(New York)

Markets have been very turbulent lately with no clear path forward. With that in mind, and given the stage of life (retirement) of many clients, a lot of advisors may be looking for some good yields to add to portfolios. Well, it might be good to take a look at utilities stocks. While the focus on investors has been on growth, utilities look good at the moment. Despite the fact that utilities generally lose ground when rates rise, and have lost 2.4% this year, well-run regulated utilities still look like a good buy. In particular, look for utilities that do not have massive amounts of capital tied up in a single asset, like a power plant. This means one should focus on utilities in the electricity transmission and distribution areas.

FINSUM: Beyond the yields, utilities would also seem to be quite good at defending against a downturn, as spending on them would be quite resilient in a recession.