While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has slipped 7 percent from its April 2 high, many blue-chip dividend stocks are hanging in there.

Wal-Mart, for example, has jumped 6 percent during that period. Verizon has soared 8 percent.

Investors are playing defense amid an environment of global turmoil, with Europe in the throes of a debt crisis, and economies across the globe, including the United States, facing turbulence.

Editor's Note: This Wasn’t an Accident — Experts Testify on Financial Meltdown

The blue chips give you slow and steady growth and often dividends that increase each year.

"Investors are going back to areas of the market that generate income, consistency and predictability," Daniel Genter, chief executive at RNC Genter Capital Management, tells The New York Times.

With the 10-year Treasury yield at a near-record low of 1.75 percent, investors can earn much more income from dividend stocks. Verizon, for example, carries a yield of 4.8 percent.

"Personally I have no interest in buying Treasurys now," Rick Bensignor, chief market strategist at Merlin Securities, tells The Times. "At some point, the risk of buying bonds outweighs the yield potential on some of these defensive names."

One way to invest in dividend stocks is through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“Given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the European Union, near-term market volatility is likely to remain high, and I continue to advocate that investors have a high allocation to high dividend equity funds,” Russ Koesterich, chief investment strategist for iShares, writes on its web site.

Editor's Note: This Wasn’t an Accident — Experts Testify on Financial Meltdown