"Philip Morris International (PM), a holding on our Recommended Buy List, has caught fire with investors this summer, recently hitting a 52-week high," says Geoffrey Seiler.

The editor of BullMarket.com explains, "The company's CFO, Hermann Waldemer, was recently at an investor conference in New York, and below, we review his presentation and comments for this update on how the cigarette business has been doing outside of the U.S.

"There's a reason companies that pay stable, outsized dividends can be so profitable in uncertain times; dividends provide you with an instant litmus test of value; they show you whether a company is making money; and they reflect how seriously management takes its responsibility to shareholders," says Keith Fitz-Gerald.

The editor of the Money Map Report explains, "Altria Group (MO) is a dividend machine. Right now, the stock yields 6.9%. And there's more than enough business to sustain such a high payout rate."

"Vice stocks have consistently outperformed most other market sectors, especially during recessionary times," says Alexander Green, whose 'Seven Deadly Sins Portfolio' is up 59% in six months.

One strong performer in that portfolio is Smith & Wesson Holding (NASDAQ: SWHC). Here, the investment director of The Oxford Club explains why investors should load up on the gun maker.

"Smith & Wesson has been a partner in law enforcement since the 1800s, developing crime-fighting tools that set the standard for the field.

Historically, so-called "sin stocks" have held up exceptionally well in bear markets. Demand for alcohol, sex, gambling, cigarettes and firearms tends not to ebb and flow as much as the broader economy.

Historically. But over the past year, the USA Mutuals Vice Fund (VICEX) is off about 42% -- slightly worse than the S&P 500. The fund's manager Charles Norton told BusinessWeek that while casinos have been weak, many of the firm's other vice-oriented holdings have been beaten down unfairly: "The fundamentals don't really matter in this current market."

That would certainly seem to be the case so far: When the market's down 42%, any long-only fund will be getting its stuff handed to it. With Las Vegas at the epicenter of the foreclosure mess, it's not surprising that heavily leveraged casino companies are underperfoming. And casinos are not really as recession-proof as other forms of gambling because the upscale ones especially are as much about tourism as gambling. The more affordable state lotteries have seen their sales decline but not by that much.

As for sin stocks, it might be too late for investors to start buying them: If the stock market is poised to rebound, recession-resistant companies will tend to be the laggards.

But if the stock market goes down another 40% in 2009, it'd probably be good for investors to stock up on Jack Daniels: the drink, not the stock.