Author Archive: Brett Owens

If you’re reading this, I assume you are already bullish on oil. Or at least intrigued by the upside possibility. And why not? There are three reasons crude may continue to crescendo.

First, we have the Middle East situation… ‘nuff said.

Second, it is increasingly looking like the Federal Reserve is cutting rates sans the usual impending recession. Rather than a hard or soft landing, it looks like we will see “no landing” at all in which the economy continues to grow.

We contrarians called this no-landing scenario five weeks ago. Since then, it has gained traction on Wall Street as employment numbers have stayed strong.… Read more

Another day, another sign the economy is heading straight for that “no-landing” scenario I’ve been talking about for weeks now …

… and yet another sign the two dividends we’re going to discuss today are better buys than they’ve been in months.

(One of these staunch payers kicks out a rich 8% divvie. The other has grown its dividend a ridiculous 425% in the last five years. A buy back then would be kicking out a sweet 6.2% dividend today, thanks to that breakneck growth!)

Inside the Economy’s “Touch and Go” Landing

When you hear “no landing,” your first impression might be that it sounds like a good thing, right?… Read more

Let’s talk about companies that are serious about dividend hikes. I’m talking about recent payout raises of 25%, 67% and even 120%.

Know what happens to a stock that raises its dividend like this? Its shares skyrocket.

Consider Graco (GGG), a company that specializes in fluid-handling systems, serving everyone from homeowners and contractors to industrial and manufacturing businesses. Graco.com delivers one of the most beautifully boring boasts we’ll ever read, showing us the many mundane ways GGG has become a fixture in our lives:

“We pump peanut butter into your jar, and the oil in your car. We glue the soles of your shoes, the glass in your windows and pump the ink onto your bills.

Now that Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell has pivoted towards his “other mandate,” we should take a cue from my six-year-old, who yells from the back seat:

“FedEx!”

For years she has been enamored with the FedEx Corp (FDX) logo. Neither her sister nor her parents are sure why, but the affinity is real. See a truck on the road, yell “FedEx!” loudly to score the point.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that FedEx disappointed investors with a sanguine outlook a couple of weeks ago. The stock corrected lower, as usually does after earnings.

(Seriously, the best time to buy FedEx lately has been right after the company talks to Wall Street and the suits sell their shares.… Read more

Right now, there’s $6.5 trillion in cash sitting on the sidelines—and a big slice of it is about to drop straight into a select group of dividend stocks.

We’re going to “front run” that cash wave today—and set ourselves up for income (I’m talking 6%+ yields here) and gains as this cash wave starts to build.

In a sec, I’ll name two dividend-payers sitting right in the path of this freed-up cash. One is a true “dividend unicorn,” shelling out an outsized 6% payout that grows. The other has doubled its dividend in just the last five years.

Our $6.5-Trillion Dividend Plan

Let’s start by breaking down that $6.5 trillion figure: It’s the amount of cash in parked money-market funds today.… Read more

Real estate is great, except for the heavy time commitment, which makes it a non-starter for me. “Brett, can you come over and change my lightbulb?”

No thanks. Tickers only, please.

Which is fine. Enter real estate investment trusts (REITs), which let us invest in not one or two buildings, but usually dozens or even hundreds, for as little as $20 per share or so. Plus the yields can be even better than the fourplex that would ruin my life down the street.

Dividends of 7%, 12% and even 16%. All with a simple ticker that we can tap in from our phones.… Read more

How would I invest a chunk of money today? Say $10K or even $100K?

I’d load up on dividend magnet stocks, sit back and watch Fed Chair Jay Powell pump them to the moon!

Want to know what happened the last time the Federal Reserve cut interest rates? The broader market soared 124%! Powell printed so much money that the stocks popped:

Last Fed Rate Cut: Stocks Soared 124%

Today, select dividend stocks are set up for 124%-like returns too. Buying them now is the best way to build wealth. And protect ourselves from inflation.

Yeah, the last time Powell printed money, inflation followed for the first time in 40 years!… Read more

Rate cuts are finally here. So will we actually hit that vaunted “soft landing” everyone’s been talking about?

Well, I’ve got a (contrarian, naturally!) take that I know most people haven’t thought about—especially since last week’s jumbo 50-point rate cut dropped:

What if we hit a “no landing” scenario, where the economy ticks along and inflation comes back?

I’m bringing up that unpleasant idea because, usually in a rate-hiking cycle like the one that just ended, the central bank pushes the Fed funds rate higher until it breaks something. 

But this time, it’s not clear it has.

In fact, when it looked like it finally had—when Silicon Valley Bank and friends crumbled to dust in March 2023—Jay blinked, and pumped liquidity into the market through the back door, a move we’ve referred to as “Quiet QE” here many times before:

The Fed Didn’t Break Anything This Time—That May Be a Problem

With that in mind, last week’s oversized cut was understandable: The Fed has been keen to take its foot off the brake for a while now.… Read more

$500K can be enough money to retire on. Even as early as age 50!

The trick is to convert the pile of cash into cash flow that can pay the bills. I’m talking about $38,513.22 per year in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 8% average yields.

These are passive payouts that show up every quarter or, better yet, every month. Meanwhile, we keep that $500K nest egg intact. Or, better yet, grind that principal higher steadily and safely.

Got more in your retirement account? Cool—more monthly dividend income for you!

We’ll talk specific stocks, funds and yields in a moment.… Read more

Discounted closed-end funds (CEFs) are perhaps the sweetest dividend deals that Wall Street offers. I mean, where else can we find a 9.9% yield trading for 87 cents on the dollar?

By offers I mean overlooks! The spreadsheet jockeys can’t be bothered with Neuberger Berman Next Generation Connect (NBXG). Or its 9.9% dividend. Or its 13% discount to its net asset value (NAV).

Why not? NBXG only has a market cap of $957 million—too tiny a capital pool for the big fish to stash cash. So, these “index huggers” lazily pile into SPY instead.

We individual investors, on the other hand, can make a nice living (and retirement) in this cozy contrarian corner of the income market.… Read more