Investors had many things to digest this week, including a continued pause in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, earnings reports from four of the Magnificent Seven companies, and the escalation of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran. The common denominator for all of these is inflation. There’s no lack of opinions, but investors are getting anxious for solutions.
That anxiety may be accelerating a rotation into defensive stocks. One example is the performance of the Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF (BATS: COWZ), which is up 10.5% in 2026, with a significant part of that gain coming in July.