3M (MMM) looks promising, and it's not just because my kids appear to have cornered the market on Post-It notes and Scotch tape. Research shows that 3M has outperformed the S&P 500 Index when investors are risk averse, which is a condition that we may see reappear over the next few months. According to research by UBS analysts, institutional investors collectively consider 3M a "safer" industrial company to own during turbulent times for the broad economy.

You may know of 3M primarily for its consumer products, but it also has a large display and graphics business, as well as substantial electronic and communications industry exposure. As inventories have shrunk dramatically in all of those areas this year, 3M is in a good position to keep up its earnings growth in the low double digits, especially since more than 65% of its income comes from overseas markets, where it is helped by the lower dollar.

Right now, 3M is pretty cheap, having underperformed the S&P 500 for the past 40 months, posting just a 1% gain in 2006 and declines of 3% and 6% in 2004 and 2005. The shares are up almost 20% this year, but it has a lot of ground to make up. If its valuation gets back to historic norms over the next 12 months, I think 3M will be in business.