Top Dow Dividend Stocks: August 2010
Tue, Aug 31, 4:55 PM ET, by eDividendStocks.com
The markets shifted back into sell mode in August with the Dow Jones index dropping 451 points. This pushed the Dow index once again back into negative territory for the year. The S&P 500 fell 4.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even more dramatically – down 6.2%. The bearish tone in the market this month led many investors to look at safer dividend stocks. Within the Dow Jones index, the top performers were telecom's AT&T and Verizon, along with our top Dow dividend stock in McDonalds. The biggest surprise of the month was Pfizer. The pharmaceutical giant has languished much of the year, but managed to post a 6% gain in August. Pfizer's stock is still down 12.5% since the beginning of the year, but investors seem to have taken hope that a Pfizer dividend increase will come in December. The traditionally low-yielding tech stocks had a horrific month. Scandal-plagued Hewlett-Packard led the decline, dropping nearly 17%. Intel plunged 14% and warned that third quarter sales were weaker than expected. Cisco Systems also posted a double-digit decline, while Microsoft posted a 9% drop. Investors are expecting a dividend increase from Microsoft next month and if the company doesn't deliver the stock could drop further. The Dow Jones index is now down 4% in 2010. That's better than the Nasdaq's 7% decline or even the 6% drop in the S&P 500, but is a far cry from last year's 19% gain. Bearish sentiment is very prevalent right now with small investors continuing to exit the stock market altogether. September is traditionally a very weak month for the stock market and could bring additional earnings warnings as weak economic data is pointing to a lackluster recovery. Top 5 Dow Dividend Stock Gainers: Pfizer – 6.1% gain McDonalds – 4.8% gain AT&T – 4.2% gain Kraft – 2.4% gain Merck – 2.0% gain Top 5 Dow Dividend Stock Losers: Hewlett-Packard – 16.5% loss Intel – 14.2% loss Cisco Systems – 13.4% loss Bank of America – 11.3% loss American Express – 10.7% loss Recommend This Article To Others:
SDI Glossary: "Bearish" Definition
SDI Glossary: "Dividend" Definition
SDI Glossary: "Stock" Definition
This Article's Word Cloud:
August
Dividend
Hewlett
Jones
Microsoft
Nasdaq
Packard
Pfizer
Stock
Systems
This
back
could
decline
dividend
down
drop
dropping
even
fell
from
gain
have
increase
index
into
investors
lossBank
lossRecommend
market
month
much
nearly
plagued
posted
right
still
stock
stocks
tech
territory
than
that
traditionally
very
weak
were
while
with
year
More articles: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next »
| 
RSS
