With little market-moving headlines coming out of Europe this
morning, the focus was on well-known retail plays reporting
results.
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores (
WMT
) and Staples (
SPLS
) ended lower following both companies' quarterly results, which
included cautious guidance (you can read about
WMT's report here
and
SPLS' report here
). Home improvement giant Home Depot (
HD
) closed slightly lower despite a
decent earnings beat
and a bump in the company's dividend payout. Lastly, Dick's
Sporting Goods (
DKS
)
announced its first-ever dividend payout
and the shares moved higher following the company's earnings
release.
Bullish Wall Street analyst calls added fuel to the push higher
in stocks like FedEx (
FDX
), Reynolds American (
RAI
), Anadarko Petroleum (
APC
) and W.W. Grainger (
GWW
).
Who Can You Trust?
We've seen lots of rumblings the past couple of days following a
"60 Minutes" report on insider trading by our elected officials in
Congress. Apparently some of the politicians profiled were privy to
inside information, which they then proceeded to act on in their
own brokerage accounts. Does this burn me up? It sure does. Am I
shocked? Unfortunately not.
Realistically, unless the rules and interpretations surrounding
insider trading and elected officials are examined and enforced,
people will continue to take advantage of the situation.
We as investors simply need to continue to do our best to make
the right investment decisions within our own portfolios. Here at
Dividend.com, we monitor a large volume of market data ans news,
and stay vigilant when it comes to the ratings for the over 1,600
dividend-paying stocks we cover.
Trust me, it never makes me feel good to hear how politicians
like to take advantage of their positions. Just remember, we have
the power of the vote to get rid of the officials that we distrust
the most. And in the end, we all still control our own course (for
the most part). Crooked politicians won't change our strategy to
building wealth.
As we mentioned in yesterday's newsletter, making good decisions
soon becomes a good habit. We may not like the news about the
insider trading and our Congress, but it shouldn't steer anyone off
the course we are all on.
Job Openings Rise - Do You Have the Right Qualifications?
News broke last week that job openings at U.S. workplaces rose
to 3.35 million in September - the highest level since August
2008.
Many people today are working subpar jobs, while others are
struggling to get back into the workforce at all. Your career is
the biggest core of your financial foundation, and whether you are
just starting out or in the later innings of employment, the need
to get as much out of your job income-wise is enormous.
The skills needed in today's workforce are unlike what we saw
just two decades ago. You will still have plenty of retail-oriented
jobs where skills needed tend to remain the same, but staying on
top of the industry you may be currently in, or just researching
the skills needed to help you re-position in another field is key.
How do you figure out what skills you need? It's simple: just look
at some of the qualifications employers are looking for within the
fastest growing careers, and research the process it takes to
achieve them.
Although it's good to hear job openings are up-ticking, unless
people have the skills required for some of those higher-paying
opportunities, the jobs data won't offer as much of an economic
boost as it should.
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Income, Income, Income
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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
.