Dow plunges more than 660 to fall below 9,000

[LogansPapa]

[Hawkgirl]

SO, best sectors for a bear market?

[Lager]

SO, best sectors for a bear market?

I have heard that consumer staples are good in a bear market. Some blue chips have gone down to the point where their dividends are pretty attractive. Now might also be a good time to get into natural resource stocks, or at least when we are close to a bottom. For the time being, heavy in cash is a good position obviously.

[Hawkgirl]

How about renewable energy companies, with everything "going green"...I wonder if it's a good time to start looking into coal, solar, ethanol..etc type funds?

Most of my investments are in real estate...but I have some cash on the sidelines waiting to jump in...Just don't know where yet.

[Lager]

Jim Jubak who writes a financial column for MSN Money, likes renewables like solar, once things level out a bit. Especially if Obama wins the election. This was his comment:

They've been beaten up badly along with the rest of the energy sector. But with new government subsidies likely to kick in sooner than expected and an end to the silicon-wafer shortage, these stocks could show gains of 20% or more in 2009 -- even with a global economic slowdown in the cards for the first half of the year.

Of course, that's assuming things get back to a semblance of normality.

[Hawkgirl]

I just looked up Morningstar's highest rated funds and ProFund's inverse index funds have skyrocketed since inception...especially this last week.
15K minimum..time to jump in and hope the bear market lasts 6 months?

I never dealt with inverse funds...very attractive right now if that's where we are headed.

[cat714]

No, you're incorrect. I do believe that this market will rebound (I think the bottom, as I've said here before, is probably 8). However, you have lost, given the assumption of a steadily progressive incoime of x% per year. You have been set back several years in the process. You know that, as a yardstick, a market that has lost 33% will need to recover 50% (of the original value) just to be even.

I've done work for some institutional funds management companies as well. One, in fact, that gave away a fairly large check representing an investor institution's pension funds to a rather squirrley kind of CEO. :D

Ok, so you're saying the market hasn't bottomed out, but the rest of what you are saying doesn't make much sense. It's been a long day so I'll revisit this thread after some rest and relaxation. :D

[LogansPapa]

President on the tube now giving his plan to fix things. When you can’t really think of a new plan or something original to say - reiterate the obvious. Remember - we’re supposed to have confidence in him, as our leader, trying to imitate FDR.

[LogansPapa]

Wonder how many more days until Toyota buys General Motors?

[Gingersnap]

Hey! On the the plus side, those of us who still have money can go back to mocking the Canadians for their toy "dollars". :D