Fortune Magazine is looking ahead to 2009 with a list of ten especially promising stocks.
Senior editor Leigh Gallagher admits a certain risk.
"We don't know when the bottom is," she told CNBC. "What we do know is, when markets return, they return in force. Usually, after a bear market, in the first nine months, the market goes up by an average of 32 percent, so if you wait, you risk missing big momentum."
Recommendations:
High on the list is Devon Energy.
"It's an exploration and production company, based in Oklahoma City," noted Gallagher. "No matter what you say about oil prices, the long-term trend is back up, and this company focuses mainly on the United States and Canada, areas that are, obviously, politically stable; it's also sort of 50-50 split between oil and natural gas, which is another hedge."
Fluor, she said, is a straight infrastructure play.
"It's a well-positioned company," she said. "This company has been doing well, one of the few that has revised earnings upwards for 2009."
In health care, Fortune likes Johnson & Johnson.
"You're playing the medical devices, you're playing pharmaceuticals, but you're also playing consumer staples," Gallagher explained. "This is a company with brands like Neutrogena, Listerine, Tylenol, the staples that are historically recession-resistant."
Then, there's Potash.
"Potash saw a huge surge earlier this year," she said. "It has come down, but long-term, that's something that's used in a lot of things; something nobody ever heard of until last year, but we're still talking about it.
