Weiss Ratings Names Four Pricing-Power Stocks for a Weak Dollar
Gavin Magor of Weiss Ratings points to Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Wheaton Precious Metals and Canadian National Railway as defensive holdings for a softer dollar. The Sept. 8 closes tell a mixed story.
Weiss Ratings analyst Gavin Magor named Coca-Cola (KO), Mastercard (MA), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) and Canadian National Railway (CNI) as pricing-power stocks that can defend a portfolio against dollar weakness and inflation; KO closed up 0.33% at 88.36 on Sept. 8, 2026, while the Dow 30 proxy fell 1.13%.
The classic definition of a defensive stock — a boring domestic business with a steady dividend — assumes the currency the dividend is paid in holds its value. Weiss Ratings' Gavin Magor is arguing that the assumption no longer does the work investors think it does, and that the better shelter is a company able to raise prices without losing customers.
His four names, as reported by MarketBeat, are Coca-Cola (KO), Mastercard (MA), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) and Canadian National Railway (CNI). The common thread is pricing power — the ability to pass higher input costs through to the buyer — layered on top of revenue that does not depend entirely on the U.S. dollar staying strong.
Pricing power is the actual defense, not the dividend
A weaker dollar hurts a portfolio in two ways at once. It raises the local-currency cost of imported goods, squeezing companies that buy abroad and sell at home. And it erodes the purchasing power of the income a portfolio throws off, which matters most to the retirees who have historically crowded into consumer staples and utilities for exactly that income.
Pricing power addresses the first problem directly. If a business can move its list price when its inputs move, margin survives the currency swing rather than absorbing it. Foreign revenue addresses the second: when the dollar falls, sales booked in euros, yen or Canadian dollars translate back into more dollars, which is a tailwind rather than a headwind.
That is the logic behind the four selections. Coca-Cola sells a branded, low-ticket product in nearly every country on earth, and price increases of a few cents rarely change what a shopper puts in the cart. Mastercard's core economics are a percentage of transaction value, so an inflating price level mechanically inflates the fee base — and a large share of the network's volume is cross-border. Wheaton Precious Metals is a streaming company whose revenue is tied to gold and silver, assets that have historically been bought precisely as a hedge against currency debasement. Canadian National Railway is a Canada-based rail network with volume-based pricing and a cost base largely outside the U.S. dollar.
How the four closed on Sept. 8
Licensed market data as of the last trade on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, at 20:00 GMT, shows the group did not move as a block — which is itself a point in favor of holding more than one of them.
- Coca-Cola (KO) finished at 88.36, up 0.33% from a prior close of 88.07, inside a day range of 87.55 to 88.55.
- Mastercard (MA) closed at 570.89, down 1.44% from 579.21, with a range of 567.01 to 575.67 — it ended near the low end of the session.
- Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) closed at 155.11, up 0.08% from 154.98, having traded as high as 156.62 and as low as 153.87.
- Canadian National Railway (CNI) ended at 122.76, down 0.49% from 123.37, in a narrow 122.48 to 123.66 band.
Set that against the benchmarks. The S&P 500 tracker (SPY) closed at $765.96, off 0.55%. The Nasdaq 100 proxy (QQQ) was near flat at $718.36, down 0.08%. The Dow 30 fund (DIA) took the worst of it, closing at $528.03 for a 1.13% decline.
On that single session, Coca-Cola behaved the way a defensive stock is supposed to: it gained while the blue-chip index fell, a gap of roughly 1.46 percentage points on the day — an illustrative spread, not a reported statistic. Wheaton also finished green against three red benchmarks. Mastercard did the opposite, underperforming the S&P 500 by about 0.89 percentage points, again on our own arithmetic from the closing figures. Canadian National fell, but by less than the broad market.
Where the currency exposure actually sits
One day proves nothing, and investors weighing this thesis should be clear about which of the four is a currency play and which is an inflation play, because they are not the same trade.
Mastercard is the cleanest inflation-linked name of the group in structure: fees scaled to transaction value rise with nominal spending whether or not the dollar is falling. But it is also the most cyclical, tied to consumer and business volumes, and its Sept. 8 decline was the largest of the four. That is consistent with a payments name trading on growth and rate expectations rather than on the currency.
Wheaton is the most direct dollar hedge, since precious metals are priced in dollars and tend to rise when the dollar weakens. It is also the most volatile in principle: the stock's Sept. 8 range spanned roughly 1.8% of the closing price, wider than Coca-Cola's or Canadian National's, on our reading of the quoted highs and lows. Owning it as "safety" means accepting metal-price swings in exchange for the hedge.
Wheaton is the most direct dollar hedge, since precious metals are priced in dollars and tend to rise when the dollar weakens.
Canadian National is the geographic diversifier. A U.S. investor holding a Canada-based railroad owns an asset whose cash flows are substantially non-dollar, which is the mechanical part of the weak-dollar case. The offset is that rail volumes are a function of freight demand — grain, intermodal, bulk commodities — and a softer economy shows up in carloads regardless of what the currency does.
Coca-Cola sits closest to the traditional definition of safety, with the added feature that most of its volume is outside the United States. That makes it the least exciting and, on the evidence of the most recent close, the most reliably countercyclical of the four.
What would confirm or break the thesis
The test is not whether these stocks go up. It is whether they hold up on days when the dollar falls and the broad market does not like it. Three things are worth tracking.
First, the direction of the dollar itself. If the currency stabilizes or strengthens, Wheaton loses its tailwind and the translation benefit at Coca-Cola and Canadian National reverses.
Second, margin disclosure. Pricing power is a claim that has to be verified in gross margin, not asserted in a slide deck. A company raising prices while margin compresses is absorbing costs, not passing them on.
Third, correlation. The value of a four-stock defensive sleeve depends on the names not moving together. Sept. 8 offered a small piece of evidence that they do not: two finished higher, two lower, on a day when the Dow dropped more than 1%.
None of that makes the group a substitute for cash or short-duration bonds if the goal is capital preservation. What Magor's list argues is narrower and more defensible — that if a portfolio must be in equities while the dollar softens, the businesses that set their own prices are a better place to be than the ones that only look safe.
Key facts
- Analyst: Gavin Magor, Weiss Ratings
- Stocks named: KO, MA, WPM, CNI
- KO last close: 88.36, +0.33%, as of Sept. 8, 2026, 20:00 GMT
- Dow 30 proxy (DIA): $528.03, -1.13% on the day
Frequently asked questions
Which four stocks did Weiss Ratings highlight?
Gavin Magor of Weiss Ratings named Coca-Cola (KO), Mastercard (MA), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) and Canadian National Railway (CNI). He described them as pricing-power companies that can offer defensive protection against a weakening U.S. dollar and against inflation, rather than as conventional low-volatility or high-dividend defensive holdings.
What does 'pricing power' mean in this context?
Pricing power is a company's ability to raise the prices it charges without losing enough customers to offset the increase. It matters in an inflationary or weak-currency period because higher input costs can be passed to buyers, protecting profit margins instead of forcing the company to absorb the squeeze itself.
How did the four stocks close on Sept. 8, 2026?
As of the last trade at 20:00 GMT, Coca-Cola closed at 88.36 (+0.33%), Mastercard at 570.89 (-1.44%), Wheaton Precious Metals at 155.11 (+0.08%) and Canadian National Railway at 122.76 (-0.49%). Two of the four finished higher on a day when the S&P 500 and Dow proxies both fell.
How did the broad market perform that day?
The S&P 500 tracker SPY closed at $765.96, down 0.55% from a prior close of $770.19. The Nasdaq 100 fund QQQ was almost unchanged at $718.36, off 0.08%. The Dow 30 fund DIA was weakest, closing at $528.03 after a 1.13% decline from $534.08.
Why would a weaker dollar help these companies?
Companies with large foreign revenue see overseas sales translate into more dollars when the dollar falls. Precious-metals-linked revenue also tends to rise, because gold and silver are priced in dollars. Payment networks whose fees are a percentage of transaction value benefit as nominal spending levels rise with inflation.
What are the risks in treating these as safety stocks?
Each carries a distinct risk. Mastercard is cyclical and depends on consumer and business transaction volumes. Wheaton's revenue swings with metal prices. Canadian National depends on freight demand. And all four are equities, so none substitutes for cash or short-duration bonds if the goal is strict capital preservation.
Sources
Photo: Gaby Lopez · Pexels Licence — source
