AT&T Is 'Whacked' Stock Worth Buying.

When Eastman Kodak Co. announced its third-quarter profit would miss forecasts, its stock took a monstrous hit. In one day it plunged 25 percent, to $44.50 a share from $59, erasing $4.5 billion in market value.

But the world's largest photography company is far from the only stock to take a "Kodak whack" this year. Of the 918 stocks with a market value of $2 billion or more, 99 have done as badly or worse.

Since I like to buy battered stocks, here are four new names that I would consider as buy candidates: Nucor Corp. (down 44 percent), AT&T Corp. (down 45 percent), Dow Chemical Co. (down 44 percent) and Ingersoll-Rand Co. (down 40 percent).

Nucor, based in Charlotte, was a pioneer in the mini-mill segment of the steel industry. Over the past six years, Nucor has typically sold for 2.8 times book value, 18 times earnings and 1.2 times revenue. If we aren't entering a recession, Nucor and other steel stocks are bargains.

AT&T is a stock I disliked for a long time. I thought its board was dithering and its leadership poor. But things have happened to change my mind about the stock.

Dow Chemical started the year at more than $44 and closed last week at $24.31.

Perhaps investors are frightened by Dow's plans to buy rival Union Carbide Corp., creating the world's second-largest chemical company. But I think that consolidation will he good for chemical-industry profits and that the oil price increases are mainly behind us.

As for Kodak, the latest victim of investor intolerance for earnings disappointments, I thought about buying it, but decided to hold off. The revenue numbers aren't encouraging.