Dividends: A Guiding Compass in Choppy Stock Market Waters

At the close of the market on January 27th, the S&P 500 was down 3.1% from its record high on January 15th.  This modest pullback has caused nervousness amongst many investors.

Is this pullback something long-term investors should be concerned about?  We don't think so.  Here's why:

1. Stock Market Volatility is Normal

The market's unbroken march upward in 2013 caused many investors to forget what market turbulence looks like.

With so many forces at work in the stock market, it is difficult for one particular trend to last for a sustained period of time.  The market is positive 7 out of 10 years, but the standard deviation of 20% around the long-term average of 10% would make anything between 0% and 30% normal.  Rarely does the market advance higher without

The ABCs of Dividend Investing: Divi-do or Divi-don't?

Low interest rates have propelled dividend income investing to greater popularity in recent years than at any time in the past six decades.

Despite dividend-investing's recent popularity, many investors still only look at one facet of the power of dividend investing: dividend yield.  These investors point to the fact that dividends have represented 40% of the total return of stocks since 1960 and that many dividend stocks yield more than short-term Treasury bonds.  But that is where they stop, and in doing so, they miss an important quality of dividend investing: dividends are more than income, much more. 

The most important element of dividend investing is the statistically significant long-term relationship between dividend growth and price growth.  Understanding this relationship is the key to unlocking the true power of dividend investing.

Dow Jones 18,000: Here's How We Get There

2013 was a banner year for the stock market.  On December 31st, the Dow Jones closed at an all-time high for the 56th time of the year, ending with a total return of over 27%.  

While stocks had their best year since 1997, the economic news did not seem to support such a dramatic increase in stock prices. 

• At the beginning of 2013, Wall Street estimated 8% earnings and dividend growth for the year. Dividends met expectations, but earnings growth was a disappointing 4.5%.

• Sub 2% GDP growth continued for most of the year, and while the unemployment rate fell, much of the improvement was a result of frustrated workers giving up their job searches and thus no longer being counted in the official unemployment rate. 

• Sequestration hit in 2013, reducing Government spending and dragging down already slow U.S. GDP growth by about 0.5% for the year.

• Interest rates, which are typically inversely correlated with stock prices, increased significantly.  The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds began the year trading below 1.85%. After the Fed began talking about tapering Quantitative Easing (QE), the 10-year started its upward climb to end 2013 just above 3.0%.

• The Government shutdown in mid-October threatened to derail economic recovery and highlighted growing dysfunction in Washington. 

Why Was the Market Up 25%+?

With so much lukewarm economic data, how could the markets have gone up over 25% in 2013?