Well, Greece got what it wanted from powers that be earlier
today. The embattled euro nation received nearly $45 billion in new
bailout finds, rate cuts on loans, and suspended interest payments
for up to 10 years. Yet the market just yawned at the news, so the
bailout was likely already priced in. Have we finally seen an end
to Greek bailout announcement rallies? It could be if today's
failure to bounce was any indication.
In big M&A news, ConAgra Foods (
CAG
) was finally able to get Ralcorp (
RAH
) to accept a buyout offer, ending an 18-month courtship. Investors
liked the news for ConAgra shares, which ended up by nearly 5%.
Elsewhere, special dividend announcements helped shares of Las
Vegas Sands (
LVS
) and Brown-Forman (
BF-B
) gain some traction. Finally, cautious Wall Street commentary had
shares like National Oilwell-Varco (
NOV
) and Baxter International (
BAX
) in the red. On the flipside, Corning (
GLW
) gained on the back of positive analyst chatter. Merck (
MRK
) closed down despite news the company was bumping up its dividend
payout ever so slightly - 2.4% increase.
Wise Investors Will Never Stop Investing
In yesterday's New York Times, the media's favorite investing
tycoon, Warren Buffett, downplayed the nervousness surrounding an
increase in the capital gains tax rates on the overall investing
landscape. He argued that human nature dictates wealthy investors
will always being on the prowl to grow their money, regardless of
where tax rates may be at the time (and I agree with him). Now, Mr.
Buffett has gone on record as asking Washington to tax him more, so
I understand his wanting to reiterate his "the world will go on no
matter what happens to taxes" stance.
Getting out of the markets completely almost never makes sense,
and even when the market was melting down in late 2008, we had a
small list of great income-producing names that made it through the
worst of times. Endless media chatter about fiscal cliff is more of
a smokescreen in our eyes. It just distracts investors from the
real issue: corporate earnings. We continue to see the job market
deteriorate, with lower salaries and more layoffs as the new
norm.
For a truly sustainable economic rebound to take place, the jobs
picture absolutely must firm up first. There are inflationary costs
being passed on to consumers all over the place, while salaries are
going in the opposite direction. At some point, the lack of wage
growth has no other implication than simply choking off the ability
of people to spend. Unless Washington starts giving us spending
vouchers aside from what assistance many are already receiving, all
the bubbly chatter may start coming to a halt.
We all know sitting in cash doesn't build wealth, but at the
same time, we need to be as precise as possible with where our
investment capital should be disbursed. Stay with Dividend.com for
the latest updates on where those places indeed should be. In the
meantime we will keep tabs on as much data necessary to come up
with those income-producing investment ideas.
Income, Income, Income
At Dividend.com, we maintain our focus on the best
income-producing investments the markets have to offer during time
of heightened volatility. We want to make sure we have only the
most pullback-resistant names on our
Best Dividend Stocks List
. Also, if we see the market putting in what looks like a decent
bottom, we will be prepared to scale up the list of stocks we like.
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