Yahoo Finance

Investors already have endured a pullback in the stock market this year. These things happen. But they don't necessarily signal that a bull market is on its last legs or that a bear market is imminent. A pullback occurs when stock prices drop 5% from their highs. That happened two weeks ago, when, in response to the war in Iran and the spike in oil prices, the S&P 500 fell 5% below its all-time high of 7,002, ultimately closing slightly below the 6,500 level. Historically, pullbacks occur on average three times per year, or 15 times per traditional 5-year market cycle. Corrections -- when stocks drop 10% -- are less frequent; they happen about once per year, with the most recent occurring during the build-up to President Trump's ultimately watered-down tariff plan in the spring of 2025. Stocks have always recovered from pullbacks and corrections, as well as from bear markets. The average time to rebuild after a pullback has been one month. For a correction, it may take four months. Those recoveries are more dependent on the fundamentals in the market at the time. As we review the current market fundamentals, the economy is growing, interest rates had been falling before the oil scare, and corporate profits are increasing at a healthy pace. It is impossible to know when the Iran war will come to an end. But post hostilities, we expect oil prices to drop significantly and interest rates to head lower. Overall, we remain optimistic that stocks can post gains in 2026, though our base case outlook calls for single-digit returns, not the 15%-25% returns investors have enjoyed for the past three years.

The Vickers Top Insider Picks is a daily report that utilizes a proprietary algorithm to identify 25 companies with compelling insider purchase histories based on transactions over the past three months.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Verisign is an operator of critical infrastructure within the domain name system, or DNS. As the registry for some of the world’s most popular TLDs, .com and .net, Verisign directs DNS resolvers to the appropriate registry where IP addresses are stored. Verisign’s control over its TLDs is regulated by ICANN and the NTIA and are subject to contract renewal every six years. The company generates revenue through annual subscriptions allowing customers to use .com and .net as their TLD of choice for their respective websites.