Comments on: What are good sectors to invest in during a recession?

By: perdidobums

perdidobums — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:41:23 +0000

Defensive stock sectors like utilities and consumer staples usually hold up well in a recession. Bonds may also do well if this is a typical recession.

By: Random Guy from Texas

Random Guy from Texas — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:08:11 +0000

Energy demand growth is linked to economic growth, so energy would probably not be a good sector.

Lower your risk profile overall by picking safer things to invest in such as US treasuries and so forth.

Commonly held wisdom is to invest in things that do well in recessions, such as discount retailers (people go there as opposed to more expensive shops), health care (when you are sick, it doesn’t matter what the economy is doing), etc.

But keep in mind the market knows this too, so your there is little opportunity there for a lot of money.

By: Aaron F.

Aaron F. — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:16:22 +0000

Generally, when the stock market is down, U.S. government and safe municipal bonds, CDs, and money market funds outperform the market. This is because government bonds, CDs, and money market funds offer a low, but constant, rate of return, so they underperform the market when stocks are up, but outperform it when stocks are down.

By: muncie birder

muncie birder — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:41:17 +0000

During a recession your two options are t-bills and long government bonds. The second has some risk, especially if we were to have stagflation as during the 80s when interest rates went to 14% to 16%. Maybe you should stick with t-bills.

By: Rick G

Rick G — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:54:45 +0000

I just asked this yesterday

By: Charles Dexter Ward

Charles Dexter Ward — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:26:03 +0000

Alcohol. Stays up even during a recession.

By: Cerebal

Cerebal — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:38:44 +0000

Are you talking a US recession or a broader one?