After a strong finish in March, the bears are back at it to kick off the seasonally strong month of April. A near-record intramonth surge of over 16% on the Nasdaq has started to fade as the tech-heavy index is now down -2.5% to start off this holiday-packed month. The ‘yo-yo’ market is toying with investor emotions from hope to fear and back again, with the VIX index serving as our depiction of these emotions. The widely-followed fear gauge has sprung back to life, surging over 17% in just the past few days.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s March policy meeting are due out at 2 p.m. ET today and may be contributing to the volatility. The recent hawkish tone along with policymakers’ expectations for future interest rate hikes are once again dampening investor sentiment. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell stated during his recent news conference that the minutes will portray the balance sheet tightening parameters as the Fed unwinds trillions of dollars in asset purchases made during the pandemic. The 10-year treasury yield spiked to 2.64% this morning, its highest level in over three years.

One way we can sidestep the recent volatility is to target the pockets of the market that are outperforming and are showing some immunity to the downside moves. The iShares U.S. Insurance ETF (IAK Quick QuoteIAK - Free Report) fits the bill, as the group has made consistently higher highs this year while the market has whipped back and forth. Using the simple 10-month moving average as our trend indicator, notice how IAK has found support in recent years and shown little volatility:

Image Source: StockCharts

While the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF may underperform during bullish periods, these companies have a tendency to outperform during defensive times such as the environment we’ve found ourselves in this year. Today’s price action is a great example of this as the major indices are down substantially while IAK is strongly in the green.

Let’s take a look at the top two individual stocks within the IAK ETF that account for over 20% of the fund holdings. Both companies are part of the Zacks Insurance – Property and Casualty industry group, which currently ranks in the top 33% out of approximately 250 industries. Targeting individual stocks contained within the top industry groups provides a constant ‘tailwind’ to our investing success. Note the favorable characteristics for this insurance group below:

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Chubb Limited (CB Quick QuoteCB - Free Report)

Chubb Limited is a property and casualty insurance company. It provides a host of services including commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance. CB markets its products mainly through insurance and reinsurance brokers. Chubb Limited was incorporated in 1985 and is based in Zurich, Switzerland.

CB has built an impressive track record in terms of earnings surprises, missing just one quarterly estimate in the past five years. Back in February, the insurance firm reported Q4 EPS of $3.81, a +16.51% surprise over the $3.27 consensus. CB has posted a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of +12.03%, aiding the stock’s 35.5% return over the past year.