Ghouls and goblins of Wall Street

I’m a horror movie fan and I am always on the prowl for a good slasher flick or ghost story during Halloween.

But this Halloween I can get all the frights and chills I need just by checking my stock quotes throughout the day.

It has been a wild ride lately.

The daily ups and downs are like Freddy Krueger’s knife fingers screeching down the wall.

News that other countries’ economies are also slowing and their banks are failing is like that creepy girl crawling out of the TV set in "The Ring." So with that in mind, I came up a few of my own ideas for scary movies:

• "The Day the Dow Hit 5,000": Don’t say it can’t happen. You probably would have thought the Dow at 8,000 was improbable a year ago when it was at 14,000. Some pundits have already theorized that it’s a possibility and at least one Web site, Dow5000.com, is devoted to the idea. It was only three weeks ago that Seth Glickenhaus, a 94-year-old trader who worked on Wall Street during the Great Depression, told the Wall Street Journal that he could easily see the Dow hitting 9,500, given all the volatility and turmoil. The Dow was at 10,325 then, and we closed Friday at 8,378. Getting scared yet?
• "When Nations Collide": There has been a lot of tension mounting lately between the United States and Russia. It started back with the invasion of Georgia, but it’s continued to simmer with Russia’s expanding its dialogue with Venezuela, an oil-rich country that’s not on the White House parties invitation list. Earlier this month Russia sent warships to Venezuela to conduct military exercises with its navy. If you think a bad unemployment report can massacre the market, wait till you see the bloodfest brought on by more global instability. Your computer screens will run red!
• "Attack of the Machines": You probably read last week how "circuit breakers" on the New York Stock Exchange caused morning futures trading to halt. The failsafe mechanism kicks in when an extreme shift in market value takes place in a short time — typically a panic selling moment. Computers are more and more ingrained in Wall Street and the exchanges of other countries. Back in September the London Stock Exchange shut down for seven hours because of a computer malfunction. What if several countries’ systems shut down simultaneously? Or what if the circuit breakers didn’t do what they were supposed to do and the selling grew out of control?

Freddy and his legions of ghouls don’t seem so scary any more, do they?

But for the truly brave who aren’t afraid to bottom-fish for stocks, the Wall Street Journal recently offered these suggestions:
Autoliv (ALV), an auto parts maker; Crane (CR), an industrial products manufacturer; Eaton (ETN), which makes aerospace parts; Manpower (MAN), staffing and outsourcing; Seagate Technology (STX), data storage devices; and Textron (TXT), aircraft and industrial businesses.
The article noted that all six companies have ample free cash, have been growing sales and pay respectable dividends.

The six stocks also have an average forward price-to-earnings ratio of 6.8 percent, far below the 15 or so widely considered as "cheap."

I still remain committed to the market, but I’m sleeping with the covers over my head.