In this stock market, more places to get hurt than to hide

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It may not be an official bear market in your personal stock portfolio, but odds are that you’re looking at a lot of red ink this year -- and very little that’s in the black.

In other words, there haven’t been many places to hide in the stock market. Even some of the classic ‘defensive’ stocks have failed investors this time around. Buy-and-holders are being severely tested here, and it doesn’t feel like it’s over.

Measured from the record high in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index reached Oct. 9, nine of the 10 major industry sectors in the index now are in the red, according to S&P’s chief number-cruncher, Howard Silverblatt.

The one holdout, predictably enough, is the energy sector. The average energy stock in the S&P 500 is up 8.8% since Oct. 9.

Thanks to energy, the drop in the S&P 500 overall hasn’t crossed the bear-market threshold of minus-20% from the record high. The index, which plunged 2.9% today to 1,283.15, now is off 18% from its October peak.

As I noted in this earlier post, even though the Dow industrial average today sank through its worst levels of March, the S&P 500 and most other indexes still are above their March closing lows.

But that may not be much comfort to investors who are having trouble identifying even a single winner in their portfolios this year.

The carnage in financial stocks has been well-documented. That sector in the S&P index is down 41.8% since Oct. 9. Likewise, it’s no surprise that the so-called consumer discretionary sector, which includes automakers, home builders and a raft of retailers such asJ.C. Penney and Starbucks Corp., has been hammered. That sector is down 24.1% since October.

But this is the kind of enviroment that’s supposed to favor industries such as healthcare, whose sales and earnings typically don’t depend on the economy’s swings. Yet the average healthcare stock in the S&P has plunged 17.1% since Oct. 9, as rising costs and tougher competition have squeezed profit at many drug companies and HMOs.

The consumer-staples sector, which includes many producers of food products and toiletries, also is supposed to be a good place to hide in a sinking economy. People still have to eat -- and bathe (we hope).

Compared with a lot of other stocks, the staples sector has suffered less since October. But you’re still in the red by 4.6%, on average, in the stocks. And some of the biggest (and supposedly safest) names have been hit the worst. Procter & Gamble’s shares, for instance, are down almost 17% since peaking in December.

One definition of a bear market, apart from the 20%-loss rule, is a downtrend that inflicts widespread pain. By that definition, I’d say we’re there.