This morning's monthly jobs report number came in much
worse-than-expected, prompting a wide sell-off in the U.S. markets.
The markets staged a bit of a late comeback, however, finishing
well off the session lows.
The Labor Department said that 80,000 jobs were added in June,
while the unemployment rate stayed at 8.2%. We've long said here at
Dividend.com that any economic recovery ultimately boils down to
job creation -
quality
job creation - and we haven't seen much optimistic data recently on
that front.
Many market watchers are hoping for some new quantitative easing
(QE3) from the Federal Reserve following a string of disappointing
economic data. Only time will tell whether Ben Bernanke is willing
to crank up his printing press one more time in an attempt to spur
growth. With the recent capitulation among European regulators, it
wouldn't be a surprise (not that we'd necessarily welcome such a
move).
Major industrial were hit hard today, with stocks like
Caterpillar (
CAT
) falling 2.5% on an analyst downgrade, and diesel engines maker
Cummins Inc. (
CMI
) closing down 3%. Elsewhere, fertilizer play Potash (
POT
) shares fell following
an analyst downgrade
, but recovered a good amount of their losses. Hard drive maker
Seagate (
STX
) saw its shares plunge more than 5% in early trading down, but the
stock regained nearly all of those losses after
cutting its earnings guidance
.
Finally, oil prices continue to be extremely volatile. After a
huge bear market in oil from beginning in early May, the price of
"black gold" has see-sawed in big moves seemingly every day over
the past two weeks. Oil fell over 3% today as energy traders once
again attempt to price in the effects of a potential economic
slowdown.
You Can't Rush a Good Thing
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has routinely come under scrutiny from
analysts whenever his company misfires on a particular quarter. The
stock certainly pulls back when the company misses their estimates,
but more often than not, his focus is not on the short term
(quarter-to-quarter), but rather on how well the company can
compete over the long term.
It took his company years before they hit profitability, but
since then, the ride has been much better. That said, the company
is still looking to do things most other retailers can not.
Similarly, when we were building Dividend.com, it felt like an
eternity before our site went live. We were trying to get all the
pieces in place so that when we launched, most of the technical
glitches would already be worked out. And most importantly, we
needed to know that our
DARS Rating System
was as good as it could possibly be, and that the information we
provided was up-to-date and accurate.
Could we have pushed harder and launched our service sooner?
Definitely, but anyone who has ever worked on any major business
initiative will tell you, there are only so many quality hours in a
day to do magnificent work. When you push too hard, you end up
rushing in areas that you will regret later on. Pacing yourself and
focusing on building something that will last is the smartest
course of action, and is the ONLY thing you should be concerned
with. If what you build is truly beneficial to others, then and
only then will you begin to reap the financial rewards that come
along with that sort of effort.
Dividend investing itself embraces this same long-term-focused
mantra. I truly believe that this course is best for the vast
majority of all investors out there. If you take your time, do your
research, and stay disciplined, the odds are you'll achieve great
results.
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A Look to Next Week and a Weekend Preview
Looking ahead to next week, third quarter earnings will begin
marching in, as we are expecting results from Alcoa (
AA
), Yum Brands (
YUM
), J.P. Morgan (
JPM
), and Wells Fargo (
WFC
), just to name a few. The focus will likely be on the economic
data as well as the latest Wall Street analyst calls.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.