News of Osama Bin Laden's death at the hands of a U.S.-led
military operation helped push markets higher early on, but the
indices finished slightly lower by the close.
Looking closely at today's action, Teva Pharmaceuticals (
TEVA
) was up on news it will come in with a higher bid for Cephalon (
CEPH
) thwarting a hostile bid from Valeant Pharmaceuticals (
VRX
). An analyst upgrade added up to more gains for Occidental
Petroleum (
OXY
). A positive Barron's piece from this weekend helped move
International Paper (
IP
) nicely higher throughout the day. Whole Foods (
WFMI
) dropped 5% on an analyst downgrade. Commodity prices bounced
around all day, but were lower by the close. Silver prices (
SLV
) took the brunt of the selling as increased margin requirements
could be putting a dent in the recent buying frenzy.
Quick note: Be sure to check out the year-to-date watchlist
posts up on the site today. You can see how well many of the
dividend stocks we are tracking are doing so far in 2011. As
always, you can find these and other members-only articles on
Dividend.com Premium
. Also, we removed a dividend stock from our recommended list
today, so be sure to check out the
post
if you did not read the e-mail alert we sent out today.
I was having a conversation recently with a newly-married couple
who were asking me how they should prepare financially for having a
child. I told them a good exercise for first-time parents to
consider is taking a lump sum ($500-$1000) each month and factor
that as an expense in your checkbook. This practice will get you
ready for the extra monthly costs you'll encounter once your child
is born. For many new parents today, moms have to go back to work
to help keep up with the expenses. If the new mom is able to stay
home, which is increasingly unlikely, you can practice by using
only the father's income in the months leading up to the birth.
This will give you a good idea of how the household will run
financially after the baby is born. Money certainly isn't the only
concern when having a child, but it's an important consideration to
ensure you limit the amount of stress that naturally comes with
having a newborn.
As I mentioned over the weekend, I was the keynote speaker at
the Delta Mu Delta induction ceremony for Richard Stockton College
this weekend. It was held at Bally's in Atlantic City, New Jersey -
just a few minutes from our Dividend.com offices. I was honored to
be able to speak at this event, and was made an honorary member in
Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society in Business. The
organization was founded by the Dean from Harvard University and
four professors from Yale University and New York University in
November, 1913.
It was the first time in a long time that I spike in front of
such a large audience, but I brought my notes with me and was
well-prepared. The key to speaking in front of a large group is to
be organized and stick to your plan, because it's really easy to go
off on tangents if you're not careful. Fortunately it went really
well, and several students came up afterwards to share some
thoughts of what they found in my message. Again, it was truly an
honor to share the stage with such bright students and future
business leaders.
I hope everyone had a chance to check out our
Dividend.com Premium
members-only weekend article, including the new features that
highlight some of the biggest winners and losers from the week that
was, including analyst upgrades/downgrades and earnings/story
stocks. These articles are a great way to catch up on the week that
was in the markets. We also have a rundown of how various Dividend
ETFs performed on the week.
Our expanded dividend data is pretty much all in place so anyone
that focuses on "Dividend Capture" strategies should have plenty of
good stuff to research each day. Just check our enhanced
Ex-Dividend Calendar
, which is the best in the business, to search for upcoming
payouts.
Speaking of dividend capture,
Dividend.com Premium
members can now access a new 9 page report we just released on the
essential things an active investor needs to know when it comes to
a dividend capture strategy. Be sure to check it out!
Thanks for reading everybody. I'll see you tomorrow!
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.