To many investors, it feels like the bear market we're living through will never end. While 2023 has gotten off to a better start than some investors expected, many companies' stock prices are still far below their all-time highs.

As upsetting as it can be when the value of your portfolio shrinks significantly, prolonged bear markets can also present buying opportunities for some of the best businesses in the market. Here are two stocks at the top of my buy list during this bear market.

Amazon

A few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine Amazon (AMZN 1.30%) would be in the position it finds itself today. Despite its stock being up 26% year to date, Amazon is still down 44% from its late 2021 high. While some of that decline was due to the overall market conditions, it has suffered from business-specific challenges as well. However, its recently published first-quarter results contained signals that brighter days may be ahead.

The story over the past several quarters has been the operating losses in Amazon's e-commerce business. It doubled its fulfillment center footprint to meet pandemic-fueled demand, but now that demand has stabilized, it has been working to rightsize its operation. In the meantime, it has been booking operating losses in its North American e-commerce segment, which has historically been profitable on an operating income basis.

In Q1, Amazon posted operating income of $898 million in its North American segment, compared to an operating loss of $1.6 billion in the prior-year period and a loss of $240 million in Q4 2022. This is an important shift and shows that some of the cost-cutting decisions management has made are starting to pay off. 

Also worth mentioning is the continued success of Amazon's advertising business. In Q1, advertising services revenue rose 21% year over year to $9.5 billion. Advertising is becoming more important to Amazon's overall financial picture. In Q1 2022, advertising services revenue represented 6.8% of overall revenue. In Q1 2023, that percentage was 7.5%.

If Amazon can continue to improve the efficiency of its e-commerce business, it could have much stronger results over the next several quarters. 

Airbnb

Airbnb (ABNB 2.77%) ended 2022 with results that demonstrated continued strength in its business. Full-year revenue increased by 40%, driven by a 31% increase in nights and experiences booked. More importantly, it continued to show strength on the bottom line. The company's 2022 net income of $1.9 billion was a massive improvement over 2021, when it posted a net loss of $352 million. 

There is evidence of Airbnb's strength in several areas. In Q4, cross-border bookings increased by 49% year over year while urban nights booked increased by 22%. Those gains occurred despite the fact that cross-border travel in the Asia Pacific region was still below pre-pandemic levels. As travel to that area continues to recover, Airbnb's results on these metrics should improve.

Airbnb is also seeing its efforts to increase the number of hosts start to pay off. The company ended 2022 with 6.6 million active listings, an increase of 16% year over year. Management believes this is in part due to the platform improvements that make it easier to host. One of these features launched recently. Airbnb Setup pairs new hosts with Superhosts to help them get started.

Airbnb's strong results over the past year demonstrate that any weakness in consumer discretionary spending has yet to impact its business. It's still possible that Airbnb will encounter more challenging times later this year, but with $7.4 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet and only $2 billion in long-term debt, the company is positioned to weather any short-term headwinds.

Airbnb also trades at a comparatively attractive valuation. The company's price-to-cash-from-operations ratio is 23, and its price-to-sales ratio is 9.5. Both of these metrics are significantly below their historical averages, and not far from their all-time lows.