Five Best Stocks for '07

These stocks will churn out double-digit earnings if the economy slows slightly. Earnings will hold up well, even if the U.S. slowdown is bigger than expected, since these companies do business in so many economies that they can often balance slower growth here with faster growth there.

And these stocks actually get an extra performance kick from volatility. Because they're seen as safe havens, money flows into these issues when an up-and-down market scares money out of more volatile sectors.

It has been a very volatile 12 months for stocks. Going for blue chips worked this year, I'd argue, because of market volatility that sent some investors in search of safety. It didn't hurt that after years of modest performance, many blue chips were relatively cheap at the end of 2005.

Not Just Any Blue Chip

To the degree that 2007 is also shaping up as a volatile year, I think blue chips will again outperform many more aggressive indices and sectors. And blue-chip growth stocks will offer even higher relative outperformance, I believe, if 2007 turns out to be worse than the IMF's most likely scenario.

Gains from these stocks may not set your heart aflutter in that case, but they're likely to be much better than you'll get from more aggressive segments of the stock market.

< Previous

1 2 3 4 5 6

Next >