Defensive stocks are often the stocks that investors try to use as a safe harbor to wait out the storms. We have covered many of these and even gave our own list of defensive names with a value strategy earlier this year for the first half of 2008. But today we are focusing on the actual leaders in "defensive go-to stocks".
These go-to names are Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), Altria (NYSE: MO), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Colgate Polmolive (NYSE: CL), Merck (NYSE: MRK), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).
These are not all of the defensive names at all, but these are the major stocks that investors have flocked to in defensive stock trading strategies in recent months:
STOCK LAST CHANGE
KO $59.28 +$0.26; +0.44%
BUD $46.57 -$0.40; -0.85%
KFT $30.87 -$0.33; -1.06%
MCD $52.81 -$0.35; -0.66%
MO $73.23 +$0.21; +0.29%
PG $65.64 -$0.71; -1.07%
CL $76.35 -$0.49; -0.64%
MRK $43.59 -$0.47; -1.07%
JNJ $62.43 +$0.20; +0.32%
Recently we have offered a full grouping of stocks and trends for a bear market and for a recession, and hopefully that won’t be too prominent all year. Unfortunately, it isn’t feeling like anything better.
With the S&P at 1312 and some change, it is at a critical level right now. The low close for 2008 so far in January on the S&P 500 Index was 1,310.50 and the intra-day lows were far worse at 1,270.05.
Jon C. Ogg
March 4, 2008
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