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We still think high-quality mutual funds with a long-term focus will beat stock-market indexes over time. If funds invest as we advise — sticking with well-established companies and spreading their assets across the five main economic sectors — they will likely lose a lot less than the indexes during a significant market downturn. That’s because big market slides are particularly hard on the stocks that were the most popular during the preceding rise, and our approach avoids excessive investment in these companies. In contrast, index funds do tend to load up on the hottest, most popular stocks as they rise. That’s because these stocks make up a growing proportion of the index as they increase in value. The most recent example is Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, which, propelled by soaring fertilizer prices, had the highest market capitalization on the Toronto exchange last June. The shares have since dropped 54%....

DIAMONDS TRUST SHARES $85.20 (American Exchange symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers) hold the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The fund’s top 10 holdings are: IBM, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart Stores, United Technologies and Coca-Cola. The fund’s expenses are about 0.17% of its assets. Diamonds Trust Shares are a buy.

S&P DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS $92.14 (American Exchange symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers) are commonly called “Spiders.” The fund holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. stocks that are chosen based on their market share, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s 10 highest-weighted stocks are: Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, JP Morgan Chase & Co....

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO., $33.26, New York symbol JPM, earned $2.1 billion in the first quarter of this year. That’s down 9.8% from $2.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Earnings per share fell 40.3%, to $0.40 from $0.67, on more shares outstanding. Still, the bank’s earnings beat analysts’ forecasts of $0.32 a share. Revenue rose 48.2% during the quarter, to $25 billion from $16.9 billion. Morgan’s purchase of Washington Mutual last September was a big reason for the gain. Because of this, Morgan’s average total deposits rose 62% from the prior year, to $345.8 billion. The number of chequing accounts jumped 126%. As well, Morgan’s investment-banking division posted higher revenue. This was driven in large part by higher fee income from underwriting new bonds, as well as trading gains. The recession continues to weigh on the bank’s loan portfolio. During the quarter, provisions for loan losses rose 94.3%, to $8.6 billion from $4.4 billion a year earlier. (These provisions are not actual loan losses, but accounting rules require banks to estimate their future loan losses and deduct these from their revenue.) Morgan raised its provisions for credit-card and home-equity loans; this was the main reason for the jump....

SCOTIA U.S GROWTH FUND $6.20 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Scotia Securities, 40 King Street West, 6th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 1H1. 1-800-268-9269; Website: www.scotiabank.com. No load — deal directly with the company) finds undervalued companies by looking at their fundamentals. These include earnings, dividend yield, cash flow and debt level. It also attempts to evaluate company management. The $29.3-million fund’s top holdings include ExxonMobil Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Colgate-Palmolive, Chevron, Lockheed Martin, Gilead Sciences, GameStop Corp., Halliburton, Microsoft and Western Digital. The Scotia U.S. Growth Fund lost about 53% over the last year. However, a rise in the U.S. dollar cut that loss to 29% in Canadian dollars, compared to a loss of 26.5% for the S&P 500 in Canadian funds. The fund’s MER is 2.57%....

Brookfield Properties Corp., $7.14, symbol BPO on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 391.1 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion), owns, develops and manages office buildings in some of North America’s largest cities. Brookfield’s commercial portfolio consists of interests in 108 properties totalling 74 million square feet in the downtown cores of New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. Brookfield Asset Management (symbol BAM.A on Toronto), holds a 50% interest in Brookfield Properties. The other 50% trades on the Toronto exchange. Office buildings account for about 78% of Brookfield’s revenue, and residential housing accounts for about 22%. Brookfield’s residential land-development and homebuilding operations are mainly based in Alberta (42% of total acres), Texas (26%), Colorado (18%), Ontario (13%) and Missouri (1%)....

FIDELITY GROWTH AMERICA FUND $11.98 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Fidelity Investments Canada, 483 Bay St., Suite 200, Toronto, Ont. M5G 2N7. 1-800-263-4077; Web site: www.fidelity.ca., load fund — available from brokers) uses a broad “bottom-up” approach to identify undervalued companies using fundamentals, such as earnings, dividend yield, book value, cash flow and debt level. The $160.2-million Fidelity Growth America Fund’s top holdings, among the 122 stocks it holds, include Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart, Apple, Nuance Communications, Chevron Corp., Qualcomm, Bristol Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, 3M and Phillip Morris International. Fidelity Growth America Fund is broken down by economic segment as follows: 13.9% in Information Technologies, 13.3% in Health Care, 11.9% in Energy, 10.3% in Consumer Staples, 9.1% in Financials, 8.7% in Industrials, 7% in Consumer Discretionary, 3.9% in Utilities, 3.5% in Telecommunication Services and 2.5% in Metals & Minerals....

APACHE CORP. $60 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 334.7 million; Market cap: $20.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; WSSF Rating: Average) explores for and produces oil and natural gas, mostly in North America. Apache prefers to sell its oil at the current spot price, instead of locking in prices through hedging contracts. This strategy let it take full advantage of rising oil and natural-gas prices in the first half of 2008. Thanks to a 27.5% rise in its average oil prices, and a 25.5% jump in gas prices, Apache’s 2008 earnings rose 30.5%, to $3.8 billion from $2.9 billion in the prior year. Earnings per share climbed 29.6%, to $11.22 from $8.66. The 2008 earnings exclude a $3.6-billion writedown of Apache’s properties that was caused by falling energy prices in the second half of 2008. This is a non-cash accounting adjustment, and had no impact on the company’s cash balances. Apache’s revenue rose 23.9%, to $12.4 billion from $10 billion....

CHEVRON CORP. $64 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2 billion; Market cap: $128 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; WSSF Rating: Above Average) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the United States, after ExxonMobil. Oil production supplied 86% of its earnings in 2008; the remaining 14% came from its refineries and retail gas stations. In response to weaker energy prices, Chevron aims to conserve cash by temporarily suspending its sharebuyback program. (In 2008, it repurchased $8 billion of its stock.) It now holds $9.6 billion, or $4.70 a share, in cash, and its total debt of $8.9 billion is a low 7% of its market cap. In 2008, Chevron’s earnings rose 28.1%, to $23.9 billion from $18.7 billion in 2007. Earnings per share rose 33.1%, to $11.67 from $8.77 on fewer shares outstanding. (Chevron’s 2008 earnings included a $600-million gain on the swap of some properties.) Revenue rose 23.6%, to $273 billion from $220.9 billion. Higher oil prices in 2008 offset a 3.4% drop in overall production, mainly due to the disruption caused by hurricanes at its offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico....

This year, global oil consumption will probably fall for the first time since the early 1980s. We feel now is a good time to buy well-established oil companies that can take advantage of low oil prices. The three listed below are good examples; all have low debt and plenty of cash, which puts them in a good position to buy new properties or smaller producers, possibly at bargain prices. CHEVRON CORP. $64 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2 billion; Market cap: $128 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; WSSF Rating: Above Average) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the United States, after ExxonMobil. Oil production supplied 86% of its earnings in 2008; the remaining 14% came from its refineries and retail gas stations. In response to weaker energy prices, Chevron aims to conserve cash by temporarily suspending its share buyback program. (In 2008, it repurchased $8 billion of its stock.) It now holds $9.6 billion, or $4.70 a share, in cash, and its total debt of $8.9 billion is a low 7% of its market cap....