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Supermarkets chain J Sainsbury and drinks giant Diageo are two of the companies to bet against next year.
That's according to JPMorgan, which today published its basket of "stocks to avoid" in 2010, intended alternatively as a list of prime candidates to short.
Analysts reckon the UK's third-biggest grocer and the maker of Smirnoff, Guinness and Pimms are unlikely to deliver good returns to shareholders during the next leg of the market recovery. Sainsbury's dipped ¼p to 323½p but Diageo gained 12p to 1066p.
The big-hitting broker has also taken against drugs maker AstraZeneca and Drax, the owner of Western Europe's biggest coal-fired power station - or Britain's biggest polluter in the eyes of the green lobby - and recommends shorting them both. Astra fell 8p to 2835p but Drax added 5p to 422p.
JPMorgan wasn't all gloom and its top buys include banking giant HSBC, 7½p cheaper at 716p, consumer goods giant Unilever, 8p off at 1852p and cigarettes maker British American Tobacco, 3½ cheaper at 1934½p.
The bank's pointy-heads are optimistic about the wider market: they expect European markets to extend their gains next year, rising by around 20%.
But investors in London weren't sharing their positive sentiment, with shares slipping thanks to losses from the miners and banks. The FTSE 100 dropped 30.27 points to 5292.09.
Banks were hit by investors' fears about a windfall tax, with Royal Bank of Scotland slipping 3p to 33½p and Lloyds Banking Group dropping 3½p to 54p.
Cancer-causing hamsters made an unlikely appearance in the City today, sending shares in Character Group plunging.
The toy distributor's stock fell 6½p to 61¾p on reports that the gift children will be desperate to see under the Christmas tree this year - the robotic Go Go Hamster - could contain excessive levels of a carcinogenic chemical, Antimony. Distributors and US manufacturers denied the claim.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto suffered after the former arch-rivals made their relationship official over the weekend.
The mining titans sealed a tie-up to combine their Western Australian iron ore operations.
Rio, which fought off BHP's advances last year, shed 21p to 3104p as traders said the tie-up destroyed hopes that BHP might return with another bid.
BHP sank 8½p to 1882p as the wider mining sector suffered on the back of weaker metal prices thanks to a stronger dollar.
The constancy of the Grim Reaper's knock has helped funeral homes group Dignity to keep growing through the recession and UBS reckons the shares now look cheap.
It raised its rating on the group to buy and upped its price target for the shares to 650p.
This pushed the shares onto the mid-cap winners' board, jumping 11p to 582p.
Has HMV lost the edge? Morgan Stanley warned today it believes video games - which make up a fifth of the retailer's UK sales - remain lacklustre.
It also reckons shoppers are buying more online and from supermarkets and avoiding high street specialists.
Morgan advised clients to dump HMV and set a 95p price target for the shares which today added 1¼p to 112¼p.
