How to Beat a Choppy Market With 4 Steady Stocks

The stock market can get choppy at times. In April 2025, the S&P 500 fell more than 10% over three days after President Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs, one of the fastest corrections in recent history. By the time the market finally calmed down and selling subsided, the S&P 500 was down almost 19% from its February peak, just shy of an official bear market. However, almost as quickly as it happened, the market reversed much of its decline a week later after the President announced a 90-day tariff pause, and reclaimed almost all its losses within a month.

The thing about choppy markets like that is that no one can predict them in advance. What we can do is prepare for them by owning businesses built to weather the market's inevitable storms. Durable characteristics include resilient earnings throughout the economic cycle, a long track record of dividend growth, and demonstrated pricing power.

Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT), Realty Income (NYSE: O), PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) each have these key traits. That makes them steady stocks to own before the market gets choppy.

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Walmart

Walmart is one of the world's largest retailers, with more than 10,900 stores in 19 countries and annual sales of $713 billion. That scale gives Walmart pricing power and the leverage to press vendors for lower prices. The company focuses on helping consumers save money, and primarily sells essential products such as groceries and household goods. The company's focus on delivering value to consumers drives more resilient sales during economic downturns as they trade down from higher-cost retailers.

The retailer has increased its dividend for 53 straight years, qualifying it as an elite Dividend King, a company with 50 or more years of annual dividend increases. That multi-decade dividend growth streak includes several recessions, showcasing the resilience of its earnings.

We saw Walmart's steadiness on full display during 2025's choppy market period. While the S&P 500 was down over 5% by the end of April, Walmart's stock was up over 7%.

Realty Income

Realty Income is one of the world's largest real estate investment trusts (REITs). It owns a diversified portfolio of retail, industrial, gaming, data center, and other properties, secured by long-term net leases with many of the world's leading companies (including Walmart, a top-20 tenant at 0.9% of its annual base rent). The company's leases provide it with very durable income, as most of its rent comes from tenants in industries resilient to economic downturns. Meanwhile, most of its leases feature annual rental escalation clauses (either fixed rate increases or those tied to inflation).

The REIT's stable, steadily rising rental income supports its growing monthly dividend. It has increased its dividend 136 times since its public market listing in 1994 (more than 31 straight years). Realty Income's strong financial profile also enables it to invest billions of dollars annually in new income-generating real estate.

Realty Income has proven to be very resilient in choppy markets. The REIT has outperformed the S&P 500 in 11 of the 13 drawdowns of 10% or more since its 1994 listing. Its stock has fallen by an average of 2.6% compared to the S&P 500's average decline of 22.6% during these corrections.

PepsiCo

PepsiCo is a global beverage and snacking leader with about $95 billion in annual sales. It owns leading brands, including Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and Doritos. While the company is currently facing demand and cost headwinds, it still expects to deliver low-single-digit organic revenue and earnings-per-share growth this year. Its ability to deliver volume growth while pushing through price increases demonstrates its pricing power.

Like Walmart, PepsiCo is a Dividend King. It extended its streak to 54 straight years in 2026. With a rock-solid balance sheet and its business generating strong, growing free cash flow, PepsiCo can continue to grow its dividend during more challenging times. That's evident in its current headwinds, as it hiked its dividend by another 4% in 2026.

PepsiCo stock tends to be much less volatile than the S&P 500. It has a three-year beta of less than 0.5, compared with the S&P's 1.0. This implies that if the S&P 500 drops 10%, PepsiCo stock would typically fall only 5%.

Verizon

Verizon is a leading mobile and broadband company. It generates recurring revenue that tends to be highly durable because wireless and internet services are essential for most consumers. While it's easier to switch providers now than it was in the past, Verizon's high-quality network and scale help reduce customer churn.

The company has raised its dividend for 20 straight years. It generates significant free cash flow after investing in network expansion, more than sufficient to cover its dividend. That provides it with excess cash to repurchase shares and maintain its solid balance sheet.

Verizon offers a high dividend yield (nearly 7%). While that high yield reflects its slower growth and higher risk profile due to competition, it also provides investors with a meaningful real return in choppy markets.

Save havens when the market gets choppy

There's no telling when the next market downturn will occur. That's why it's smart to be prepared for choppy markets before they arrive by ensuring your portfolio includes steadier investments like Walmart, Realty Income, PepsiCo, and Verizon that can provide ballast during these more turbulent times. While they aren't risk-free investments, they should help lower your portfolio's overall volatility without giving up too much long-term upside potential.

Matt DiLallo has positions in PepsiCo, Realty Income, and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Realty Income and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.