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.

"You can invest for all the right reasons and still get the wrong result," notes long-standing turnaround stock expert George Putnam, referring to the poor performance of the pharmaceutical sector in recent years.

Here, in his industry-leading The Turnaround Letter, he offers a fascinating review of 10 leading drug stocks which he now believes offer a combination of growth potential at "pretty cheap" valuations. Here is his overview.

"In 2000 and 2001, when the Internet boom was becoming a bust, many smart investors turned away from technology stocks and put their money into drug stocks. How could you go wrong with the big pharmaceutical companies?

"Demand for their products was growing as the population aged. These companies had huge research
and development programs that seemed to keep cranking out new blockbuster drugs. And most of them had great balance sheets, with many paying handsome dividends.

"Much of this reasoning has been borne out in the intervening years. Many large drug manufacturers have rung up substantial revenue gains over the last decade. So what's happened to the big drug stocks? With few exceptions they have gone sideways or down – in some cases down a lot.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Among the phrases that mystify me is "Too sweet" -- I was born with 28 sweet teeth. The sweetener holder in most restaurants today holds at least two different ersatz sugars; Sweet'N Low and Splenda. Which is better?

Sweet'N Low has the history. It first came on the market back in 1957 when the key ingredient, saccharin was packaged in the same single-serving sleeves used for sugar. It is still owned by the originators, privately held Cumberland Packing Group. Although the intensely sweet saccharin had been around since the start of the century, it took Sweet'N Low marketing and an increasing focus on the nation's waistline to popularize it.

The product's primary advantage is cost; a packet sells for slightly over a penny a serving. Downsides include bitterness that some users distinguish, and the inability to use it in baking and cooking, as it breaks down under heat.

There were a lot of earnings reports this week -- if you weren't setting up some trades before the reports were released, you're probably digesting the numbers now. I had a look at 3M (NYSE: MMM) this morning. The famous Dow component, which competes with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and DuPont (NYSE: DD), reported this past Thursday. Net sales increased 9%, but diluted earnings per share unfortunately took a whopping decline of 25%. However, you need to take a look at what caused this drop -- there was a gain in last year's quarter from the disposition of a European pharmaceutical business, as well as some other items. Excluding these elements, you'll find that earnings per share grew by 8%.

According to the company's release, 3M did rather well in the free-cash-flow department. Last year at this time, free cash flow came in at $276 million. This past quarter saw free cash flow grow to just under $700 million. I liked that; I also liked that most of the company's divisions reported double-digit profit growth. This is a healthy, blue-chip dividend player -- plus, 3M is comfortable with its previously stated forward guidance of at least $5.47 in adjusted earnings per share for 2008 (or, as the release put it, management believes net income will see an increase of "a minimum of 10% over 2007 earnings-per-share of $4.98"), and it beat the street this past quarter by three pennies, according to Briefing.com.

Here are some things to think about regarding 3M's stock. If it does earn close to $5.47 a share, then the company sports a forward P/E ratio of a little over 14. The yield on the shares is well over 2%. And, as of Friday's close, the price of the stock -- $77.82 -- is well off the 52-week high of $97 and a little ways off from the 52-week low of $72.05. Taken together, this 3M scenario seems like an interesting set-up for a decent trade. The stock looks like it will probably meander for a bit, but it nevertheless should be looked at.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

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.