That alone should make it tough to find stocks to buy. After all, it’s difficult to earn upside against the market’s tide.
Furthermore, it comes against the backdrop of a weak year for equities as it is. The market is up just 1% year-to-date and has been stuck in a very tight range for since early 2015.
With corporate earnings and outlooks doing stocks no favors, uncertainty over a Federal Reserve rate hike, and an economic soft patch, it’s hard to see what could get the market moving any time soon.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any stocks to buy for May, even if you’re just looking for some short-term outperformance. Indeed, thanks to some favorable fundamentals, technical green flags and encouraging seasonality, some of the biggest, hottest names in the S&P 500 look like stocks to buy for this month.
From golden crosses to new 52-week highs, these stocks are running on upside price momentum:
5 Bulletproof Stocks to Buy Now: No matter how choppy this market gets, these blue chips will offer double-digit growth AND sleep-well-at-night safety. Get their names (and buy prices!) here.
Stocks to Buy: Capital One Financial Corp. (COF)
Click to EnlargeCapital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF) has had a rocky and unproductive year, but that could change this month, thanks to improved fundamentals and technicals.
COF reported strong results in its domestic card segment when it released first-quarter earnings at the end of April. Auto loans also contributed to growth. Furthermore, cheap gas is pressuring volumes at card issuers, but COF has held up well.
On a technical basis, COF just made a golden cross — a strong buy signal — and appears to have definitively found support at its 200-day moving average. And for all the ups and downs COF has had this year, it remains within striking distance of a 52-week high.
Seasonality is also in COF’s favor. Over the last 10 years, COF has averaged a gain of 3.8% in May, according to data from Thomson Reuters Stock Reports.
