Only five stocks in the S&P 500 managed to stay in the green as the benchmark index fell more than 12% to wipe out $5.8 trillion in market value in its worst four-day plunge since the early days of the COVID pandemic.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that these stocks all share one thing in common: they're all members of the defensive healthcare sector.
But before we get into which stocks managed to stay afloat during the S&P 500's biggest absolute wipeout in market cap since the 1950s, let's recap how we got here.
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The S&P 500, the main benchmark for U.S. equity performance, is still down about 14% from its February peak, hurt by uncertainty over tariffs. The market selloff accelerated between April 2 and April 8 as the White House rolled out and then paused parts of its new international trading regime.
Defensive sectors such as consumer staples, utilities and healthcare are supposed to hold up better when the market is selling off. Happily, that's what they did during those four sessions that shook the world. Be that as it may, these three sectors still suffered losses of about 7% to 8%, respectively.
That's better than the S&P 500's overall shellacking, but it still left traders' screens plastered in red.
Naturally, the Magnificent 7 stocks that did much of the bull market's heavy lifting had the farthest to fall, dragging the cap-weighted benchmarks with them. Interestingly, while the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average was hardly spared damage, its most influential name actually generated the second best returns of any S&P 500 constituent during the market's historic selloff.
Have a look at the table below to see which five S&P 500 stocks managed to stay in the green as the market desperately searched for a bottom during the panic. Note that all these companies are defensive healthcare providers. And although Wall Street's recommendations on these stocks vary, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) routinely ranks among analysts' top S&P 500 stocks to buy.
Company | % price change (April 2-8) | Market cap | Average broker recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
Humana (HUM) | 6.1 | $34 billion | Hold |
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) | 5.7 | $506 billion | Strong Buy |
Centene (CNC) | 2.8 | $31 billion | Buy (mixed conviction) |
Molina Healthcare (MOH) | 0.7 | $18 billion | Buy (mixed conviction) |
Elevance Health (ELV) | 0.4 | $98 billion | Buy (strong conviction) |
Data as of April 9, 2025, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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