Industrial materials comprises a wide variety of businesses, from copper miners to aircraft makers. Except for the commodity stocks, many businesses in this sector have one key characteristic that makes them attractive to the Magic Formula screen...

In a shaky stock market environment, there is no better place to turn than the defense contractors. Leading the S&P index by about 20% in 2008 (the 8th straight year of better relative performance), the so-called “big five” have their work cut out for them in 2008 and beyond. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that defense spending will increase this year.