Stocks I'd Watch If The Market Keeps Plunging

Disclaimer: the performance figures below are my own calculations using an equal-weighted approach across all 26 picks. They haven’t been audited, I don’t track every corporate action with institutional precision, and the numbers should be viewed as approximations rather than official performance statistics. The goal is to evaluate the ideas, not present a fund report.

Just over five months into 2026, the results for the blog’s 26 Stocks to Watch For 2026 have been encouraging. An equal-weighted basket of the names is up, on average, roughly 14.5%, comfortably ahead of the S&P 500’s 7.9% gain over the same period.

Leadership among the names has come from several different themes that were highlighted entering the year, including energy, nuclear, biotech, semiconductors, and a handful of deep-value turnaround stories.

In today’s article, we’ll do a quick recap of how some of these names have performed so far this year — and more importantly what names on the original 26 Stocks I’m Watching For 2026 list, in this volatile market environment — I’d be inclined to put on watch if the market keeps selling off. I’ll also identify one name not mentioned in the list that I’m watching closely as stocks stay volatile.

Turning to the list’s performance so far this year. The strongest area by far has been traditional energy. XLE, VDE, XOP, and Exxon have all produced gains between 24% and 31%, benefiting from higher oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty, and a market that has finally started rewarding companies generating large amounts of cash flow instead of simply promising future growth.

The idea from last year into this year to lighten exposure in...(READ THIS FULL COLUMN AND GET THE WATCHLIST HERE).

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