In a report released this morning, Thomson Reuters/University of
Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment
rose to 79.3. This marks the highest level in more than four years,
indicating Americans are getting more optimistic about the job
market, with higher income households expected to see bigger wage
increases. It's just a survey, and while we hope to see the same
positive results actually come to fruition, we are still not
hearing positive anecdotes from corporate America as far as jobs
are concerned.
Despite today's market drop, the average still managed to close
out the week with gains, although still off the early month
highs.
With little big news items out today, numerous analyst calls
dominated market chatter. However, we were focusing on some of the
big earnings reports that came out this week, and how those stocks
closed the week. Lowe's (
LOW
) and Tiffany & Co. (
TIF
) reported rather unflattering results and were not able to rebound
much from the week's share price drop. On the flipside, shares of
PVH Corp (
PVH
), PetSmart (
PETM
), and Ralph Lauren (
RL
) did a good job at holding the week's gains.
Facebook Refunds Expected Soon
According to several news sources, it appears Morgan Stanley (
MS
) will compensate retail investors who overpaid when they bought
Facebook's (
FB
) stock in last week's IPO. This development comes following
reports that Morgan Stanley analysts cut their second-quarter and
full-year forecasts for Facebook just before the IPO, and told only
a handful of clients. While not the first time something like this
has happened, because Facebook was such a high profile IPO, they
feel the need to make things right. Plus, the last thing banks want
is to fall under even greater governmental scrutiny.
I'm not arguing against compensation for duped shareholders.
Rather, I want retail investors to focus instead on investing
strategies that actually work, instead of chasing after the flavor
of the day stuff the business media endlessly hypes. You may get
lucky as investor in the case of a Facebook refund, but if you
don't start practicing smart investing, nothing but trouble will
eventually follow. For those investors who heeded our warning
regarding the Facebook IPO hype, this story doesn't affect you in
the least. I applaud you!
Character Over Charisma Whenever You Want Consistent
Results
As we head deeper into this big election year, candidates'
charisma will play a big role in voters' perceptions. The media
tends to gravitate to anyone with a high level of charisma early
and often.
Charisma is great for winning elections, what about when the
actual job begins? At this point, character much take over.
Unfortunately, most politicians lack true character. This fact will
become evident fairly quickly after election season.
The same goes for the leaders of many companies. Charisma may
have led someone to the top of the corporate ladder, but only
character will keep them there. To this point, we've have seen
great companies lose their way over the years, leaving shareholders
frustrated. Consistent results are difficult to achieve without
someone with true character at the helm. So be on the lookout for
that quality as you continue on your road to building wealth.
Ignore the Daily Scoreboard
Today's business media would have investors checking their
portfolios on a minute-by-minute basis. As a result, many modern
market watchers are more like gamblers than real investors. It's
gotten to the point where most people will simply ask "What did the
market do today?" to get a gauge on how stocks are trending.
It's become all too convenient to access your brokerage account
and check the status of your holdings. Investors these days have
the benefit of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and more - all on the
go. We can't fight the trend of mobile access, but we should
certainly pace ourselves. Realize the seeds we plant (in the form
of dividend stocks or any other income-producing asset) do not need
constant (hourly) monitoring. Instead, our investments are best
left to grow without being glued to the barrage of breaking news we
now get minute-to-minute from business television. Let us sponge
that up for you, so you can focus on your career and other means of
producing steady income to fill in your financial foundation.
Our
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A Look to Next Week and a Weekend Preview
Looking ahead to next week, earnings will be very light as the
markets will be closed on Monday, in honor of Memorial Day.
Be sure to catch up with our latest watchlist updates this
weekend on
Dividend.com Premium
, including reports on earnings/story stocks, analyst
upgrades/downgrades, dividend ETFs, and much more. And as always,
you can view our current recommendations on our industry-leading
Best Dividend Stocks List
.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you this weekend! P.S. Please
pass this e-mail on to someone you think can use some financial
motivation as well as being kept in the financial news loop that
could affect them.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.