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To fearful investors, everything looks risky.

Through episodes of heightened market volatility, such as the one still unfolding, the typical degree of differentiation between assets of various risk levels is abandoned.

Over the last several months, risk assets of all kinds have become more tightly correlated with oil prices. As the crude market has crashed, equities and riskier bonds have been pulled down on a global scale.

"What's so interesting is just how disconnected the fundamentals are from recent price action at the stock level," Jonathan Golub, chief equity strategist at RBC Dominion Securities, said in a note.

The S&P 500 index was down by 9.4 per cent this year so far as of Tuesday's close, with 83 per cent of the companies in that index in negative territory on the year.

The casualties include "companies with stable or improving fundamentals [that] have been indiscriminately beaten up," Mr. Golub said.

While the vast majority of S&P 500 stocks are down year to date, more than half of the companies in the benchmark have seen their expectations for future earnings improve over the last three months.

"We believe this disparity presents an opportunity for equity investors to selectively upgrade their portfolios," Mr. Golub said.

The note compiled a list of stocks with the greatest discrepancy between improving profit forecasts and declining share prices over the last three months. A partial list follows.

Discrepancy between improving profit forecasts and declining share prices over the last three months

3-Month Change (%)
CompanyTickerEarnings ForecastShare PriceDifference
Willis Towers Watson PLCWLTW-Q92.8-4.997.8
Netflix Inc.NFLX-Q41.8-2768.8
Broadcom Ltd.AVGO-Q61.8-667.8
Chubb Ltd.CB-N43.4-3.747
Delta Air Lines Inc.DAL-N21.2-20.441.6
Harman Int'l Industries Inc.HAR-N1.7-38.640.3
SalesForce.com Inc.CRM-N8.1-31.940
Huntington Bancshares Inc.HBAN-Q11-27.838.9
Akamai Technologies Inc.AKAM-Q3.7-34.338
Expedia Inc.EXPE-Q6.6-31.337.9
CBRE Group Inc.CBG-N1.4-35.436.8
Charles Schwab Corp.SCHW-N7.2-29.536.7
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.RCL-N2.3-33.335.6
Priceline Group Inc.PCLN-Q2.7-32.835.5
Signet Jewelers Ltd.SIG-N2.2-31.533.7
Southwest Airlines Co.LUV-N7.4-25.933.3
Zions Bancorp.ZION-Q0.5-32.533
ONEOK Inc.OKE-N6.1-26.732.8
Delphi Automotive PLCDLPH-N1.1-31.632.7
Regeneron Pharma. Inc.REGN-Q1.9-30.532.4