The Best Stocks For 2008

Fortune:

We'll say this for the U.S. economy: It can take a punch.

Consider the blows it has absorbed just this year. The worst real estate crash since the Great Depression. Pow! Oil prices up from $50 to $90 a barrel since last January. Bam! A subprime mortgage mess metastasizing into a full-blown credit crisis, with banks swallowing billions in losses and cutting back on loans. Baff!

Yet through all the punishment, the economy has barely flinched. "I'm floored by how resilient it has been," says veteran stock strategist Ed Yardeni of Oak Associates. "Had you told me at the beginning of the year this was going to happen, I doubt I would have been very optimistic."

Read the whole story: Fortune

Comments

[joja]

09:07 AM on 12/13/2007

Anybody heard how Mattel is doing with its Xmas sales?

Hope they hemmorage to death! Fuckin' greedy-ass bastards!

[twgbonehead]

01:34 PM on 12/12/2007

The best stocks for 2008?

Beef, Chicken, and Vegetable.

Oh, and the ones they're putting up for Bush and Cheney.

[WMG]

12:39 PM on 12/12/2007

What a load of garbage. Price the Dow or S&P in any currency except the U.S. dollar, and its clear we've been in a bear market since 2000. Now, with the housing refi ATM closed, watch the consumer (70% of U.S. GDP) slowly wither. Then watch corp profits tank. And then the Fed deficit balloon on lower tax receipts. (Then comes the repub hoped-for dismantling of the great society... i wonder how much they'll like it when it arrives...).

The Fed (who along w/ corrupt incompetent government, and corrupt and greedy Wall Street got us into this mess) can defend the economy, or defend the dollar, but not both. One of them is toast. So maybe they further debase the currency, and nominal asset prices rise or buoy. Or maybe, whether by choice or not, the great contraction takes hold, and assets prices decline in nominal and real terms. But why post a stock pick article w/ blather about a resilient economy? Turn on bubble vision CNBC for Wall Street hype.

These ideas deserve thought and consideration:
1. avoid indiv stocks, but buy into sectors (ETFs) that have a chance
2. balance (at least somewhat) long and short positions
3. buy traditional energy (its here a awhile, like it or not; peak oil) and alt energy (PBW; could benefit from tax law; eventually will be huge)
4. buy gold (hedge against currency debasement)
5. short financials (avoid options and large leverage/time traps; consider SKF)
Increase your financial literacy. Don't depend on advisors; instead educate yourself, increase your confidence, and make your own decisions. Be prudent; know your risks.

[considerthis]

11:50 AM on 12/12/2007

Nope, I don't believe it. ...the
economy "appears" to be getting stronger... We've lived 7 long years being controlled with these alleged appearances, later discovered to usually not be the truth. Remember those number reports a while back - when they showed a decline in the economy, it was all of a sudden discovered that the numbers were wrong and all was really peachy keen in the USA. As to how the current numbers can appear to be good? It's not globaliation or anything else. It's just another out and out LIE.

[mrcontinental]

11:50 AM on 12/12/2007

Not bad picks...as long as you wait until AFTER the crash. Shilling those stocks at current prices is madness and they say as much with their oblique reference to the P/E ratios and admitting only single digit returns at best.

Might as well go to Vegas or Atlantic City and play Baccarat, much better odds.

[ErnestineBass]

11:30 AM on 12/12/2007

Bravo, HuffPo!!

"The Best Stocks For 2008", and THERE'S NO PICTURE ABOVE IT!!!

I give the HuffPo staff a 10 for symbolism!