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3 Stocks to Buy Now to Help Fight Possible Stagflation

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Today’s episode of Full Court Finance at Zacks explores the stock market and the economy as global economic slowdown fears mount. The episode then dives into three dividend-paying stocks that are poised to keep growing in the near term and could help investors fight off possible stagflation.

Stocks fell Thursday after the European Central Bank confirmed its plans to start raising rates this summer. The move will see the ECB end its roughly eight-year experiment with negative interest rates in order to combat soaring prices across the continent. Wall Street largely knew this was coming and it’s likely far more focused on what’s to come from May’s Consumer Price Index report that’s due out Friday morning.

May’s CPI data comes out just days before the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 14-15, where the U.S. central bank is expected to once again raise its core interest rate by 0.50%. Rising prices and economic turmoil have sent consumer sentiment to new decade-long lows. And unless prices show real signs of cooling down, the Fed might be forced to ramp up its tightening efforts.

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the World Bank both warned about inflation remaining elevated. The World Bank lowered its global growth outlook to 2.9% for 2022, down from 5.7% in 2021. This also marked a drop from its January forecast that called for 4.1% expansion. The World Bank president even used the dreaded word stagflation to describe the outlook for the global economy.

Despite the fall Thursday, stocks have moved roughly sideways to start June. The S&P 500 is trading around where it was in mid-May, following a strong 6% run in the last full week of May. And even with the unknowns and mounting recession fears, investors are putting their money to work in the stock market in 2022 because there simply aren’t many other options out there to keep pace with rising prices.

That said, it might not be time to jump back into growth and technology stocks. Instead, investors might want to consider dividend-paying stocks from areas of the economy that could be poised to outperform in the near term as tech’s run of dominance slows.

The first stock on the list today is Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD - Free Report) . Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, refined products, and petrochemicals. EPD lands a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) right now and its dividend yields 6.7% at the moment despite EPD’s 57% climb in the last two years.

Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (HASI - Free Report) is the next stock up. Hannon Armstrong is a sustainable energy REIT with a 3.8% dividend yield. HASI earns a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) right now and Wall Street remains rather high on the stock. Plus, Hannon Armstrong stands to benefit from the long-term expansion of greener energy.

The last stock we dive into is Huntsman Corporation (HUN - Free Report) , which holds a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at the moment, alongside a 2.4% dividend yield. Huntsman Corporation is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals and its outlook appears strong within a highly-ranked Zacks industry.

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