Volatility and uncertainty have certainly risen in the past few months, but that hasn't dampened many investors' interest in stocks. A recent press release from investment bank Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) proclaims "Credit Turmoil Challenges Growth Outlook, but Investors Still Back Equities over Bonds."

While some indicators tracked in Merrill's September Survey of Fund Managers have moved in a more cautious direction, Merrill said the survey also showed that, by and large, fund managers were not adjusting their portfolios for a downturn. In fact, 23% of investors told Merrill that they thought equities were undervalued, compared to 11% in the August survey.

In a similar vein, Germany's Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) recently released a series of reports called "Turbulent Markets, Equity Opportunities" that reviewed the firm's best ideas. A focus of the report was on stocks that the research team thought would continue to perform well regardless of what the market does. Among the 117 ideas laid out over four reports were telecom giant AT&T (NYSE:T) and insurance company Aflac (NYSE:AFL).

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