Cheer Up! Here're 5 Stocks To Sail Though A Choppy Market

Wall Street continues to bleed as investors remain worried that the trade standoff between the United States and China could get much worse than before. While President Trump is now preparing to blacklist more Chinese technology companies, an accommodative Fed is also doing no good to the stock market rally. Poor retail earnings and slide in oil prices on U.S. crude stockpiles surge are adding to the woes.

Given the widespread uncertainty over the future course of the equity market, investing in stocks unperturbed by market gyrations is the way to go. These stocks will surely capitalize on any upward journey and provide cushion during times of downturn.

Trade Tensions Simmer

Shifts in U.S.-China trade relations continue to weigh on investors’ sentiment. The broader S&P 500 tanked three times in the last four trading sessions, with tech stocks especially bearing the brunt of the latest developments in the trade war with Beijing.

Just when the stock market was gaining momentum after the United States offered temporary relief in its crackdown on Huawei Technologies, media reports from White House confirmed that the Trump administration could impose restrictions on Chinese video surveillance firm, Hikvision.

Lest we forget, the White House had added Huawei to its Entity List that includes companies that American firms can’t sell technology to without obtaining a license from the U.S. government. Following this, chip bigwigs like Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) to name a few have restricted supply of major software and hardware components to Huawei. To make matters worse, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stopped offering some of its services for devices made by Huawei.

Such restrictions on Huawei compelled China to rethink its policy with the United States per the South China Morning Post. China is now expected to drop purchase of natural gas from the United States. Needless to say, China had bought $6.3 billion worth of U.S. liquefied natural gas.

Qualcomm a Big Drag on Wall Street

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) , in the meantime, added to market woes, declining 10.9% in the last trading session, its biggest one-day drop since Jan 23, 2017. Shares of the chipmaker fell after a federal judge ruled that the company unlawfully suppressed competition in the cellphone chip space, thereby violating the antitrust law.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh, who sided with the Federal Trade Commission, added that QUALCOMM cannot even sign exclusive supply deals with companies like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Nonetheless, the news dragged the broader VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF down by 1.9%.

Fed Remains Accommodative

The Fed minutes dampened expectations of lower interest rates this year, which eventually weighed on the stock market. After all, lower interest rates do encourage additional investment outlays and that gives the economy a boost.

Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s Apr 30-May 1 meeting indicated that officials are being patient now. Market pundits believe that Fed will continue its patience stance, thanks to sustained economic growth, strong labor market and inflation remaining short of the committee’s 2% target range. The Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, excluding food and energy, slowed to a 1.6% increase in the 12 months through March.

Retail & Energy Shares Slid

Also weighing on the market are retail and energy shares. Retailers, in particular, are wrapping up the first-quarter earnings on a downbeat note. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) shares plunged 12.3% after the home improvement chain trimmed its full-year profit forecast, while shares of Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) plummeted 9.6% after the department store operator also cut its full-year sales and profit forecast (read more: Zacks Investment Research

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research