4 Surefire Stocks to Buy in the Next Bear Market
With the S&P 500 now up more than 600% from the long-term low reached nearly 13 years ago, it’s not a stretch to say this bull market is more than a little long in the tooth. Even the short-term correction during the height of the pandemic was only a temporary adjustment followed by even more fervent exuberance.
With inflation starting to soar and interest rates set to rise for at least the next couple of years, the next long-feared bear market may finally be in the offing. But that’s not to say you should get out of the market altogether. It just might be a bad time to be nestling into new truly long-term trades you may end up owning for a lifetime. There’s never a bad time, however, to make a plan for what to buy as the bear market eases.
Here’s a rundown of four proven long-term stock winners that could be temporarily driven down by a bear market, but have what it takes for a quick and firm recovery once that storm passes.
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1. Apple
Is it really any surprise Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) — the world’s most profitable, most recognizable, and (usually) biggest company — has earned a spot on a list of names to buy after any decent-size setback? Probably not.
Despite saturation and plenty of worthy competition for the world’s most popular smartphone, the iPhone, Apple continues to find ways to get its flagship product in consumers’ hands. Market researcher IDC estimates the company sold a record 90.1 million iPhones during the final quarter of last year following last October’s unveiling of the iPhone 13. And after a brief cooling-off period in the first half of 2021, the third quarter’s phone sales surged nearly 21% year over year.
Apple isn’t resting, though. Knowing the smartphone market is going to peak sooner or later, it’s been shifting its focus toward the monetization of its digital ecosystem: apps and content. It’s firing on all cylinders on that front, too, with last quarter’s digital services revenue growing 25% year over year to reach a record-breaking $18.3 billion. And there’s still plenty of room for both businesses to continue growing.
2. Home Depot
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) isn’t the sort of growth engine Apple is, and it’s certainly not immune to the effects of a recession and a corresponding bear market. But it is in a business with some serious permanency.
There’s never going to be a time when consumers won’t need a place to live. And there’s never going to be a time when those dwellings won’t need to be built or repaired. Home Depot wins either way, even if the construction and repair business is temporarily stifled by economic turbulence.
It certainly bounced back firmly beginning in 2010, growing every year between then and 2019, according to data from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
But investors just might be underestimating how much construction, remodeling, and repair spending need to be done. The Census Bureau estimates that the…