These are treacherous times for equity investors. The curse of Monday struck again today: the Dow crashed through the 10,000 mark. Stocks across the board are getting slaughtered. So where can you put your money right now? Julian Chillingworth, manager of the Rathbone Income and Growth Fund, recommends four defensive stocks in today’s MoneyWeek…

On September 19 the SEC suspended short selling for 799 financial companies. Eric Roseman says the legislation targets the wrong traders. He says short sellers make the market more transparent. By blocking them, the SEC is violating the free market.

The turmoil in US stock markets is making all the headlines. But BRIC nations are facing a much deeper crisis in their stock markets. Despite recent setbacks, however, Andrew Gordon reckons Brazil is the most likely of the pack to weather the current financial storm.

Taipan Publishing editor Justice Litle says Buffett’s backing is particularly significant. It shows there are still a lot of very powerful people, not to mention sovereign wealth funds and foreign governments, willing to back Uncle Sam.

On September 19 the SEC suspended short selling for 799 financial companies. Eric Roseman says the legislation targets the wrong traders. He says short sellers make the market more transparent. By blocking them, the SEC is violating the free market.

The news is saturated with Hank Paulson’s $700 bailout plan. This is diverting attention away from the increasingly bleak outlook for the wider economy.

Rick Pendergraft says no bailout can immediately solve the problems in the housing market. And all indicators suggest these will run well into 2009 at least.

Wall Street is still in chaos. Yesterday, regulators seized America’s biggest savings and loan bank WaMu (NYSE:WM) and sold it to JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). It was the most spectacular bank failure in US history. The crisis, and the bungled attempts of the government to ‘fix’ it, is setting up some great contrarian investment plays.

Investing icon Warren Buffett took his own advice Tuesday - getting “greedy when others are fearful” - when he ignored the banking-sector bonfire and slapped down a cool $5 billion for a stake in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS).

Taipan Daily editor Justice Litle says it’s likely that “we’ll see the price of stocks, commodities and paper assets in general explode into the stratosphere.”

The Dow plunged over 370 points in yesterday’s going, wiping out Friday’s spectacular gains for big-name stocks.

But there are profits to be made in the small-cap market says Laura Cadden in Today’s Financial News. She’s found three great small-cap stocks going for bargain prices. All three have solid valuation ratios and strong short-term growth prospects.

Justice Litle says the plan is a minefield for investors. He says there are five things you need to know about the government bailout and what it means for your portfolio.

On Thursday morning, Rick Pendergraft at Investor’s Daily Edge was predicting a bounce over the next few months based on the chart of the Dow, record-breaking volume on the major ETFs, and the VIX breaking above the 37.50 level.

The US subprime and credit crisis has cost the world over $7.7 trillion, according to a report released in February by Bank of America. The worst could yet be to come. Shah Gilani in Money Morning says the $62 trillion market for credit default swaps (CDS) is a ticking bomb.

Andrew Snyder recommends three stocks that have been dramatically oversold in the crash. They are Vimpel-Communications (NYSE:VIP), Rostelecom (NYSE:ROS) and Mechel OAO (NYSE:MTL).

Floyd Brown says there are five pharmaceutical companies offering outstanding dividend yields in a growing sector. And with most negative sentiment already priced into the stocks, downside risk is limited…