Nine money-makers for 2009

— -- 1. A tip on TIPS

Mass deleveraging around the globe has raised the specter of Japanese-style deflation — a persistent drop in consumer prices and asset values. If that fear turns out to be overblown and there's even a whiff of inflation, investors who buy, say, a five-year TIP, or Treasury Inflation-Protected Security, could reap a very nice return on an extremely safe investment, says Brian Rogers, chairman and chief investment officer at T. Rowe Price.

2. Profit from corporate debt

Due to the upheaval caused by frozen credit markets and growing fears that more companies will default on their debt, yields on investment-grade corporate bonds are 4 to 6 percentage points better than comparable lower-risk U.S. Treasury bonds. You can get yields in the 7%-to-9% range for bonds issued by high-quality companies with staying power. "It's better than holding money in a bank account or Treasury security," Rogers says.

3. Re-emerging markets

If you think the stock carnage was bad in the USA in '08, it was even worse in the emerging markets, or developing economies, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. This asset class is selling at roughly six times earnings, which is cheap from a historical perspective. So "intrepid investors … who can deal with the uncertainty of the next three, six to 18 months can make a bunch of money in emerging markets over the next few years," Rogers says.

4. Oil boom II

The financial fallout from oil plunging more than $100 a barrel from its July peak of more than $147 has been massive. But the long-term thesis for crude, namely a spike in demand due to resurgent growth of emerging economies like China, remains intact, says Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer at Johnson Illington Advisors. "Sometime in 2009, the price of oil will return to an equilibrium level of $80 to $84 a barrel," says Johnson. "And I think that will be reflected in the stock prices of large integrated oil producers going up."

5. Recession-resistant plays