Markets sold off this past week as escalating US-Israeli strikes sent oil prices to their highest levels since 2024, leaving investors scrambling to price in the risk of a prolonged regional conflict.
In times of volatility, Wall Street strategists say that certain tech giants offer safe havens for those who must remain positioned in the stock market.
Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at US Bank Wealth Management, told Yahoo Finance that there is a definitive “structural tailwind” to the AI trade, with hyperscalers upping their investment by 30% in 2026 alone.
Even as questions about the broader market remain, “this is a story that we think lasts and has legs,” he said.
The primary defensive anchors in this environment are Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL), which DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria described as “stay connected” necessities.
Luria points out that even in an economic slowdown, consumers will continue to buy iPhones, just as businesses will remain committed to Windows and Azure.
Dan Ives of Wedbush reinforced this, pointing to Microsoft’s massive $625 billion backlog and Apple’s “monster cash flow” as critical buffers against volatility.
Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) is also seen as a resilient third choice due to its steady business model, though Luria remains skeptical of more “economically sensitive” names like Meta (META). This stems from Meta’s near-total reliance on advertising, which makes up roughly 98% of its revenue. While Microsoft and Alphabet have enterprise cloud buffers, Meta remains highly vulnerable to pullbacks in marketing budgets from small and medium-size businesses.
Others on Wall Street are more bullish on Amazon (AMZN), pointing to a significant margin opportunity for its retail and cloud service, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon is the “most attractive it’s ever been on a sum-of-the-parts basis,” Rockland Trust vice president Michael Sayers told Yahoo Finance. This divergence highlights a shift toward high-margin cloud infrastructure as a hedge against traditional retail volatility.
As the global landscape darkens — with oil prices spiking and major indexes reeling from the escalating US-Israel strikes on Iran — the cybersecurity and defense sectors are turning into mission-critical utilities.
Read more: How oil price shocks ripple through your wallet, from gas to groceries
Companies like Palantir (PLTR), CrowdStrike (CRWD), and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) are at the top of the list for an “aggressive” defensive strategy, providing the digital protection necessary to combat state-actor threats, said Luria.
