The Dow lost more than 130 points Wednesday, falling below the 12,000 level during intraday trading for the first time since mid-March. But are you really surprised? When three of the nation's largest brokerages not only underperform but decline even further, the news causes investors to second guess whatever optimism exists and unnerves the financial markets.

The latest bad news in financials came from Morgan Stanley (MS). On Wednesday, after the investment bank quarterly earnings that were half what they were last year. The $1.43 billion from asset sales just wasn't enough to offset the company's losses.

Asset sales compensated for severance related to job cuts and losses from proprietary mortgage trades and leveraged loans, but this is temporary lifeline. After all, assets can only be sold once! The big question is, what's going to drive Morgan Stanley's earnings growth going forward?

The credit crunch is leaving banks and brokerages badly beaten, forcing them to write down over $400 billion of assets, slash jobs and raise new capital. The news out of Morgan Stanley comes to us on the heels of a Lehman Brothers (LEH) announcement of a $2.8 billion loss, and a Goldman Sachs Group (GS) report of an 11% profit loss.

So where is a good place to invest? Well, the energy sector continues its upward march and is a great place to make money, which is why I've been telling my Global Growth subscribers to buy energy stocks and steer clear of value stocks, particularly in the financial sector.

My best advice for any investor out there right now is to get out of the financial markets and dive into strong energy and agriculture growth stocks. My Global Growth subscribers have reaped a 104% gain from Canada-based oil company Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) in less than 10 weeks, and a 96% gain from Chile's agricultural chemical producer Sociedad de Chile (SQM) in 12 weeks! My PortfolioGrader Pro tool rates both these stocks a grade "A" because of their solid fundamentals and strong earnings growth.

Our Global Growth buy list of fundamentally superior stocks continues to outperform a market still hurting from financial fallout. Join my Global Growth service today and take my lead to higher profits.