Investing

4 Stocks to Help You Sleep Easy as Market Falls

Rafi Farber

Published: January 5, 2016 9:15 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:26 pm

Markets look set for their worst two-day opening performance since 1932. If that makes you nervous for the rest of what 2016 has to offer, you’re not alone. Before panicking though and putting everything money market funds, there are two important things to consider. First, there is little fundamental reason for stocks to do so poorly now. The dollar supply is growing strongly, which means more money will land on stocks eventually, which makes this fall a good buy-the-dip opportunity for at least short-term gains. Second, there are better and equally safe ways to earn a higher return on your capital than money markets.

Here are four stocks that will help you sleep easy regardless of how the broader indexes perform this year. Two of them have meaningful upside potential with decent-to-high dividends. The other two haven’t moved on net since 1997, and probably won’t this year either, but cash out at these levels next year and you’ll be 5% richer.

Novartis

Novartis A.G. (NYSE: NVS) is the biggest of Big Pharma. It had a bad 2015, which gives it some decent upside and just a bit of risk for its size, though the last time it had such a bad year was 2008, and it recovered quickly in 2009. Novartis pays 3.2% in dividends at current prices, and it has sound fundamentals, very low debt at about 10% of market cap and cheap price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for a biotech at 11.5.

What makes it just a tad exciting for a relatively boring stock is that it is involved in many drug development partnerships with smaller companies and universities, any one of which could develop a new blockbuster. It’s always nice to have some level of anticipation, even in a defensive portfolio pick.

HSBC

HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HSBC), a humongous $160 billion financial services company, now boasts a dividend of 5.23%. It is now at its cheapest levels post-financial crisis. You’d be hard pressed to find a big bank that pays its shareholders that much. What gives HSBC some nice potential upside is that as interest rates rise, it will be earning more money. That becomes dangerous only when interest rates are high enough that clients stop borrowing, but we are nowhere near those levels. HSBC should be a safe hold for 2016.

These two are often linked together. Both are equally stable, the number one and number two telecom companies by market share in the United States. Neither has moved much at all since 1997, a pretty remarkably bland accomplishment, if quiescence can be considered such. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) sports a dividend bordering on 5%, and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) 5.6%. It is difficult to make any upside argument for either of them, but there isn’t much downside either. The only real risk is that debt is a bit high for both companies, which would only pose a problem if interest rates suddenly skyrocketed this year without warning. They probably will rise, but not in any way that would seriously threaten the balance sheets of these two giants.