![]()
- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- Fed to Counsel Moviegoers on How to Use Credit Cards
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Trader Talk
- Black Friday: Bargain or Bust?
Stocks are tumbling. Bonds yields are falling faster than Hillary Clinton's poll numbers. And fears are growing that the commodities bubble could be ready to burst.
So the inevitable question is: Do investors have anywhere to turn?
Not to fear. The quick answer to this painful question is "yes."
![]() |
Henny Ray Abrams / AP |
Even in a schizophrenic market that seems to follow little rhyme or reason, there are plenty of plays left to make, even for the risk averse.
Here's a rundown.
Stocks: Play it Safe
In down times the traditional market advice is to go with the tried and true: Large-cap dividend payers that deal in items consumers can't do without, regardless of inflation, unemployment or other constrictive economic factors.
And for this cycle, there are no surprises.
"Our No. 1 philosophy is to look for robust and sustainable growth and look for where that growth is not being fully captured by the market," advises Tom Ognar, of the Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Fund.
"These are troubling times, and so let's take that into account and have a game plan for that, and we've adjusted our game plan as we've gone into this year."
Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson, likes to ride economic fundamentals when the market gets loopy.
"We've been playing food, water, energy, commodity metals, and in this volatile market ... we want to be in areas where there is rising demand and limited supply.
Ognar likes St. Jude Medical [STJ
Loading...
()
], which he says has a sound strategy to expand margins, and Hewlett-Packard [HPQ
Loading...
()
], which has impressed with its moves towards efficiency.
Dickson favors standbys including Johnson & Johnson [JNJ
Loading...
()
], Eli Lilly [LLY
Loading...
()
], Kimberly Clark [KIM
Loading...
()
] and Pepsico [PEP
Loading...
()
], companies that have a history of growing their dividends.
Similarly, David Scott, senior portfolio manager at Chase Growth Fund, is favoring large-caps with exposure to international emerging markets, such as Coca-Cola [KO
Loading...
()
] and McDonald's [MCD
Loading...
()
].
Craig Hester, of Hester Capital Management, said he has been looking at technology, health care and consumer stocks.
"We want to run diversified portfolios and find companies that show improvements in their operating profit margins, and that's really where our focus has been," Hester said.
Commodities: Up on the Farm
Commodities across the board, from gold to platinum, from oil to wheat, have hit historic highs over the past weeks, leaving many to wonder how much higher they can go.
Gold, for example, continues its meteoric rise toward $1,000 an ounce, but platinum, which had soared past a stunning $2,000 an ounce, had its first pullback in six weeks this week, though it still stood at a hefty $2,156 an ounce earlier today. Analysts were predicting an additional fall as power outage problems in South Africa continued to limit mining and keep prices well above their January levels.
![]() |
Richard Drew / AP Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. |
Wheat and corn, meanwhile, continue to trade at sharply higher levels, as are most other agricultural commodities.
"Commodities are in a growth cycle," says Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at The Hartford. "The reason is simple: You have people all over the world changing the way they live, and that requires commodities. But it doesn't mean that along this spectrum you will not see many bubbles."
Energy commodities have been hot as well, with oil riding past $100 a barrel.
Jeffrey Frankel, president at Stuart Frankel, likes coal stocks such as Arch Coal [ACI
Loading...
()
], CONSOL Energy [CNX
Loading...
()
] and Peabody Energy [BTU
Loading...
()
].
Sean Brodrick, natural resource analyst at Money & Markets, advocates plays in gold or silver in metals, cotton in agriculture, and oil.
"It wouldn't surprise me to see a pullback in certain commodities pretty soon," says Brodrick, who nonetheless has set a $1,065 target for gold and a $112 target for oil. He expects that after the pullback occurs it will be safe again to go back into the market, and expects most investors to follow that strategy.
Investors who are more risk-averse can play ETFs like the one that mimics gold's movement, streetTRACKS Gold Shares [GLD
Loading...
()
].
Bonds: Safe Havens or Snoozers?
The ultimate safe hiding place during stock market madness has always been bonds, and the trade has been inundated to the point of short-term notes hitting four-year yield lows well below 2 percent, making Treasurys an increasingly less attractive environment.
Municipal bonds have been popular with their usually higher yields, but they too have run into troubles in the form of higher prices and plummeting yields as demand for the auctioned bonds crumbled. February marked the worst month for munis in four years.
And the news for bonds is unlikely to get better as the dollar continues to devalue and the Federal Reserve shows a continued willingness to cut interest rates while recession looms.
"There's a true dislocation in munis, in bank loan bonds. You want to be careful," says Krosby, while also pointing out that in investment trends, nothing lasts forever.
"It's not a question of whether you're going to get back into the (bond) market, it's a question of when."
Krosby says that once recession fears subside and the Fed starts raising interest rates, that will be a better time to get back into bonds.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
- Eric Schmidt pledges to create a virtual copy of the Iraq National Museum at Google’s expense.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- More shoppers than ever plan to comparison-shop this season. Who will benefit?
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- How can you get out of debt and back on the road to recovery? Follow these ten steps.














