his own preference for the airline. “I know it may not be the best economy for it,” he said. But, “I am a Delta loyalist and I’m hoping they notice me on here.” Shares have tumbled around 30% in 2025, putting the stock for its first losing year in three. — Alex Harring 2:50 p.m.: Warner Bros. Discovery picked by Bobby Flay Warner Bros. Discovery is celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s second round pick. “This stock has been under pressure since the merger. … I just feel when this stock gets a little bit of momentum, it’s going to be driven up,” Flay said, adding he anticipates “serious upside.” He expects the company to trade at $15 or $16 per share by the time of the Super Bowl, when the winning team from the CNBC Stock Draft will be decided. Shares are currently down 19% this year and last closed at $8.33 per share. Warner Bros. owns Food Network, which has a multiyear deal with Flay. — Pia Singh 2:48 p.m.: Team Wall Street Bound takes Uber Technologies Kicking off the second round, Wall Street Bound picked Uber Technologies , a stock that has surged more than 29% in 2025. “We believe the current valuation underestimates Uber’s path to durable profitability and operational leverage,” SUNY Albany student Bryce Symonette said. The ride-sharing name has a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 28.3, according to FactSet. “There’s clear room for price appreciation,” said Mohammed Hossain, a student at Fordham University. “With profitability accelerating, we really think Uber is undervalued significantly.” Additionally, Hossain said the team views autonomous vehicles as a tailwind for the company rather than as a threat, noting that the company’s partnerships with companies like Waymo and Nvidia “allow them to develop the scale globally.” — Sean Conlon 2:43 p.m.: Carli Lloyd goes for Nike in second round Lloyd opted for Nike as her second pick, calling the company that sponsors her a “powerful brand.” The athletic retailer has been hit hard over the past several years. Shares has dropped more than 23% in 2025, on track for its fourth straight negative year. “Nike’s kind of getting back to the fashion forward,” Lloyd said. “I really believe that Nike is going to continue to show why they are one of the best brands in the market.” — Alex Harring 2:33 p.m.: Andre Iguodala drafts Netflix in first round Former NBA All-Star Andre Iguodala went with Netflix for his first pick. He pointed to the streaming company’s foray into sports content — including recent partnerships with the NFL and WWE—as deals that have drawn greater viewership and audience interest. “I think with Netflix, they’re the disruptor,” Iguodala said. “People are going to come to Netflix maybe first or second choice in terms of how they get their content .. they have a great leadership team and they just keep the wheel spinning and keep coming up with innovative ways to bring in new content.” Netflix shares have jumped more than 23% this year, significantly outperforming the broader market. The stock hit a fresh 52-week high on Thursday as enthusiasm runs high from its recent quarterly financial report. – Pia Singh 2:28 p.m.: Maniscalco-Adami duo pick Nvidia The team of comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and “Fast Money” trader Guy Adami went for Nvidia . “I’m surprised at my counterparts here that this pick is still available,” Maniscalco said when making the fifth pick of the draft. “Apparently you didn’t do your research.” Nvidia has become a household name as artificial intelligence became mainstream. Still, after two years of running growth for its shares, the stock has shed about 20% in 2025. “I can’t see how you pass it up,” Maniscalco said. — Alex Harring 2:23 p.m.: Team Wall Street Bound drafts Vistra first overall Vistra is the top pick from the Wall Street Bound team of Baruch College graduate Matthew Nunez and Smith College student Trang Tran. The Texas-based energy company stands to benefit from structural power growth in Texas driven by ongoing demand from hyperscalers for data centers, according to Nunez. “While short-term leasing slowdowns could soften expectations, Vistra is well-positioned to benefit from the buildout of AI-driven infrastructure that depends on reliable and dispatchable energy,” Nunez said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” “Vistra is a weather-sensitive, policy-exposed but strategically positioned player in a rapidly evolving Texas energy market offering both risk and compelling upside.” Tran has confidence in Vistra’s fundamentals. The company’s EBITDA margin has been growing double-digits over the past two quarters and management remains confident in its EBITDA guidance for this year, she said. Vistra shares are down 8.6% this year, but have popped 9% this week. — Pia Singh 2:22 p.m. Bobby Flay scoops up Walmart in first round Celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who pays particular attention to big box retailers, named Walmart for his first round pick. “I think that there’s a lot of uncertainty. We don’t know which direction we’re going in from minute to minute, not even from day to day anymore,” Flay said. “A place like Walmart is trusted. I think people will need to continue to spend, but I think that they’ll be looking for the right prices and trusted places like a place like Walmart.” “They seem to have so far weathered the storm this year, and I just think that their upside is going to continue,” he added. The stock has risen more than 15% over the past six months and more than 6% year to date, outpacing the broader market. — Sean Conlon 2:18 p.m.: Austen Kroll drafts Costco Reality TV star Austen Kroll selected Costco Wholesale as his first pick, citing in part the company’s “commitment” to selling hot dogs for $1.50. “They are also a fantastic store for bulk purchases,” Kroll said. Costco shares have fallen more than 6% this year, outpacing the broader market. 2:14 p.m.: Carli Lloyd drafts Airbnb Carli Lloyd selected Airbnb in the first round, drawing on her personal experience needing to find housing for work this summer. The former Olympian’s pick has had a tough run recently. Shares of the rental property platform have tumbled nearly 8% this year, adding to 2024’s decline of 3.5%. “I’m actually in the hunt for a rental this summer as I’m going to be working with Fox Sports doing some TV,” she said. “I feel that Airbnb’s stock is on the rise and I’m going to add to that as well this summer.” — Alex Harring
