Following last year’s abysmal performance, stocks have had an encouraging start to 2023, with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 rising more than 10% and 6%, respectively, last month.
Also, stocks rallied on better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and cooling inflationary pressures. Investors expect the Federal Reserve to issue smaller interest rate increases this year.
Furthermore, Goldman Sachs experts anticipate a 35% risk of a recession for 2023, which is below the median of 65% forecasted in a Wall Street Journal survey.
With the easing inflation and resilient growth raising expectations that the economy will scrape through this year without a recession, some economists warn that the Fed’s continued rate hikes to bring inflation down to its 2% target could hurt economic growth. So, market volatility is expected to remain elevated in the near term.
Given the backdrop, it could be wise to invest in these fundamentally strong stocks to benefit from their resilience and reliable dividends.
This post originally appeared at StockNews.com.