Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York.

Stocks posted their first negative month of the year as trade angst deepened, and it doesn't get easier from here since the U.S. toughened its stance on more trading partners. Now is a good time for investors to find the trade-proof areas to hide out and tariff-ridden companies to avoid.

Not only did investors grapple with more back and forth trade threats between the U.S. and China, President Donald Trump's latest vow to slap tariffs on all Mexican imports also fueled investor anxiety. The surprise move also undermined the chance of a trade resolution with China.

In such a turmoil, investor could add consumer staples and utilities as defense while staying away from companies with explicit sales exposure to China, according to Wall Street analysts.

"Our favorite ways to add defensive exposure remain Consumer Staples and Utilities. For both, China tariff/trade war risks are lower than other sectors, valuations have looked more reasonable than other defensive sectors," said Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC, in a note on Wednesday. "Staples has also already been deeply out of favor."

Consumer staples and utilities are two traditional trade-insulated sectors as they are domestically focused and non-cyclical. Both sectors in outperformed in May when the trade battle heated up, with utilities losing just 1.5% and consumer staples down 3.4%. The S&P 500 was down 6.3% during the same period.