By Ian Salisbury

Stocks have been on a wild ride, giving those that tend to sit out volatility a chance to shine. The S&P 500 is up about 0.5% in 2025 as of Friday. But that tiny gain hides a drop of some 19% between the market's Feb. 19 record high and April 8, when fears over President Donald Trump's tariffs crested.

Enter low-volatility stocks. In 2023 and 2024, surging stocks left low-vol shares behind. But in 2025 the iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol USA exchange-traded fund has returned 5.2%, beating the broad market by more than five percentage points and gaining 10.9% on average over three years compared with the S&P 500's 14.3%, says Morningstar, which tracks indexes based on "factors" with investment potential. "[Low-vol] is a factor that's not necessarily about producing superior returns to the overall market, it's about beating the market on a risk-adjusted basis," writes Morningstar analyst Dan Lefkovitz.

Driving low-vol returns are stocks like Berkshire Hathaway, Coca-Cola, Mastercard, and Marsh & McLennan, he wrote. Berkshire's Class A shares are up more over 11% this year, despite falling nearly 5% after CEO Warren Buffett said he was retiring. And top Berkshire holding Coca-Cola is up some 16% in 2025, as investors favored companies selling goods consumers will buy regardless of the economy. Coke gets some 60% of its revenue internationally, and its global bottling operations provide insulation from tariffs.

Write to Ian Salisbury at ian.salisbury@barrons.com

Last Week

Markets

U.S. markets returned from Memorial Day to President Donald Trump's delay on 50% tariffs on the European Union. Stocks, as expected, bounced, with the S&P 500 up over 2%. May consumer confidence made the biggest gain in over four years, but a weak auction of 40-year Japanese bonds hit global bond yields. Nvidia saw 1Q revenue rise 69% over 2024, and the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Trump's broad tariffs illegal. While an appeals court stayed that decision, a second federal court came to a similar conclusion. On the week, the Dow industrials rose 1.6%; the S&P, 1.9%; and the Nasdaq Composite, 2%.

Companies

Walt Disney's Lilo & Stitch topped weekend global box offices with $361 million; with Paramount's Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning, it was the biggest domestic Memorial Day weekend ever. The Justice Department won't prosecute Boeing criminally for the MAX crashes. Bloomberg reported Blackstone was buying $5 billion in private-equity stakes from the New York City pension system. Elon Musk's most recent Starship sprung a leak and disintegrated on re-entry. Musk left DOGE, knocking the Trump budget and tax bill.

Deals

As a condition for buying U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel is giving the U.S. government some veto power in the form of a "golden share." Details are vague... Salesforce announced an $8 billion deal for Informatica. Talks last year fizzled... Hologic rejected a $16 billion bid from Blackstone and TPG...Shein may list in Hong Kong.

Next Week

Monday 6/2

The Institute for Supply Management releases both its Manufacturing and Services Purchasing Managers' Indexes for May. Consensus estimate for the Manufacturing PMI, released on Monday, is a 49.5 reading, while the Services PMI, released on Wednesday, is expected to be 52.1. This compares with readings of 48.7 and 51.6, respectively, in April.

Tuesday 6/3

CrowdStrike Holdings, Dollar General, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise release their earnings on Tuesday, followed by Dollar Tree on Wednesday. Broadcom and Lululemon Athletica report quarterly results on Thursday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The consensus call is for 7.1 million job openings on the last business day of April, roughly 100,000 fewer than in March. There is currently about one job opening for every unemployed person, the lowest ratio in four years.

Friday 6/6

The BLS releases the jobs report for May. Economists forecast an increase of 125,000 in nonfarm payrolls, after a gain of 177,000 in April. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.2%.

The Numbers

0.6%

The increase in California's population in 2024, driven almost completely by global immigration into the state.

8.2%

Percentage of unemployed 20- to 24-year-olds in April, nearly double the overall jobless rate of 4.2%.

1.92 M

Recurring applications for jobless benefits in the week ended May 17, highest since November 2021.

35%

Drop in private-equity fund-raising to $116 billion for the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2024.

Write to Robert Teitelman at bob.teitelman@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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May 30, 2025 20:03 ET (00:03 GMT)

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