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These 7 Stocks Are Built to Outlast the Market
Some stocks are built for a quarter… others for a lifetime.
Our 7 Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever report reveals companies with the strength to deliver year after year - through recessions, rate hikes, and even the next crash.
One is a tech leader with a 15% payout ratio - leaving decades of room for dividend growth.
Another is a utility that’s paid every quarter for 96 years straight.
And that’s not all - we’ve included 5 more companies that treat payouts as high priority.
These are the stocks that anchor portfolios and keep paying.
You can download this report for free as of today, but it won’t be free forever.
This is your chance to see all 7 names and tickers - from a consumer staples powerhouse with 20 years of outperformance to a healthcare leader with 61 years of payout hikes.
Good morning. The Fed hiked rates exactly as expected Wednesday, and the market fell hard anyway, because the surprise was never going to be in the headline number.
The Market Gauge
The S&P 500 closed at 7,551.81, down 0.45%. The Nasdaq composite finished essentially flat at 25,978.43, down less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 631.21 points, or 1.21%, to 51,461.90, its lowest close in three months. It was a third straight losing session for all three indexes.
The move came on Fed decision day. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point to a 3.75%-4% target range, its first hike since 2023, a move markets had already priced in at better than 90% odds. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq actually held modest gains right after the 2:00 PM ET announcement. Then Fed Chair Kevin Warsh took the podium and said, “The plain fact is that inflation is too high, and has been for too long.” Both indexes reversed and closed back below their 50-day moving averages, a level they had briefly reclaimed during the day. The Dow, weighed down by financials and Boeing, gave up the most ground of the three. The 10-year Treasury yield pushed to just over 5%, a 19-year high, and oil slipped 3.2% to $102.43 a barrel.
Beginner note: the rate hike itself was not really news, it was already expected. What actually moved the market was the tone behind it. When a widely expected headline still shakes prices, look past the headline for the detail that surprised everyone.
On today's calendar
Initial jobless claims (8:30 AM ET): the weekly count of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time. A rising trend can hint that hiring is slowing.
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey (8:30 AM ET): a regional survey of factory activity. Readings above zero signal expansion, readings below zero signal contraction.
Housing starts (8:30 AM ET): the Census Bureau's monthly count of new home construction, one gauge of how higher rates are landing on the economy.
Still playing out: the Fed's aftermath. President Trump publicly called for the Fed to cut rates “fast” after Wednesday's close. That doesn't change monetary policy on its own, but it's one more voice in a market already digesting a hawkish Fed.
On the radar: Bloom Energy
$BE ( ▼ 5.39% ) makes fuel cells that generate electricity on-site instead of waiting on the power grid, which has made it a favorite pick-and-shovel play on AI data centers that need power faster than utilities can deliver it. The stock rose 4.1% to $270.02 Wednesday, even as the broader market fell on the Fed news. It's now building what IBD calls a “handle,” a short pullback after a run-up, just under its official buy point of $351.28, which also happens to be its 52-week high. One catch: IBD flagged that the handle is currently forming slightly too low in the base to count as a valid one yet.
Why it's worth watching: not every handle is a real handle. A proper one forms in the upper half of its base, not near the bottom. A handle that dips too low signals more nervous selling than the orderly pause and shakeout of weak holders that a real base pattern is supposed to show. It's a small distinction, the kind Month 4's chart-pattern lessons dig into, and Bloom Energy is playing it out in real time this week.
ONE FOR THE ROAD
The rate hike was priced in, and stocks fell hard anyway on the tone. Have you ever seen an “expected” headline move a stock, or the market, more than the actual news seemed to justify? Reply and tell us about it.
Educational content only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not predict future results. Read the full financial disclosure.