IndustryWeek's Global Manufacturing Portfolio: Manufacturers Shine In Investors' Eyes.

One year ago it would have taken some guts to present manufacturing stocks as hot investments for 2001 and to hail the overall strength of the manufacturing sector relative to nonindustrial stocks. Then, manufacturing was still a dirty word on Wall Street and investors were flinging money at dot.coms. Few investors respected the role of manufacturers in producing and connecting the networks and infrastructure that made dot.coms possible. And investors forgot that many manufacturing leaders know a thing or two about managing material assets-capital equipment, technologies, facilities, and people-and how to pull profit from those components, even in an economic downturn. IndustryWeek would have liked to have broken the news to investors -- and disheartened CEOs who watched as their manufacturing stocks were ignored -- but the market beat us to it. So, instead, we put our portfolio where our mouth is. We created the Global Manufacturing Portfolio, a lineup of 10 manufacturing stocks that IW believes will provide market-beating returns in 2001 (Titans for 2001). Additionally, IW reviews how manufacturing stocks came back into vogue (The Good 'Old Economy' Days) and why shares of socially responsible companies are especially attractive in the early years of the new millennium (Good Deeds Deliver).