Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dividend Aristocrats Outperform In September

September lived up to its reputation for being the worst performing month for the stock market. It seemed an equity investor had no place to hide. On the other hand, Standard & Poor's Dividend Aristocrats held up fairly well for the month.

Preliminarily, the 4-week return for the Aristocrats equaled -4.4% versus a return of -5.8% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and -8.8% for the S&P 500 Index. On a year to date basis, the Aristocrats returned -8.2% versus the Dow return of -18.2% and the S&p 500 return of -20.7%. The below spreadsheet details the return of the Aristocrats. The complete spreadsheet can be accessed at this link.


The gloom and doom displayed in the market yesterday was nearly reversed today. Maybe a bailout package in the form presented Monday is not needed. It seems regulators may be addressing some regulatory issues that seem to be contributing to the market stress, one being FAS 157 (mark to market accounting). Additionally, the FDIC is looking at increasing insurance limits on bank deposits. I think the point of all this is we do not need to rush a bad piece of legislation through Congress. Some type of additional monetary support is likely needed from the government, but let's not allow the government to gain ownership of public companies.


1 comment :

Anonymous said...

In this type of market dividend stocks a re a great place to be!

Nice read!

Best Wishes,
D4L