Motorola is another investment has-been, with shares down 74% this year to a recent 4.22. Standard & Poor's cut the company's credit rating earlier this month to junk status, and two analysts reversed their 2009 profit outlooks to an expected loss, given the steep decline in demand for Motorola cellphones. Yet, long-term debt equals only 21% of total capital, and the next payment isn't due until November 2010, notes a research report from Broadpoint AmTech, a NewYork firm. Broadpoint has a 12-month price target of $10.

It's easy to see why Kodak is in the single digits; its shares fell about 9% last week, and were trading around 6.60 after the once-mighty film giant withdrew its 2008 guidance for sales and operating earnings, its second warning in six weeks. Kodak has failed to keep pace in a market dominated by digital photography, and cited a weak dollar and global recession for its current troubles. Analysts thought the company could earn 26 cents a share next year, atop earnings of 17 cents this year. Now they expect it to earn 20 cents in 2009. Still, Kodak's no candidate for a government bailout. It has whittled long-term debt to about 22% of total capital, and generates enough cash to pay a dividend of 50 cents a share, for a yield of 6.9%. The stock looks expensive at 33 times the revised "09 forecast, but sells for less than half book value of $16.30 per share.

No stock on our list has fallen more than Genworth, the biggest initial public offering of 2004. Shares have crashed 90% in 2008 alone, to 2.58. Genworth sells mortgage insurance, annuities and reverse mortgages, which act as home-equity loans for seniors. Profits have been hurt by loan defaults, scarce credit and investment losses, but fees from annuity and investment-advisory businesses should put a floor under earnings. Profits peaked in 2007 at $3.07 a share; analysts are projecting a drop of 35% this year, and a gain of about 5% next year.

Among other tech and telecom names, software producer Compuware is down 30% this year, compared with a 45% drop for the application-software sector. Compuware, which trades around $6 and operates on a fiscal year, could generate earnings of 57 cents a share for the 12 months ending March 2009, up 6% from fiscal 2008's results. It could generate free cash flow of 82 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Jabil Circuit, which reports quarterly earnings this week, could see profits jump 4% for the fiscal year ending in August, to $1.16 a share. Analysts are penciling in $1.36 for fiscal "10. Jabil, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., serves various end markets, and its customers include Cisco Systems, IBM and Nokia. The shares are down about 55% this year, to 6.81, and sell for six times "09 estimates.

Analysts expect Tellabs, another company on our list, to boost 2009 earnings by only a penny a share, to 19 cents. Of greater comfort: The company hasn't a smidgen of long-term debt. Tellabs' shares have fallen 40% this year, to a recent $3.91 apiece. The Naperville, Ill.-based outfit has been hurt by the weak market for telecom equipment.

Thankfully, as a recent New Yorker cartoon put it, there are still people funneling retirement money into double lattes. Not that it's helped Starbucks, whose stock has fallen 53% this year, to about 9.50. Barron's penned a positive piece on the Seattle company in September ("Something Good Is Brewing," Sept. 29, 2008), when the shares were at 15, and we continue to applaud steps management is taking to boost sales and profits.

But folks aren't spending their 401(k) money on chicken, to judge from Tyson Foods' nosedive, to around $7 a share from about 19.50. Yet, even as rival Pilgrim's Pride struggles in bankruptcy court, Tyson expects higher earnings in fiscal "09 and "10. The fiscal year ends in September.