The Dow's 3 Biggest Winners Today

After a flat Tuesday on low trading volumes, bears returned with a bang to push all three major indices down for the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI  ) declined steadily from the opening bell and finished the day down 1.14%. The S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC  ) and Nasdaq (INDEX: ^IXIC  ) dropped a bit more, down 1.25% and 1.34%, respectively.

Winners of the Dow
On a day in which all 30 Dow stocks ended negative, the term "winners" may really be better defined as "best losers." One of today's best losers turned out to be Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) , which ended the day down 0.37%. P&G's performance is often the case for companies of its type in broad market sell-offs, as investors flock to consumer-goods stocks that are considered safe havens in a bear market.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) also beat the market today, ending the day down just 0.17%. Analysts anticipate that Wal-Mart will be one of the winners of a solid holiday season. Retailers are expected to post $469 billion in holiday sales this year, up 3.8% from 2010, according to the National Retail Federation.

Another company down just slightly today was AT&T (NYSE: T  ) . The company, which recently ended its bid to acquire T-Mobile, is still the highest yielder on the Dow. It finished the day down 0.30%.

Winners outside the Dow
One of the biggest winners outside the Dow was a Minnesota-based Arctic Cat (Nasdaq: ACAT  ) . The snowmobile and ATV manufacturer jumped 20.75% after announcing that it has purchased back all of its shares that Suzuki Motor had owned. The company paid $79.3 million for the shares that Suzuki owned, which amounted to a 33% stake. The deal will reduce shares outstanding to 12.3 million, down from 18.4 million.

Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, and AT&T were all able to beat a down market today. But if you're interested in one stock that our chief investment officer picked to crush the market in 2012, check out our brand new report, "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012." It highlights a company that is revolutionizing commerce in Latin America. You can get instant access to the name of this company for free.