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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