The U.S. stock market is poised for heightened volatility, driven by a confluence of powerful forces. Tech sector uncertainty looms large, as evidenced by Microsoft’s sharp decline despite Meta and Tesla’s solid performances. Escalating trade tensions add to the turbulence, with President Trump’s bold 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports potentially reshaping global commerce. Underwhelming GDP growth of 2.3% casts a shadow on economic momentum, raising concerns about sustained expansion. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s steadfast stance on interest rates and persistently elevated inflation amplify uncertainty, keeping investors on edge as they navigate this dynamic and unpredictable landscape.
Against this backdrop of market uncertainty, creating a curated portfolio of low-beta stocks is a wise move. This offers a safeguard against heightened market fluctuations and positions investors to navigate volatility with greater resilience and foresight.
Hence, stocks like Trip.com Group Limited TCOM, Virtu Financial Inc VIRT, TXO Partners LP TXO and Kanzhun BZ are worth betting on.
Beta measures the volatility or risk of a particular asset compared to the market. In other words, beta measures the extent of a security’s price movement relative to the market. In this article, we are considering the S&P 500 as the market.
If a stock has a beta of 1, then the price of the stock will move with the market. So, the stock is more volatile than the market if its beta is more than 1. In the same way, the stock is not as volatile as the market if its beta is less than 1.
For example, if the market offers a return of 20%, a stock with a beta of 3 will return 60%, which is overwhelming. Similarly, when the market slips 20%, the stock will sink 60%, which is devastating.
We have taken a beta between 0 and 0.6 as our prime criterion for screening stocks that are less volatile than the market. However, this should not be the only factor to be considered while selecting a winning strategy. We need to take into account other parameters that can add value to the portfolio.
Percentage Change in Price in the Last 4 Weeks Greater Than Zero: This ensures that the stocks saw positive price movement over the last month.
Average 20-Day Volume Greater Than 50,000: A substantial trading volume ensures that the stocks are easily tradable.
Price Greater Than or Equal to $5: They must all be trading at a minimum of $5 or higher.
Zacks Rank Equal to 1: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks indicate that they will significantly outperform the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Here are four of the nine stocks that qualified for the screening:
Trip.com Group
Trip.com Group is poised to gain from catering to senior citizens’ growing interest in travel and travel bookings from lower-tier cities in China. Using artificial intelligence (AI), the company has been efficiently serving more people.
Virtu Financial
Virtu Financial is making great progress with its Virtu Technology Solutions, which is becoming more popular. This service helps other companies, like broker-dealers, use advanced tools for trading and analyzing financial data. By offering these high-tech solutions, Virtu is setting itself up for long-term growth and success in the market.
TXO Partners
TXO Partners has a strong footprint in the oil-rich Permian – the most prolific basin in the United States. Being involved in exploration and production activities, the master limited partnership may continue to gain from a favorable commodity pricing environment. Notably, TXO's Mancos Shale project, with 58,500 contiguous acres holding nearly 3 Tcfe of natural gas potential, is set to be a game-changer by potentially increasing reserves fivefold, with Phase I targeting a 3,520-acre block estimated to hold 200-300 Bcf of natural gas, nearly doubling existing reserves.
Kanzhun
Kanzhun is positioned for long-term success with its strong financials, expanding user base, enterprise growth, blue-collar market penetration, disciplined cost control and AI-driven efficiencies. The company’s share buybacks, prudent overseas expansion and favorable macro tailwinds further strengthen its outlook for 2025.
You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge.
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Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.
Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance.
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KANZHUN LIMITED Sponsored ADR (BZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Virtu Financial, Inc. (VIRT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Trip.com Group Limited Sponsored ADR (TCOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
TXO Partners LP (TXO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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