Which Stocks Stayed Green as the Market Plummeted?

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Only five stocks in the S&P 500 managed to stay in the green as the benchmark index fell more than 12% to wipe out $5.8 trillion in market value in its worst four-day plunge since the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that these stocks all share one thing in common: they're all members of the defensive healthcare sector.

But before we get into which stocks managed to stay afloat during the S&P 500's biggest absolute wipeout in market cap since the 1950s, let's recap how we got here.

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The S&P 500, the main benchmark for U.S. equity performance, is still down about 14% from its February peak, hurt by uncertainty over tariffs. The market selloff accelerated between April 2 and April 8 as the White House rolled out and then paused parts of its new international trading regime.

Defensive sectors such as consumer staples, utilities and healthcare are supposed to hold up better when the market is selling off. Happily, that's what they did during those four sessions that shook the world. Be that as it may, these three sectors still suffered losses of about 7% to 8%, respectively.

That's better than the S&P 500's overall shellacking, but it still left traders' screens plastered in red.

Naturally, the Magnificent 7 stocks that did much of the bull market's heavy lifting had the farthest to fall, dragging the cap-weighted benchmarks with them. Interestingly, while the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average was hardly spared damage, its most influential name actually generated the second best returns of any S&P 500 constituent during the market's historic selloff.

Have a look at the table below to see which five S&P 500 stocks managed to stay in the green as the market desperately searched for a bottom during the panic. Note that all these companies are defensive healthcare providers. And although Wall Street's recommendations on these stocks vary, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) routinely ranks among analysts' top S&P 500 stocks to buy.

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Stocks that stayed green during the market crash
Company	% price change (April 2-8)	Market cap	Average broker recommendation
Humana (HUM)	6.1	$34 billion	Hold
UnitedHealth Group (UNH)	5.7	$506 billion	Strong Buy
Centene (CNC)	2.8	$31 billion	Buy (mixed conviction)
Molina Healthcare (MOH)	0.7	$18 billion	Buy (mixed conviction)
Elevance Health (ELV)	0.4	$98 billion	Buy (strong conviction)

Data as of April 9, 2025, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.