Investments traditionally considered safe bets such as utilities, gold and government bonds were supposed to flop in 2014 as investors started to pour money into higher-risk, higher-growth stocks that would benefit from a pickup in the economy. Investors buy utilities when they are worried about stock market volatility or the outlook for economic growth. Typically, utility stocks rise less than others when the overall market is climbing, but they fall less when prices are down. The dividend yield, a measure of a company's dividend compared with its stock price, is 3.6 percent for utility companies in the S&P 500. The U.S.