Articles

What a time to be alive! The stock market is booming, and many of our favorite income investments are ticking higher every day.

Sure, we need to credit all of the money that our intrepid Fed chair Jay Powell has printed in the last year. But with the 10-year rate spiking, we now need to ask ourselves:

Is inflation here already?

Recently, I noted that Fed Chair Jay Powell was doing quite the impression of the infamous 1700s economist John Law, who was the original money printer. (And noted gambler, womanizer, speculator, and creator of multiple manias that included the Mississippi Bubble and South Sea Bubble.… Read more

Tech stocks have finally taken a breather—and we’re going to pounce on this dip—and grab a rare “double discount” while we’re at it.

The strategy we’re going to use also lets us “squeeze” the biggest tech names for payouts that are unheard of in the sector—I’m talking yields up to 6.3%.

Mom’s Coupon-Clipping Goes High-Tech

This approach is an ode to my mom who, to this day, refuses to pay the sticker price. If there’s a coupon to be found, she’ll find it and find another coupon to secure a double discount—even if it requires management approval to apply!

The dividend equivalent of the back-to-back coupon is buying discounted closed-end funds (CEFs) after a pullback, and that’s exactly the setup we’ve got in tech now.… Read more

One group of funds is doing something very unusual right now: they’re raising their dividends by double digits! And those huge hikes have driven the yields on some of these unsung income plays well above 7%.

Today we’re going to jump on this red-hot contrarian opportunity.

These smartly run dividend payers (and growers!) are closed-end funds (CEFs) that hold floating-rate loans. These assets are often overlooked, which is too bad, because they’re corporate bonds that do the opposite of what most bonds do. That makes them perfect buys for upside in today’s market, when “regular” corporate bonds’ prices are plunging.

Let me explain how floating-rate loans work, and how we’ll squeeze them for strong gains and growing 7%+ dividends.… Read more

The Nasdaq’s recent quick 11% slip earned the “correction” label. This alarmed many newbie investors who bought technology shares hoping they would keep heading higher.

We careful contrarians, on the other hand, welcome pullbacks like these. Being focused on income, we are now able to go shopping and secure more tech dividends per dollar.

The only “catch” is that we shouldn’t wait long to buy the bargain tech payers. Remember the Nasdaq’s bear market in late 2018? It bottomed out in less than three months.

The tech index sank even farther, much faster, in 2020, sinking 30% in just over a month.… Read more

The chicken littles fretting about inflation are ignoring something: the “bonus” $2.9 trillion that’s primed to ignite stocks—one group of stocks in particular.

The $2.9 trillion isn’t a new stimulus plan (although those seem to roll out daily). It’s the extra savings hoarded by consumers around the world. To put that in context, global GDP is about $89 trillion, so the total saved will amount to 3.3% of extra growth when it’s finally unleashed.

You’d think most economists would have already accounted for this savings glut in their projections. You’d also expect markets to price in this information. But neither is the case.… Read more

Does a rising 10-year Treasury yield mean we should move on from municipal (muni) bonds? We’ll talk muni strategy in a moment. First, let’s pay homage to these tax-efficient payers.

Munis are superior to Treasuries two ways. First, they pay more. Even with the 10-year rate popping above 1.6% earlier this week, we can double or triple our dividends with munis. The iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB), for example, yields 2.1%, which is 30%+ better than the still-chintzy T-Bill.

Plus, munis have tax benefits. MUB is an easy-to-buy vehicle with a tax-advantaged payout that is higher than its stated 2.1% yield.… Read more

There’s a quiet shift happening in the market, and we’re going to tap it for some big, and growing, dividends, plus serious price upside, too.

Here’s what I mean: after tech ran the show all of last year, fanboy (and -girl) faves like Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) are cooling off, and other corners of the market are making a play for the lead role.

Big Tech Rolls Over …

Here’s more proof that a big shift is underway: all through last year, the S&P 500 as a whole powered higher. But if your portfolio is properly diversified, you know that this gain was a mirage.… Read more

We’re contrarians first and foremost here at Contrarian Outlook, so when we hear the latest “sure thing” from the mainstream crowd, we get more than a little suspicious.

So it goes with the recent round of selling on the stock markets, which has been driven by the “certainty” that interest rates will skyrocket, and higher rates will crush demand for stocks, especially the tech stocks that have driven the market’s rebound from the March 2020 crash.

Does this view stand up (sneak preview: no)? And what should we contrarians do in response (sneak preview: buy what everyone else is selling—particularly through a group of funds sporting some very impressive dividend yields).… Read more

These popular dividends were taken away in 2020. But rumors of a payout comeback are swirling, and the best time to buy these stocks may be right now.

Before America goes on a vacation binge, that is. See, these dividend payers will directly benefit from travelers being rereleased into the wild. We have been homebound for nearly a year now. (Sorry for the reminder!) But brighter days are ahead, and I know that my family is already booking out travel into 2022.

Should we pick up some hotel stocks while we’re online? After all, hotels will naturally benefit from our restlessness, as will their landlords—the real estate investment trusts (REITs) that were tossed aside this time last year.… Read more

There’s $2 trillion in cash headed straight into the US economy, and today we’re going to grab a share, both in the form of price gains and dividends.

I’m talking about the latest stimulus plan that’s made its way through the House of Representatives.

While plenty of folks fret over the rise in public debt this $1.9-trillion plan brings—and that’s a real concern—it’s a problem for another day. The cash is needed to get the economy through to the other side of the current crisis.

And pretty well all of this package is set to get spent through direct payouts to people and organizations that will spend it, with the headline item being $1,400 in stimulus checks (or about $1.1 trillion in all) going to taxpayers.… Read more