Author Archive: Brett Owens

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBB) is now law—and there’s one contrarian move we can make now to profit from it.

I’m not talking about shorting 10-year Treasuries (though that might work, given the inflationary policies “baked in” here!).

Instead we’re going long—on American oil and gas. But we’re not looking at producers. We’re going with pipeline operators like Kinder Morgan (KMI), a holding in our Hidden Yields dividend-growth service, to ride the $3 trillion in stimulus the BBB is about to set loose.

Why? Two reasons:

1. Strong dividends: KMI pays a 4.2% dividend that grows every year, and …
2. We get a hedge on oil and gas prices: Most of KMI’s contracts are either “take-or-pay,” under which users are on the hook for the full fee no matter how much product they pump, or “fee-based,” with rates that are fixed no matter what oil and gas prices do.

The last bargains on the big board? Discounted closed-end funds (CEFs).

CEFs are often the “last stop” for dividend deals. We are talking about an inefficient corner of the income universe, which is just great for us contrarians—we love the discounts.

And these funds can trade for less than “fair value” for months and even years on end. When the markets washed out in April, these CEFs were discarded by their vanilla dividend owners. Let’s pick up the pieces for up to 12% off, or 88 cents on the dollar. And in the process secure yields up to 9.7%.

Nuveen Dow 30 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (DIAX)
Distribution Rate: 8.4%

We’ll start with the Nuveen Dow 30 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (DIAX), an example of a strategy that thrives in CEF land: covered calls.… Read more

A nifty dividend duo—with yields of 9% and 12%—is ready for takeoff. Thanks to Uncle Sam’s spending bender coinciding with the rise of the machines.

Big tech stocks are about to remind Wall Street why it fell in love with these shares in the first place. Think you’ve seen a tech bubble before? Just wait until tech firms report earnings later this month!

These companies are growing sales and profits by deploying robots instead of hiring humans. Their AI-driven tools are faster, more scalable, and much cheaper than carbon-based labor. Cost savings are dropping straight to tech bottom lines.

Expect proof of trend as the Nasdaq’s increasingly machine-driven companies report banner earnings in the coming weeks.… Read more

This “growth without hiring” trend we’ve been talking about these past few weeks is en fuego: Microsoft (MSFT) is the latest to say it’s cutting expensive humans, announcing last week that it will lay off 9,000 people.

That comes on top of 6,000 cuts in May. Six thousand here, 9,000 there. As they say, pretty soon you’re talking about serious numbers!

The tech bros aren’t saying it out loud—though some, like Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy, are (he could barely conceal his enthusiasm when discussing this seismic shift from expensive humans to cheaper machines)—but AI is clearly “at work” in Big Tech, pushing out humans by the thousands.… Read more

ADP showed us that the private sector is now shedding jobs. That’s bad for workers—but it’s great news for earnings season.

Slowing employment means easing wage pressures and lower inflation. It also brings better profit margins and, our favorite of all, dividend hikes. Let’s talk about five firms that recently raised their payouts 25% to 400%

Are these one-hit wonders or will AI-driven savings make these dividend hike sequels even better?

Profit growth brings dividend growth. Which then translates to share-price gains. That’s the idea behind my “Dividend Magnet” strategy. When a company announces that it’s going to pay more for the foreseeable future, it’s a bold statement.… Read more

Ignore the vanilla mainstream media. Small business mojo is gaining steam. Main Street getting its groove back will directly benefit these two (7.2% and 8.8%) dividends.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index washed out in April alongside the stock market. Despair hit desperation levels not seen since December 2012. But the malaise has quickly given way to positivity.

Small biz sentiment has increased for two straight months and counting. Why the turnaround? Two letters: AI.

Shanell Camp, owner of Shaded by Shanell (an up-and-coming beauty brand) explained her excitement to me about ChatGPT, her “go to” resource for brainstorming, marketing help and more.… Read more

Will the new peace in the Middle East hold? What will happen when the “reciprocal tariff” deadline arrives on July 9?

Truth is, no one knows. But we contrarians DO know this: Shaky times like these are tailor-made for us.

Yes, the S&P 500 has been shrugging off all of this (stocks do climb a wall of worry, after all). That’s true. But it’s also caused a lot of mainstream investors to miss the many strong dividend deals that are still on the board.

Near the top of my list for these “dumpster-dive” payers is the Hershey Co. (HSY).… Read more

“Programmer.”

My wife nailed it as we stepped into the open house, staring into the front room labeled “home office.” Shoes off, respecting the homeowners still living there.

“They’re hoping for a rentback,” explained the realtor. “The couple has to move out of town for work.”

Ah, another casualty of the return-to-office mandate! Back to the Bay Area for these two. They’re far from alone. Major cities—Boston, New York, San Francisco—are shaking off five years of downtown rust, preparing for commuters back four or more days each week.

Even here in Sacramento, I had to battle morning traffic this week for the first time in more than five years.… Read more

Let’s talk about oil and gold dividends. Whether or not the new peace in the Middle East holds, there are some high-quality dividends worth owning anytime. These generous payers (up to 8%!) provide peace of mind just in case the geopolitical Jenga set gets knocked loose again.

We’ll start with crude, which had rallied to one-year highs. I was originally going to advise not chasing the “Strait of Hormuz” oil rally. Futures indicated (and still do) that lower prices are likely ahead. January 2026 still trades cheaper—suggesting temporary disruption at worst.

Back at home, you’ve probably heard (not least from me, often) that President Trump wants a lower Fed Funds Rate!… Read more

Stocks—especially dividend stocks—have every reason to shoot higher from here. In fact, they have 7 trillion reasons.

That’s how much Americans have parked in money-market funds. But a chunk of that is about to shake loose. When it does, I see it piling into top dividend payers (and growers)—including the three we’ll discuss below.

Investors Wait for the Stock-Market “Bat Signal”

Before we get to that, the chart above is worth a look. Starting last summer, pre-election fears sent investors piling into money-market funds, pushing assets past $7 trillion.

Then something strange happened: They pulled cash out of these funds after the “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced.… Read more