Which Sectors are Safe Havens? Which are Danger Zones?

It is interesting to see what stocks thought of as safe havens are truly working when the "time" comes versus what are not. Anything that has broken down below its 50 day moving average, in my mind - has not been up to task of being a safety valve in an awful market. As you will see below, most common safe havens have failed.

Let's look at some common sectors/names considered 'safe' - the only one I own of this group of 'safety stocks' is MedcoHealth Solutions (MHS), which along with Express Scripts (ESRX) are drug delivery companies. [2 New Positions in Healthcare Field]

Drugs never go out of style and the charts confirm this. I like these names because you get the benefit of drugs without the FDA risk.





Speaking of drugs they are supposed to be a safe haven - I find that to be very risky considering FDA decisions move these stocks, and big pharma is lacking a lot of new drugs coming down the pipeline, along with drugs coming off patent AND a most likely Democratic Congress and President (as the economy worsens more blame goes to GOP, rightly or wrongly). I don't see much "safety here" in some of these names - here are 3 of the 4 biggest (by market cap) drug companies, along with SGP.









We do see safety in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) which is now more of a hybrid - a consumer name mixed with some drug exposure.



Then we move to consumer non discretionary which means stuff we need - toiletries and stuff like that. I don't see much safety in Procter & Gamble (PG) or Unilever (UN). But Colgate (CG) seems to be holding very well (more international exposure than PG). The problem with this area is inflation eats away at their raw costs (higher costs = less margins) - and they are not immune to slowing consumer despite the hype.







What about the 2 big names in food/beverage that were supposed to be immune due to their rapid international growth and exposure? Not so good of late.





But Coke (KO) is holding up ok....



Then we have what appears to be one impervious stock - big MO.



Disclosure: Long MedcoHealth Solutions in fund; no personal position