Morningstar

Smart Investor: Top-Performing Dividend Stocks, Peak Tariff Optimism, and Is Healthcare a Buy?

We wrap up our coverage of the markets and the week.

The exterior of the United Healthcare building.
Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty

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In this week’s newsletter:

Aside from a little social media feud between the president of United States and the world’s richest man that tanked his company’s stock, it was a pretty quiet week in the markets. Stocks mainly saw a continuation of recent moves, with tech names and large growth overall leading the Morningstar US Market Index up 1.7%. A slightly stronger-than-expected jobs report on Friday contributed to the market’s lift.

Stocks are now up slightly for the year, having completely erased the big losses suffered in April. By that measure, it would seem investors don’t see any change to the outlook, despite the impact of tariff hikes, uncertainty about future trade policy, and a lack of Federal Reserve rate cuts. Sarah Hansen considers whether the “good news” is priced into the market, and what that means for potential gains in the months ahead.

Dave Sekera, Morningstar’s chief US market strategist, offers his view on the outlook. He draws on the hurricane analogy: Is the coast clear, or are we just in the eye of the storm?

On the subject of tariffs, check out this piece from our equity research team that takes a sector-by-sector look at the potential impact of increased trade levies.

This week, we have a pair of pieces about a corner of the market that has lagged in 2025: healthcare. Sarah Hansen digs into why healthcare has fallen behind, and also checks whether the sector is now looking cheap. One of the primary drivers of healthcare’s underperformance has been the more than 50% drop in UnitedHealth stock. I spoke to Julie Utterback, a senior Morningstar analyst who follows the company, about the issues that have driven UnitedHealth’s stock down so sharply and her take on the outlook.

Lastly, we have our monthly look at key movers in the markets. We’ve got the best and worst stocks for May, along with the 10 best-performing dividend stocks, which includes a pair of money managers and a fertilizer company.

As always, be sure to visit our Markets page for our latest coverage and live stock market updates along with our full weekly calendar of key upcoming data and events

The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.

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