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LivestreamMenuLast month wasn’t easy for investors, even if the numbers don’t fully reflect the volatility. The S & P 500 inched down 0.1% in July, its second consecutive monthly decline. That may not seem like much, but it came as volatility in single stocks increased , and investors waded through on-again, off-again negotiations and attacks between the U.S. and Iran. Tensions in the Middle East, along with fears the Federal Reserve may be behind the curve on inflation, also sparked three daily declines of 1% or more in July. August may not be much of an improvement. Data from the Stock Trader’s Almanac shows the S & P 500 averages only a marginal gain for the month, making August the third-worst month of the year for the benchmark, going back to 1950. “This is a market that requires fundamental bottom-up stock pickers to think more about portfolio construction than they have at any time in their careers,” wrote Adam Parker, founder of Trivariate Research and the former chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley. “We think it is pretty clear that this is a market regime where running more diversified than normal makes sense,” Parker said. “Investors need to think about the set of conditions that would require them to own a more diversified or concentrated portfolio and where the market is on those metrics today.” Parker pointed to some stocks he likes that can help investors ride out a choppy market. Among them are: Micron Technology Nvidia UnitedHealth Merck Micron has been at the forefront of Wall Street minds this year, as memory chip prices skyrocket, driven by artificial intelligence demand. Year to date, Micron has nearly tripled. Nvidia is up just 7% this year, though it has soared more than 350% over the past three years. “We think compute grows way above GDP, and Semiconductors will outperform strongly from here over a 12-month horizon,” wrote Parker. UnitedHealth and Merck have done well in 2026, gaining 25% and 23%, respectively.Read More
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