Author Archive: Brett Owens

I have to laugh when I hear people say Jay Powell has been tough on rates. Sure, he’s been talking tough. But when he’s not doing his Dirty Harry act at the mic, he’s been keeping the liquidity party going through the back door!

I call this “Quiet QE.” If you’ve read my articles in the last couple of years, or are a member of one of my premium services, you’ve no doubt heard me talk about it before.

It’s one-half of the opportunity we’re looking at in corporate bonds today.

The other? The arrival of what I call “real” QE, in the form of rate cuts slated to start up in September.… Read more

The haters are out in full force.

Wall Street “pros” are downright disgusted with high-yield stocks. Here at Contrarian Outlook, this pessimism warms our heart. With no analysts left to slap a Sell rating on these names, the future is filled with upgrades.

By the way: Consensus Buy calls are a dime a dozen. Analysts notoriously lean, ahem, optimistic, so there’s nothing special about a stock that’s dripping in positive ratings. But if a stock is stuffed with Sells, that’s rare, and I take notice.

How unusual are Sell calls? Just one S&P 500 stock is rated a consensus Sell right now.… Read more

Let’s talk about recession-resistant dividends because, if history is any guide, we are certainly “on the clock” for a slowdown if not already in one. Here at Contrarian Outlook we have been preparing for slower economic readings, and our recession divvies have already delivered.

Why the focus on slowdown safety? The Federal Reserve began hiking rates 2+ years ago. This is around the time something usually snaps in the financial markets. Sure enough, the Japanese yen of all things caused a VIX spike last seen in the 2008 and COVID crashes.

Our recession focus of late has been defense.… Read more

Don’t worry—we haven’t missed out on the bargains from the August 5 “flash crash.” We’ve still got a sweet setup for surging dividends in a sector most people completely misunderstand.

Misunderstood, unloved and soaring dividends? We’re interested!

I’m talking about refinery stocks. We’re going to zero in on two of my favorites today: Phillips 66 (PSX) and Valero Energy Corp. (VLO). As you’ll see below, I like one more than the other in the market in front of us now.

I say refiners are misunderstood because most investors confuse them with energy producers, who drill for oil and natural gas, then sell the raw products.… Read more

This stock hurts to short. The bears are gluttons for punishment.

Thirty-six percent (36%!) of outstanding shares are sold short. This dividend is just waiting to be squeezed higher.

Meanwhile, the pessimists are paying the stock’s 12.8% dividend out of pocket. That’s how shorting works—you must borrow shares to put on your bearish bet. As such, you’re on the hook for the dividend.

Wouldn’t be my bet. I’m talking, of course, about our controversial out-of-favor favorite Arbor Realty Trust (ABR). ABR is a mortgage real estate investment trust (mREIT)—a REIT subset that typically doesn’t deal in physical properties, but instead owns “paper” real estate.… Read more

Well the “index huggers” hurled their positions quickly, didn’t they! Some bad jobs numbers. A rally in the Japanese yen. And it was sayonara, SPY.

The financial “squares” use blunt instruments. When they panic, they dump the only ETF they own. Turns out they were all short the Japanese yen heading into the weekend!

When the margin call came, they sold the only ticker they own: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY).

I warned you about SPY three weeks ago, just before it crashed. My problem with SPY came down to three stocks, Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and Microsoft (MSFT), which made up 21% of the index—and still do!… Read more

Look, rate cuts are only weeks away now—likely starting in September. And there’s one terrific way to tap them: high-yielding municipal bonds!

I know most folks think “munis”—issued by state and local governments to fund infrastructure projects—are boring.

It is, frankly, a ridiculous opinion. Tell me what’s “boring” about an investment that kicks out a 7.7% tax-free dividend!

To be sure, there are a couple quibbles you might have with munis.

For one, they’re tough to buy individually. But that’s really not a problem: ETFs offer one way in, but a much better way—and the only road to 7.7%+ dividends—is through closed-end funds (CEFs) like the three we’ll break down in just a second.… Read more

Worried about a serious pullback in the S&P 500?

That something is going to go a bit haywire here in America, or overseas, and send stocks swooning?

If so, this 5-stock portfolio is for you. It yields up to 7.3% and it is built to withstand Armageddon.

No, really. These “low beta” payers can really lower our blood pressure. (Hold my beetroot juice!)

We blunt the bears with big dividends and small betas. Beta is a measure of an investment’s volatility against a benchmark.

If a stock has a beta of 1, it means it’s every bit as volatile as “the market.”… Read more

Google is in trouble. The stock market is beginning to sniff that out.

As an income investor, you may think that you don’t care. But you probably should. We all need to take note, because Alphabet (GOOGL) shares are everywhere.

Let’s make sure that Google’s rotting core product—and business model—don’t stink up our perfectly good retirement portfolio. In a moment, I’ll name-check specific ETFs and CEFs (closed-end funds) to avoid.

First, let me give the world’s first postmortem on Google. It was a heck of a run for a technology product, more than 20 years as the “go to” search engine.… Read more

Here’s one thing most folks get wrong about dividend cuts: They can (and often do) set up terrific buying opportunities!

I know, I know. Before our customer-service inbox lights up here at Contrarian Outlook, let me be clear that we dividend investors hate payout cuts. No one wants to see their income stream and their investment take a hit, as scorned investors toss the stock.

But buying a dividend after a cut (or even before, under the right conditions) can be a winning move. It’s a setup that reminds me of the words of Howard Marks, the most successful investor no one has ever heard of (except Warren Buffett, who is a fan).… Read more