- US Inflation Bonds Hit by Deflation, May Recover
- Pros Say: Market Will Drop 5-10% — Ford Will Boom
- Bonds Drop on Profit-Taking, Geithner Move
- Jack Welch on Detroit: Let Them Go Bankrupt
- Bank Shareholders Face 'the Unthinkable': El-Erian
- Heinz Profit Rises, Thanks to Hedging
- AnnTaylor Swings to Loss, Pulls Outlook
- Where the Layoffs Are—Is Your Firm on the List?
- Citigroup's Pandit: We Will Not Sell Smith Barney
- Value Trading Opportunity of a Lifetime?
- Voice of Cramerica: Geithner's Chance for Redemption?
- Lightning Round OT: PPL, Arcelor Mittal, Cardinal Health
- Mad Money Lightning Round: CF Industries, Gentex, SunTrust and More
- Geithner News Sends Shorts Scrambling
- Berkshire Hathaway Bounces Back By 16% For Best Day In Decades
- Quick Market Stats: Week Ending 11/21
- Turkey Day Will Gobble a Bigger Bite From Your Wallet
- "Twilight" From Summit Takes A Bite Out of Major Studios
Text Size 
With stocks sharply lower today, shareholders need to protect their portfolios.
So what are some of the best defensive stock picks? CNBC asked the experts.
Healthcare Bargains
“I think the significant underperformance in the group -– you might call it damaged care instead of managed care -– has presented great opportunity. The Humana [HUM
Loading...
()
] upgrade was a great call; that’s one of our favorite stocks. We think it could double in the next year.”
- Charles Boorady, Citigroup Healthcare Providers Analyst
Boorady also recommends: Health Net [HNT
Loading...
()
], WellPoint [WLP
Loading...
()
], Aetna [AET
Loading...
()
] and Healthspring [HS
Loading...
()
].
__________________________________
Scary market? Turn to CNBC's experts:
 |
__________________________________
Stocks for the Long-Term
“What we’re focused on in our firm is long-term investing, so we’re looking for companies that have great cyclical growth characteristics, regardless of the short-term economy. Blue Nile [NILE
Loading...
()
] has that. They're taking massive share from their competition, and that’s because the online business model is just better than the offline model."
- Michael Lippert, Baron iOpportunity Portfolio Manager
Lippert also recommends: Equinix [EQIX
Loading...
()
].
(Contd.)
_______________________________________
CNBC Investor Takeaway |
Recession-Proof Healthcare Picks
“I think some of the more defensive areas … would be areas like clinical labs, so a company I really like is Lab Corp. [LH
Loading...
()
], as they’ll continue to benefit as lab tests are very stable, and I think the pricing outlook is stable there also.”
- Adam Feinstein, Lehman Brothers Analyst
Print
Email
Del.icio.us
Digg It
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes