S&P 500 Bull Run: 3 Stocks to Buy Now

Volatility has been the name of the game this year

The S&P 500 is now up close to 24% from lows made in early April (as of July 6) after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariff rates that were higher than the market expected

The hope is that final tariff rates are manageable, inflation continues to decline without the economy tipping into a severe recession, and the Federal Reserve can resume cutting interest rates in September, although what happens next is still anyone's guess

Image source: Getty Images

It's perhaps this diversity of es that led Berkshire's stock to outperform early this year, as investors viewed it as a flight to safety

Buffett announced at Berkshire's annual meeting that he would be stepping down as CEO of the company at the end of 2025, although the 94-year-old plans to stay on as chairman of the board of directors

Considering Buffett is viewed by many as the greatest investor of all time, he ly carries a certain premium that may be dissipating from the stock in preparation for his stepping down

Berkshire's valuation has now fallen below two times the company's tangible book value, or net worth, and is closer -- albeit still above -- the company's five-year average

Also, there is no safer port in the storm than Berkshire these days, which the company demonstrated earlier this year, widely outperforming the market during its most intense sell-off

Berkshire has a massive hoard of cash to ride out any choppy waters or take advantage of new opportunities

Incoming CEO Greg Abel and the rest of Berkshire's management team are more than capable and have been running large parts of the company for many years as Buffett has gotten older

Alphabet (Google): The cheapest "Magnificent Seven" Stock Whether due to regulatory issues or changes in the space, Alphabet (GOOGL -1. 53%) (GOOG -1. 63%), the parent of Google, has been less than magnificent this year and has quickly become the cheapest "Magnificent Seven" stock by a fair margin, in terms of valuation

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts It's hard to believe that a company that owns YouTube, Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Cloud, and Waymo could be trading at less than 20 times earnings, but here we are

Alphabet does face challenges

The Department of Justice sued Google for monopolistic practices, allegations that a federal judge sided with

In a worst-case scenario, Google might be forced to sell its Chrome browser

But perhaps in an even more worrisome secular trend for Google, the faces real challenges from artificial intelligence chatbots ChatGPT, which are some of the fastest-growing es of all time

Many believe these players can perform better and have started using them for their needs over traditional engines Google

That said, Google has been able to pick up traction with its AI summaries at the top of most queries, which are powered by Gemini and populate answers based on information from available sources, not dissimilar from what chatbots are doing

Google also has many es with high-growth potential, including an AI chip that some analysts think is not being reflected in the stock price

I would bet on Alphabet overcoming many of its current obstacles

Visa: One of the best moats A good stock picker is always looking for companies with competitive moats that are difficult to penetrate -- cue the large payments network Visa (V -0

If you haven't previously ed the company, it might surprise you to learn that Visa does not extend consumer credit despite being one of two brands seen on almost all debit and credit cards

Visa runs the largest open payments system in the world, helping to facilitate the majority of debit and credit card transactions between issuing and acquiring banks

Also, because Visa runs one of the largest payment networks in the world, it has a lot of pricing power and can set rules for the network

This kind of scale is not easy to achieve, which is why there are only a handful of large open payment networks in the world

Furthermore, because Visa takes a small percentage of each transaction, it can hedge inflation -- even when prices go up, its percentage stays the same

Investors should keep in mind, however, that the company is susceptible to a recession, which can lead to less payment volume through the network as consumers and es tighten their belts

Now, there has been some concern that the rise of stablecoins, digital assets pegged to a currency or commodity, could usurp the large payment rails Visa and Mastercard

Stablecoins can enable people without bank accounts to transfer money to anyone in the world with internet access and with much lower fees than charged by Visa and Mastercard

This could be very helpful for people without access to the banking system or when it comes to cross-border payments

However, many companies have tried to challenge Visa's dominance before, only to fail or eventually partner with the company

Visa's CEO, Ryan McInerney, recently said on CNBC that Visa has built infrastructure for stablecoins and that they will be an option for consumers, especially if they scale

But scale is usually one of the reasons that competitors fail

A large-scale payments system not only needs to achieve widespread consumer adoption but also adoption by merchants

Visa also offers some features that could be trickier for stablecoins to replicate, such as partnering with consumer credit viders, giving consumers rewards for spending, and strong fraud prevention

It's way too early, in my opinion, to be concerned Visa losing its dominance

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors

Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors

Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Mastercard, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and Visa

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.