The Market Just Pulled Back Again. These 3 Blue Chips Are the Ones to Buy.

For a short while, it looked like the market was going to bounce back from its early June setback and rekindle its rally. Now, not so much. The S&P 500 is stumbling again, knocking on the door of a new multi-week low, led lower by many of the same AI stocks that led it higher. There may be more downside in store, too.

Just keep things in perspective. There's nothing particularly unusual about this near-term weakness. In fact, it's an opportunity to plug into some blue chip stocks that have been severely beaten down. Here's a look at three of the best bets among these names.

Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) shares were already falling, for the record. They're now down 14% from their early January peak due to a combination of chatter about interest rate caps on credit cards, decreased consumer spending stemming from geopolitical tensions, and fears of new payment competition. Mastercard's management also expressed mild concern during April's first-quarter earnings conference call, prompting investors to ignore the reported earnings beat.

Matters are far more bullish than the bearish reaction suggests, however. Last quarter's top line improved 12% year over year on a similar increase in transactions, driving even stronger earnings growth that analysts expect to persist through this year and next. The stock's pullback is increasingly looking like more of a right-pricing than an indictment of the company's foreseeable future.

McDonald's

Like Mastercard, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) shares were already falling before the recent wave of marketwide weakness. It's not too tough to figure out why. While the fast food restaurant chain's Q1 revenue of $6.52 billion and per-share earnings of $2.83 both topped expectations, CEO Chris Kempczinski cautioned shareholders during May's earnings call that the macro environment and consumer sentiment are "certainly not improving, and it may be getting a little bit worse."

The bears took that ball and ran with it, sending the shares lower.

Image source: Getty Images.

In many ways, though, that post-earnings dip may have also finalized the pullback that had been underway since late February. Although volatile in the meantime, the stock's not actually lost any net ground since then. You can plug into this discounted dependable dividend stock while its forward-looking yield stands at 2.7%.

Pfizer

Finally, add pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to your list of blue chip stocks to buy in the midst of this marketwide weakness.

As was the case with McDonald's and Mastercard shares, Pfizer stock was already falling before the broad headwind took hold. This selling simply accelerated this month, first following the recent exit of CFO Dave Denton. It was fueled more recently by disappointing clinical trial results from sigvotatug vedotin as a treatment for lung cancer. The stock's now down 16% just since its early April peak.

None of this drama changes the fact that Pfizer is still rebuilding itself -- its pipeline and portfolio -- into an oncology and obesity drug powerhouse, with the goal of bringing at least eight new blockbuster cancer drugs to the market. It just won't start producing meaningful growth until after 2028, after some of the company's 31 drugs currently in phase 3 trials are approved. The market, of course, has a funny way of pricing in promising futures in the present.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Mastercard and Pfizer. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $320 calls on McDonald's and short January 2028 $340 calls on McDonald's. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.