Markets Crash From War With Iran
Oh boy, was it a bad week for the stock market.
It started with fallout from the United States and Israel bombing Iran.
Iranian leadership was killed in the strikes.
In retaliation, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, an important shipping lane to transport oil from the Middle East to the rest of the world.
The price of oil skyrocketed up 30%.
Oil shocks are bad for the economy and thus the stock market.
For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell almost 1,500 points!
It was the worst week since the tariff crash last April.
To make matters worse, the US jobs report was awful on Friday.
For February, rather than gain an expected 50,000 jobs, our economy lost 90,000 jobs.
Since last May, our total job growth has been negative.
All of the news sounds terrible…should we be selling all of our stocks?
If in doubt, zoom out.
While it’s true the markets are down a lot for the week, the Dow is trading at prices seen only 3 months ago.
We should be buying right now, not selling.
And during these times of volatility, it’s really important to buy up good, high-quality companies.
Here’s my list of companies I’m looking at right now.
First up is Exxon Mobil (ticker: XOM), the largest US-based oil and gas company.
Higher oil prices are great news for companies like Exxon because it means they make more money selling their oil.
Exxon’s stock has already moved on the problems in the Middle East and is up over 20% in 2026.
But if conflict in the Middle East continues, the price of oil, and Exxon’s stock price, will continue to rise.
Exxon is a safe pick in the energy sector because of its size, but also its low debt.
Exxon’s debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17x is less than half its industry average and near an all-time low for the company.
And even though Exxon’s profit margin of 9% doesn’t seem high, its margin is more than double other oil and gas companies’.
Problems at the pump and in the job market mean WalMart (ticker: WMT) will start gaining customers.
Higher gas prices mean American consumers will need to tighten their spending in other areas.
And those customers might need to tighten even further if they can’t find a good job.
Even though Amazon (ticker: AMZN) just passed Walmart as the top retailer, nobody beats Walmart when it comes to discount shopping.
Nobody beats Walmart’s return on equity (ROE) either.
Walmart’s ROE of 24% is more than double the ROE of other retailers and is currently at an all-time high.
Eversource (ticker: ES), a utility company, is the last pick.
Utility stocks aren’t going to double overnight, but their stability feels great when the markets are crashing.
Eversource serves about 4 million customers in the Northeast.
The company has a great 4% dividend yield and has been averaging about 6% dividend growth each year over the last decade.
And while its price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 15x is right around the industry average, Eversource’s current PE hasn’t been lower since 2012.
It’s definitely a scary time in the stock market right now.
What trades are you making?
Coach Parker
Category: Stocks
