Uri Landesman, head of international equity at ING Investment Management sees plenty of upside for stocks from technology and global metals companies.

Patrick Cunningham of Manning & Napier says your best buys now are big-cap stocks. He might know: his 5-star Manning & Napier Pro-Blend fund is up 10.15 percent over the past five years.

Recommendations:

With oil prices sliding but the dollar rally unsteady, where will gold go?

Dawn Bennett of Bennett Group Financial Services and Mike O'Rourke of BTIG Bass Trading gave CNBC their insights into precious metal.

______________________________________

• Cramer: The Best Gold Company!

______________________________________
(Click on tickers for company headlines)

Gold ETFs:

iShares COMEX Gold Trust

PowerShares DB Gold

Gold Stocks:

Barrick Gold

AngloGold Ashanti

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

___________________________________

Disclosures:

Disclosure information was not available for Bennett, O'Rourke or their companies.

Disclaimer

Buy into the bear: That's the advice from Jim O'Shaughnessy, founder of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, and Fritz Meyer, senior market strategist at Invesco AIM. They offered CNBC their insights and sector plays.

"Financials are great," said O'Shaughnessy, noting double-digit gains since July 15. "We find high-dividend stocks very attractive at this time."

His firm is buying the financial sector, rather than cherry-picking stocks. Along those lines, he believes that ETFs are viable for individuals -- as long as they get dependable advice for building a portfolio with "appropriate asset allocation."

Meyer agrees on financials: "Broadly speaking, you'll see diminishing write-downs." He also favors consumer discretionary stocks. His main investment advice now: "Buy the market. Embrace the fear."

__________________________________
Click on Tickers for Company News/Headlines:

Top ETFs:

- Financial Select Sector SPDR

- UltraShort Real Estate ProShares

Stocks in the News:

- Altria

- Dell

- Nokia

__________________________________

Disclosures:

No disclosure infoirmation was available for O'Shaughnessy, Meyer or their respective companies.

Disclaimer

Sure, Toll Brothers posted another quarterly loss. But there are homebuilder strategies for savvy investors, says Randy Frederick. The director of derivatives at Charles Schwab gave his take on the sector now.

Frederick noted that options activity for Hovanian indicates stronger interest than stock buys would indicate.

• More Options Action: Nokia & Chips

"Even though we really haven't seen recovery in the housing market and the data suggest that a bottom is nowhere near...the whole housing sector overall is up 40 percent over the last couple of months," he says.

Commodities are unwinding -- but Bob Richards, Longbow Research analyst, says steel stocks are only going to get stronger.

"I certainly think the selloff has been overdone," he told CNBC. He cited "overbuying by Asian scrap consumers" as a key selloff catalyst -- and one which won't be repeated soon.
(Contd.)

__________________________________
More CNBC.com investor advice:

- Commodities Party Fizzles; Should Investors Bail? __________________________________

He acknowledged that Chinese infrastructure growth is still going strong, despite foreign investors' qualms -- and said there are even more global indicators forbullishness on steel, including sector fundamentals.

"There are systemic reasons for prices to stay high," Richards assured investors.

Stocks discussed in interview include:
(Click on tickers for company headlines)

- Arcelor-Mittal

- Nucor

__________________________________

Other sector leaders:

- U.S. Steel

- AK Steel Holding

- Tata Steel Ltd. (privately held)

- Posco

__________________________________

Disclaimer

The options market is looking at mining equipment makers, cell phone equipment outfits, and the semiconductor sector, Rebecca Darst of Interactive Brokers said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Thursday morning.

On mining equipment makers ...

"In general, the sector as a whole took a hit on the market's negative reaction to Joy Global's earnings, and, apropos of Joy Global , we saw as of the close yesterday, some implied volatility on all of its options was hovering right around those pre-opening levels, at around 55 percent, versus 43 percent historic volatility. Incidentally, we also recorded the heaviest day of option-trading volume on record -- our records go back 52 weeks for Joy Global, with the equivalent of more than half its open interest in play.

Formula Capital's James Altucher says investors should buy stocks of companies involved in travel to China. But wasn't China supposed to be in an economic decline, once the Olympics were over?

Nope: "This is still an economy that's growing 10 percent a year, domestic tourism is growing 10 percent a year," he told CNBC. "You've got a middle class that's going from 43 percent of the population to 76 percent of the population, and Chinese travel plays are good bets here."

Recommendations:

So who's he talking about?

"Air Media," he said. "The company's got display screens that they put in 52 different airports around China; the screens display news, weather, and, of course, advertising. The company had 250 percent revenue growth over the past year."

______________________________________
More Investor Advice:

- Financial Psychiatrist: Beware The Herd!

______________________________________

He also likes Home Inns.

"They are the largest budget hotel chain in China," he explained. "They are the Holiday Inn of China; they are in 79 cities with 266 hotels, and they're building another 200 hotels over the next year. This is the pure play on Chinese tourism."

Let others go after the extremes -- corporate giants and the small fry. RidgeWorth's Don Wordell is a mid-cap manager, and his four-star RidgeWorth Mid-Cap Value Fund is up an average of 12.14 percent per year over the last five years.

"We think mid-caps give you the information opportunity of small-cap investing with the liquidity of large caps," he told CNBC.

So what designates a mid-cap company? Wordell says that changes from year to year.

"It's a moving target, but most mid-cap managers stay between the 1-to-15 billion-dollar market-cap range," he explained.

Recommendations:
(Click on tickers for latest company news)

His first pick is Mattel.

The dollar is stronger, oil prices are dropping. So what's the commodity play now? Giles Keating, global head of research at Credit Suisse, has two answers:

1. Avoid gold.

2. Buy ???
Watch the video to find out Keating's strategy for exposure to the commodity space.

______________________________________
Commodity ETFs -- Click for headlines:

- Market Vectors Global Agribusiness

- PowerShares DB Agriculture

- United States Gasoline

- iShares Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Index Fund

- PowerShares DB Base Metals

______________________________________

Disclaimer