General

This SmartMoney article sounds a lot like my recent Money & Markets column, eh? But I certainly can’t fault the argument … look for more thoughts on this topic from me in the next issue of Income Superstars, which goes to press on Friday.

{ 0 comments }

In the wake of S&P’s downgrade, it’s interesting to note how brutally the stock market is getting slammed while Treasuries are actually doing just fine.
Imagine Treasuries getting slammed on a bunch of stock rating downgrades and you’ll see the strangeness a bit more clearly.
Most importantly, yields on the S&P 500 and 10-year Treasuries are just about [...]

{ 4 comments }

Just a quick note to my subscribers and other readers: Despite the major market drop over the last week, I do not advocate selling into the weakness … especially if you’re holding quality income investments. Rather, I think it’s far better to start thinking about whether you want to put additional money to work right now (and on additional [...]

{ 0 comments }

I just got an e-mail from S&P with some very good dividend numbers for the second quarter of 2011.
All told, U.S.-listed companies boosted their payments (from common shares) by $11.2 billion, which comes on the heels of $19 billio in new dividend money during the first quarter.
That means payments in the first half of [...]

{ 0 comments }

Officially, the Federal Reserve says it’s ending its second round of quantitative easing (QE2) this week. That’s the experimental money-printing approach whereby the Fed buys government bonds.
Now, the Fed has been perfectly fine to let us all believe that they will not be engaging in a third round of it anytime soon.
But here’s the thing: [...]

{ 0 comments }

It’s …
Wait for it … Wait for it …
To form a governmental oversight committee on the matter!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-to-announce-plans-to-apf-2226973376.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
 

{ 0 comments }

According to S&P, the benchmark “500″ companies paid out a whopping 7.9% more in dividends in the first quarter of 2011 than they did during the same period last year!
Meanwhile, the sheer number of dividend increases from U.S.-listed common stocks tripled from the first quarter of 2010.
If you’re an income investor, this is tremendously good [...]

{ 4 comments }

Amid all the bad news out there, I just wanted to point out that yet another tech company — Cisco — will now be paying dividends.
And on top of that, we also got word that some U.S. banks have also gained approval to start making shareholder payments again too. As I’ve said in previous Money and [...]

{ 0 comments }

Okay, put this one in the “circular logic circular file.” According to Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, if oil prices continue surging, the Fed should consider a QE3 response.
Huh?
Lockhart’s logic goes like this: If oil prices rise, that will hurt the economy. And if the economy gets hurt, we’ll need to pump in more money to [...]

{ 0 comments }