"Health-care stocks have been volatile of late, as the prospects for significant healthcare reform are impacting the group," notes Chuck Carlson.

In The DRIP Investor, he explains, "Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has not been immune to the weakness. And while these shares could remain under pressure in the short run, the company's prospects are significantly brighter than the typical health-care stock."

"First, Johnson & Johnson's diversified business portfolio, which includes pharmaceuticals, medical technology, and consumer products, should help to smooth out results and cushion declines in any one area.

Health Care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) had its chance to impress Wall Street this morning with its first quarter earnings release, and the company indeed put up better than expected results, pushing shares higher in the premarket.

Analysts had been expecting the company to earn of $1.22 per share, but the company surpassed those estimates, with a reported $1.26 per share for its first quarter. First quarter earnings were also on par with the $1.22 it reported during the first quarter of 2008.

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) is a blue-chip Dow component, but that doesn't mean it can't have a challenging quarter or two (or three or four or five, depending on how bad the recession gets).

According to this article, P&G believes its top-line sales revenue won't be as good as previously expected. This is due, in part, to how the dollar has been trading as of late against foreign currencies. However, fear not, shareholders, because earnings per share should be fine and remain the same. Management believes that Q2 will see somewhere between $1.58 and $1.63 per share, and it is looking for the fiscal year to fall between $4.28 and $4.38 per share.

The question is, will management turn out to be correct? If the recession continues to worsen, can this guidance be trusted? Quite honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if estimates were trimmed later on. P&G will see intense competition from generic brands, you can bet on that. But I can't say that P&G shareholders should care that much. After all, P&G, like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Kraft Foods, Inc. (NYSE: KFT), and PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP), is a consumer-products business that has a strong footprint on the supermarket shelves. It pays a solid dividend, and it's a great core holding suitable for dollar-cost-averaging. This is why one holds a P&G: to take advantage of the times when the stock may be down because of challenging times. You improve your cost basis, and go for a high effective dividend yield over time.

If you're trading P&G, you may want to be careful. For those not trading, I think P&G can still be counted on as being a relatively safe entity to hold. The company is a great generator of cash flow, and you can rest assured that management will be watching its costs and expenses carefully. Sometimes that's not enough, especially in these times of uncertainty, but patient players should remain just that... patient.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

"We've followed Warren Buffett's advice to 'buy American'," says Mark Skousen; his Hedge Fund Trader eyes Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and FPL Group (NYSE: FPL).

"Johnson & Johnson as well as FPL Group are two strong positions in companies that have suffered a few 'hiccups' during this historic panic selling, but are likely to survive and prosper in the next year.

"First, Johnson & Johnson, the health care and pharmaceutical giant, beat expectations in its most recent earnings report. The company's earnings jumped 30% to $3.3 billion on revenues of $15.9 billion. It currently is selling for only 15 times forward earnings -- a bargain price.

"Second,, FPL Group -- known as Florida Power & Light -- is a large Florida utility company that is holding up well. It, too, is a solid company that now is on sale because of the financial crisis.

"Revenues are down slightly to $15 billion, and earnings dropped 40% during the past year. But Florida Power is still profitable, and at 10 times next year's earnings, it should continue to recover.

"We think it is wise at this time to limit our exposure to the markets, and to keep our powder dry by focusing strictly on a few well-financed utilities and consumer product firms.

"Overall, we consider both Johnson & Johnson and FPL Group to be solid companies selling at a substantial discount to their real value."

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a daily look at the latest market commentary and favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

You've got to love 3M (NYSE: MMM). The company, whose colleagues include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and DuPont (NYSE: DD), reported earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday. The numbers appeared good to me.

3M's revenues increased over 6%. Operating income went up well over 8% (excluding special items). Operating income margins rose 60 basis points. The bottom line went up 10%, coming in at $1.42 per share on an adjusted basis. Analysts were looking for about $1.38 per share, so management certainly beat the experts on Wall Street. One of the great things about this Dow component is its ability to generate a decent stream of cash flow. For the nine-month period, 3M delivered $3.4 billion in operational cash flow. That represented a 25% increase. Capital expenditures remained about the same, so free cash flow also took a really superb hike. Free cash generated came in at $2.4 billion, a 42% increase.

For the year, 3M expects to earn at least $5.40 to $5.48 per share, excluding special adjustments. If 3M hits even the low end of the range, then the stock has to be considered cheap. The blue-chip company, which operates in many different areas, including health care and transportation, and which produces products as varied as adhesive tape and surgical masks, closed on Tuesday at about $60 per share. It's well off the 52-week high of $88.70 and it's not too near the 52-week low of around $50.

I like the yield and the valuation, but I'd like to wait for a bit of a pullback before taking a look at 3M. We're just not in a decidedly upward-trending market, and guidance could change (as it apparently did since the last time I covered 3M). Buying on pullbacks is always smart strategy.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

In the latest annual survey in Barron's of professional investors Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was rated the world's most respected company," reports Ron Rowland and Brandon Clay.

In Invest With an Edge, the advisors look at the 123-company, which he selects as " a solid healthcare pick in a strong long-term uptrend."

"This New Jersey-based company has come a long way since corner drugstores sold their baby powder. Beginning as a pioneer in sterile medical supplies, they expanded into pharmaceuticals and related consumer products.

"Over the years, they've released ubiquitous brands such as Band-Aid, Rogaine, Listerine, Tylenol, even Splenda. Johnson and Johnson has become a household name.

"However, Johnson & Johnson is a healthcare company with deeper product lines; it is ivided into three segments: Consumer, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices & Diagnostics.

Is the market getting you down? You want it to go up, right? Well, you better settle in and brace yourself for even harder times as an individual investor. That is, if some pundits are correct about the direction of share prices. According to this CNBC page, a Dow of 8,000 is now in play, and gold might be set to strap a rocket on its back and propel itself up to $1,500 per ounce over time. I'm not sure about the gold, but a Dow of 8,000 almost feels like a logical rest stop at this point (but that might be emotion talking). In the end, none of us can tell the future.

I can, however, share with you a wish. And it isn't just my wish. I'm sure there are others out there who have already said this. And, yes, this wish is coming from someone who owns The Walt Disney Corporation (NYSE: DIS), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), and General Electric (NYSE: GE). I own them for the long term (except for a separate trading position in GE which completely failed and may turn into another long-term asset), so maybe this wish isn't so mysterious. I want to go back to that "happy" time of October of '87. I want to see the Dow drop over 20% in one day. Preferably, I'd like to see it drop 25%, on Cloverfield-monster-sized volume. How many points would that be? As of this writing, it would be roughly 2,670 points.

What, am I insane? About as insane as the idiots who decided to become risk sponges, I suppose. In all seriousness, we need a crash. We need a reset, a reboot. We need a lot of panic on the street, and a spiking VIX ($VIX.X), to at least begin a bottom formation. If you think we're going to form a bottom without pain, you're wrong. And if you think, at this point, that we can form a bottom without a crash, well then, I won't say you're completely wrong on that count, but I will say that a crash would be better.

"Any further market weakness creates creates another opportunity to acquire some outstanding stocks," suggests Kelley Wright, noted for his focus on blue chip, dividend-paying stocks.

In his Investment Quality Trends newsletter, he looks at the benefits of keeping a long-term focus, the value of dividend districutions to an investor's long-term returns, and his current "timely ten" picks for conservative investor.

"The cash dividend for the Dow is $322.40. One year ago the dividend was $284.06. Amidst all the turmoil in the markets and the economy something must be going right with the Dow 30 companies because the dividend is ever climbing.

"Dividends, as we all know, can only come from the reality of earnings; you can't pay what you don't have. The dividend yield on the Dow is currently 2.66%, which represents an 11% downside to a 3.0% yield and the historically repetitive area of Undervalue.

"Will the Average make it down to that level? No one knows but that isn't the point. At current levels the upside is FAR greater, particularly in many of the stocks in our Undervalued area.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• According to people familiar with the discussions, the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has held discussions with Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) and News Corporation (NYSE: NWS), among others, about joining it in a deal that could lead to the breakup of Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO). Some of the sources said the preliminary talks are unlikely to result in a deal with Yahoo!
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is reportedly in exclusive talks to sell its wound-care business Ethicon to the private-equity arm of JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM), according to the Wall Street Journal. Terms of the potential deal were not disclosed.

OTHER PAPERS:

• Sources familiar with the inquiry said that the Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into a deal that would allow Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) to provide some search advertising for Yahoo!. The Washington Post reported that investigators will demand documents from Google and Yahoo!, as well as other large companies in the media and Internet industries.

WEB SITES:

• Reuters reported that regulators in the European Union are looking at the long-term effects of BHP Billiton Limited's (NYSE: BHP) $170B bid for Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RTP). Sources familiar with the EU questionnaire said regulators have asked competitors and customers about effects of the deal on their businesses through 2015.

Many of us would be happy to benefit from a quiet retirement without facing concerns of losing all of our hard earned money. Fortune 40 gives us a helping hand by suggesting some big names to invest in that could offer us the results that we are looking for.

One such company is Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), whose earnings surged 35% during its last quarter, helped by its famous anti-inflammatory drug Humira and HIV treatment Kaletra. Looking ahead to the company's performance, CEO Miles White is planing to keep his main attention on its medical devices unit which is seen as a key element against strong competition.

Fortune 40 also looks at beverage maker The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), which benefits from strong international gains able to beat recent weakness in U.S. In addition, it looks like the company's acquisition of Glacéau and its VitaminWater brand offer it a good support to outperform on the market.

"Our portfolio has been notably light on pharmaceuticals and consumer products; we're rectifying that by buying Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)," says Gregory Dorsey in Leeb's Income Performance Letter.

"Getting a handle on exactly what the 122 year-old company markets is no easy task, given the broad scope of its product line-up. And to say that J&J has been a resounding success on the corporate
stage would be an understatement.

"Through its more than 250 operating businesses, the parent company lays claim to being, among other things: the world's premier consumer health company, the largest medical devices and diagnostics company, the third-largest biologics company and the sixth-largest pharmaceuticals company.

"While acquisitions have played an important role in making the company what it is today, J&J has also achieved these milestones through internal growth. It boasts 75 consecutive years of rising sales.

With traders increasingly worried about the housing market and the credit crunch, health products maker Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) gave an optimistic note to Wall Street by posting a surprising growth in its first-quarter profit. The company reported better-than-expected earnings, with some help from favorable exchange rates.

For the quarter, the company said that its profit surged 40% to $3.6 billion, or $1.26 per share, helped by strong sales of many key products. These numbers are up from $2.57 billion, or 88 cents a share, reported in the same period a year earlier. Analysts, on average, expected the company to show quarterly earnings of $1.20 a share.

The health products maker posted growth of 7.7% for its first-quarter revenue, which climbed to $16.19 billion from $15.04 billion a year earlier. During the period, Johnson & Johnson benefited from the weak dollar which was a major driver for its consumer products sales. Analysts expected the company show revenue of $15.83 billion in the third quarter, according to Thomson Financial.

Investment Quality Trends -- one of the most respected newsletters in the advisory field -- uses a proprietary strategy that assesses historic level of stock price to yield; it's goal is to buy those stocks offering the best potential for downside protection and upside appreciation.

Here, editor Kelley Wright explains his methodology and highlights his current "Timely Ten" stocks that best match his time-tested criteria.

"Investors who wished to hold every stock in that we currently rank in the 'Undervalued and Rising Trend' categories, would need to hold one hundred twenty six stocks as of March; clearly too many positions to be practical.

"Our Timely Ten, therefore, is our reasoned expectation based on our methodology and experience for what we believe will perform best over the next five years.

"Do we believe that all 10 will go up simultaneously or immediately? Of course not. Our four decades of research and experience, however, leads us to believe that these stocks, purchased at current Undervalued levels, are well positioned for appreciation.

As I start to type this story, it's 2:59 and the DJIA chart I just saw read 11999.97, the tiniest tick shy of yesterday's 12,000 milestone, and 11.76 points off the record close. [By the time I published the market had closed two points above the 12,000 mark.] I know, yawn! Everyone's doing the same story. Dow 12,000, milestones in history. Right?

Right, and wrong. Let's do something else here, in this time that seems fraught with cliche and over-valuation. So many Wall Street pundits are saying, watch out! There's a slowdown ahead. And surely, many of these valuations seem high. Too high. But in my opinion, there are just as many stocks that have room to grow.

I'm looking at the numbers and I've found five Dow stocks to stay away from, and five that may still have some legs.

Five with room to zoom:

• 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), $79.20 up 3.66% today; 52-week high $88.35; 52-week low $67.05. P/E 17.47. Latest quarter results show it is up 6% on LCD growth. I think that P/E is nice and low for a company which, despite its industrial roots, is really an innovative company that actually makes things that people want. A good 10% below the 52-week high sounds like lots of room to me.