Stocks in the U.S. rallied on Wednesday after posting steep losses earlier in the week. Some market watchers are looking to two sectors to weather the volatility on Wall Street: health care and financials.
Health care, the market’s best-performing sector this year with a 9 percent gain versus the S&P 500’s 0.2 percent loss, looks attractive to Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak.
He told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Tuesday it’s attractive on a technical basis and may also be a good defensive play heading into year-end. The XLV, a health care exchange-traded fund, is well above its long-term trend line, Maley said, and well above its October lows.
Health care is considered a defensive sector, along with other corners of the market like utilities and consumer staples. Investors will likely rotate into these groups heading into 2019, particularly amid the widespread volatility, said Michael Bapis, managing director with Vios Advisors at Rockefeller Capital Management.
His top pick is the financials sector, which is underperforming the market this year. Bapis likes the group’s valuations.
“They’re getting beaten up for no reason, other than the overall market is going down. They’re very attractive valuations. The fiscal stimulus is starting to kick in,” he said Tuesday on “Trading Nation.”
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were all trading in positive territory on Wednesday, after the Dow sunk 551 points the session prior.