Like most investors still braving this market I keep trying to find a safe place to invest that provides decent returns. With a stock market that seems to have many more down days than up days, it is hard to have confidence in future growth prospects.

The election is over and no matter how you feel about Obama, he will be the next U.S. president. A sharp increase in new debt could push up interest rates and continue the downward pressure on the stock market. Let's look at some possible winners:

Each day I hear disgruntled comments due to losses and see many people looking for an out. "The fact is people are scared and the only thing they're doing is selling," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. As a dividend and value investor, these are the times we live for - value priced stocks and golden dividends.

Investors have long enjoyed a love-hate relationship with pharmaceutical stocks. This sector is unique in that their products are effectively scheduled for obsolescence via expiring patents. As such, a pharmaceutical company's pipeline of new products is just as important, or maybe more important, than the company's current offerings.

Floyd Brown says there are five pharmaceutical companies offering outstanding dividend yields in a growing sector. And with most negative sentiment already priced into the stocks, downside risk is limited…

Stock Analysis of Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY). The analysis includes a detailed PDF.

Excerpt: "The fund [CalPERS]warned it would start or step up existing efforts to push for changes if the companies do not act quickly themselves. Calpers is already pursuing shareholder proposals at four of the 11 companies."

I found the thought of CalPERS as a potential activist investor very interesting.

A Recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the pharmaceutical industry was in fact losing to the biotech industry in the number of new molecular entities (NMEs) approved by the FDA over the last few years.

The biotech industry has failed in its attempt to function as a science-based business

Followers of the sector know very well that biotech stocks have traditionally traded at premiums to their big pharma counterparts, mainly due to the fact that they tend to be smaller, and therefore one big product breakthrough can have a dramatic effect on the company, and fuel substantially higher earnings growth. It appears in today's market, however, that the two subsets of healthcare have converged as far as valuations go. As a result, I think there are opportunities for investors to capitalize.