Stocks to Buy Now

Considering the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, which is increasingly begining to affect prime morgages across the country, investors should focus their investments on those companies that are in solid financial shape and in no need of outside capital and whose business models revolve upon government or business spending rather than consumer spending. The reasons for this are simple. As more and more mortgages default, banks will tighten their lending practices signifigantly lowering the overall amount of liquidity in the overall market, thus affecting the ability of companies to raise cash. Furthermore, consumers have been able to spend much more than income would have allowed under more normal circumstances by raising dept through refinancing their homes. Such refinancing is rabidly becoming a thing of the past and thus the consumer will very quickly find themselves with a great deal of debt and far less cash to spend than anytime in the past several years thus greatly affecting consumer spending. With this in mind, the top stocks I am recommending now include Air Products and Chemical (APD), International Business Machines (IBM), and Flour (FLR). The first, APD offers investors a great growth story, with more upside exposure to the so-called hydrogen economy than any other U.S. company. IBM is a spectacular company in solid financial shape, which is selling chaep and growing earnings at a sustainable pace. Flour is a pure play in the infrastructure segment and is another great growth stock.

For purposes of disclosure, I currently own IBM and APD and looking to increase my holdings in each. I am also looking to buy FLR on dips.