Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are required by law to pay 90% of their taxable income as dividends. In return, REITs can deduct shareholder dividends from their taxable income, so most REITs wind up paying little or… Read More

Companies are clinging to their cash these days. It’s not hard to see why. Cash is harder to come by in a recession. And this new mindset toward cash reverses a trend. Shareholders, fed up with a long period of stingy dividends, put pressure… Read More

Anheuser-Busch InBev moved its American Depositary Receipts from the Pink Sheets to the New York Stock Exchange and now carries the ticker “BUD.” InBev’s a great company with strong global brands, the largest brewer in the world. But for income investors,… Read More

When everyone agrees on something, it’s much more likely that everyone is wrong than everyone is right. Universal consensus about the end of the dollar makes me think it won’t happen. Several things move currencies: Economics, interest rates and politics. I’m going to show… Read More

Two dozen S&P 500 members yield 6% or more, about one in 20 companies listed on the market’s benchmark. Here are those companies: Company Ticker Yield Frontier Communications FTR 14.4% Windstream Corp. WIN 11.1%… Read More

You might not be familiar with the cigarette brands Liggett Select, Grand Prix, Eve, Pyramid or USA. But these brands have helped turn the company that makes them into an income powerhouse. Investing in cigarette companies isn’t for everyone. Millions die from tobacco-related illnesses each year, and that understandably turns… Read More

The iPhone was initially available only in the U.S., United Kingdom and parts of Europe. Now the ubiquitous touch-screen smartphone is around the world. While many countries are untapped markets for the popular device, one stands out. China. Now Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has made a three-year deal with China’s second-largest… Read More

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), which measures the price it costs to ship raw materials by sea, is falling again — and fast. #-ad_banner-#The BDI isn’t a regular stock index like the S&P 500. It’s a composite… Read More

Gold and platinum usually move in tandem, with platinum typically valued about twice as much as gold. Sometimes this relationship gets off kilter for a short while, but it usually corrects itself quickly. Gold and platinum prices have been disconnected since the end of 2008. Read More

The price of sugar is up +86% so far this year and has reached a 28-year high. But this isn’t the end of a bull market for the commodity, it’s only the beginning. Two separate forces on… Read More