Best materials stocks

Southern Copper is one of the world's largest copper producers, with the sector's longest-life mines in Peru and Mexico and Mexico's Grupo México as owner.

Newmont is the world's largest gold miner, operating across the Americas, Africa and Australia.

Parker Hannifin is the king of motion engineering: it makes the hydraulic and pneumatic systems, valves, seals and filters that move excavators, aircraft and factories.

Linde is the world's largest industrial-gases company: the oxygen in hospitals, the nitrogen in chip fabs and the hydrogen in refineries, delivered by pipeline or truck under decades-long contracts.

Nucor is America's largest steelmaker and the one that reinvented the industry: electric mini-mills melting scrap instead of ore, with a legendary worker culture of shared bonuses and zero layoffs.

Freeport-McMoRan is one of the world's largest copper miners, with the giant Grasberg mine (Indonesia) as its crown jewel.

Dover is a textbook industrial conglomerate: pumps, supermarket refrigeration, fueling equipment, industrial printing and components for a thousand industries.

Ecolab sells industrial cleaning and hygiene as a service: the products and systems hotels, restaurants, hospitals and factories use to sanitize, wash and save water.

Martin Marietta is America's other aggregates giant: stone, sand and gravel quarries plus cement in Texas.

Steel Dynamics is the other great American mini-mill, founded by Nucor alumni with the same playbook: melt scrap with electricity, run cheap, pay well.