[ad_1] The post 3 Stocks to Buy for Rising Inflation and Slowing Growth appeared first on Millennial Money. What happened to the stock market’s rally? Through the end of August, both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeded full-year returns in 2020. The S&P 500 even reported 53 record closes through August, putting it on pace for the most record closes ever. But we all know stocks can’t go up forever and quite a few investors were expecting a September sell-off. That’s understandable: since 1950, all major indices have averaged negative returns during the month in what’s known as the “September Effect.” In a case of history repeating itself, the Dow Jones dropped 4.3% and the Nasdaq fell 5.3% last month. However, it wasn’t a market anomaly that led to the September sell-off, but rather increasing fears of “stagflation”—rising inflation and slowing growth. 3 Stocks to Buy for Rising Inflation Here are three stagflation stocks to buy this fall. McDonald’s JPMorgan Chase ExxonMobil McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) The inflation-proof, unique business model of McDonald’s McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) Price: $238.44 (as of close Oct 21, 2021) Market Cap: $180.277B document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-0d3aaaa2b8f1d4dd32e265f31906f908”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false 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“%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); Although shares are up more than 110% in the last five years, McDonald’s Corporation is well situated to outperform the market in a stagflationary environment. To understand its rare opportunity, it’s important to properly understand their business model. Most investors believe the company is a restaurant operator when they are really a restaurant franchisor and, more aptly, a real estate juggernaut. In the United States, approximately 95% of all restaurants are franchised, and those franchises provided 60% of the McDonald’s revenue and a whopping 85% of its margins in the most recent quarter. The difference is key when you consider a stagflation environment. McDonald’s charges its partners both rent and a royalty that are paid for in the form of a percentage of sales. According to the Service Employees International Union, these two charges total 15% of gross sales. Gross sales are the key words above. McDonald’s revenue from franchises is based solely on the top number—not on profit. That means the company’s business model mostly avoids the cost of higher labor, food, and packaging in its cost of goods while price increases by its franchisees are directly captured by the company. Simply put, the company is a winner in an inflationary environment! McDonald’s doesn’t want its franchisees to suffer and adds value to its restauranteurs in the form of its strong domestic supply chain and buying power. As a result, McDonald’s will be able to keep food inflation in check and avoid stock-outs for its franchisees more than mom-and-pop restaurants. It’ll also avoid food inflation in contrast to grocery store prices, which makes it a more affordable option than competitors and consumer substitutes like cooking and eating in the home. On a competitive basis, fast food is in a sweet spot during a stagflationary environment. Rising prices at higher-cost fast-casual restaurants will benefit a cheaper option like McDonald’s. Full-service restaurants that depend upon more waitstaff and other labor providers will be understandably challenged when pitted against a QSR giant like McDonald’s. Stagflation, as defined by rising labor and product costs along with consumers carefully watching their wallets, puts McDonald’s in a rare sweet spot in the restaurant industry. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) JPMorgan Chase is a best-of-breed pick in a strong industry JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) Price: $171.78 (as of close Oct 21, 2021) Market Cap: $500.923B document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-40474e7c1c60109760cc902e263157c3”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false 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“%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); Mark Twain once quipped, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” If we’re hit with a bout of stagflation, look for best-of-breed financial institution JPMorgan Chase & Co. to benefit from policy decisions. In 1979, a year in which inflation ran 11.3%, President Jimmy Carter appointed Paul Volker to run the Federal Reserve to “slay the inflation dragon.” Volker’s Fed did the unthinkable, pushing federal interest rates briefly above 20% (mortgage rates reached as high as 18.5%)! While it’s unthinkable to believe that rates will have to be raised anywhere near that level, what is clear is higher rates help banks across the board. Conceptually, it’s easier to think of banks as “spread managers” in their core banking functions. They pay depositors interest on their short-term checking and savings accounts, while lending the money out at higher rates for longer-dated car, home, and personal loans. The difference earned between these two rates, or spread, is what’s referred to as net interest income. Because rates tend to rise more with duration (length of loan), banks generally benefit from rising rates as the net yield expands. For the last few years, the exact opposite has occurred, and JPMorgan has seen its net interest income continue to decline. In the quarterly report released this week, the company announced that it expects net interest income of $52.5 billion, down $2 billion from the prior year on account of continued falling rates. However, in a bout of good news, this figure beat analyst expectations during the quarter as the recent uptick in rates helped results. As rates increase across the board—as they have been in recent months—look for JPMorgan’s net yield to rise and for the stock to benefit. Stagflation isn’t all good news for JPMorgan. Slowing economic growth could hurt both the company’s corporate and personal loan portfolio, if loan defaults pick up, along with non-interest activities like IPO and bond underwriting. The latter of which is becoming increasingly important: as of