I don’t remember where I heard/read the following info, but usually, the stocks that are safe during recessionary period are stocks of company that sell things that people need, regardless of market condition. One example is WFMI, whole food supermarket. It rises throughout the 2000-2001 recession. Another is Johnson & Johnson, it rises a little bit in 2000-2001 and rise a lot between 1970-1973. Same with Merck. So you see, yes, the index goes in cycle just like everything else in the market. However, not everything sector in the market go in the same cycle. I don’t have much data to prove my point for the 69-70 recession period, but I’m pretty sure there are sectors that went up during that recession, just like there are some in the 2000-2001 recession.
