Friday, September 30, 2011

End of a terrible quarter and a buy



Dow dropped 240 points to end the 3rd quarter to close at 10,913.

Worst quarter since the dark days at the end of 2008.

For the quarter, the Dow dropped 1,501 points (12.1%) and the S&P dropped 14.3%.

All is not negative though. At the very end of the day, I picked up 50 shares of PM at $62.65. I have been waiting for a drop in PM over the past 6 months.

This buy represents an initial yield of 4.92% and will pay me $154 in dividends over the next 12 months.

If PM drops from here (I am hoping it does), I will buy on the way down.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Terrible week but finally some good news



Worst week in the market in 3 years ended on a bit of a high note.

Market had first winning day this week gaining 38 points to close at 10,771 but the real good news was delivered by Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed announced a 33% dividend increase from $.75 quarterly to $1.00.

This increase has LMT now yielding 5.55% (based on today's close of $72.09) and more importanetly will pay me an additional $88.51 over the next 12 months.

I will continue to DCA into LMT below $75.

This has been a very good month for dividend increases with LMT, VZ, and PM all increasing dividends. All told, I will receive an extra $137.32 for the next 12 months from these 3 stocks.

In other news, PM's got hammered today.

Gold was down $102 (-5.85%) to close at $1640.
Silver got punished big time and was down almost 18% (-$6.47) to close at $30.10.

I have my eye to pick up some more bullion on this dip and perhaps initiate a position in CEF. CEF was down 9% to close at $21.21.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Over the falls (again): -391 (-3.5%)


Dow dropped 391 today to close at 10,733. Dow dropped 283 yesterday. 675 points in 2 days. ouch.

TEVA keeps falling like a rock to close at $35.39 (down 3.4%).

Other notable losers:
-GS $93.98 (down almost 4%)
-BAC $6.06 (down 5%)
-BHP $67.28 (down 6.5%)

Nothing was safe today and commodities got hammered:
-Gold $1733 (down 4%)
-Silver $36.58 (down 9.6%)
-Oil $80.51 (down 6.3%)

My asset allocation is very light on precious metals. I may start rebalancing and aim for 10% PM's.

Friday, September 9, 2011

-303 (-2.69%)

Volatility continues as Dow dropped another 300 points to close at 10,992.

Pulled trigger on AFL and established small position of 30 shares at $34.22 with initial yield of 3.51% and will pay $36 worth of dividends over the next 12 months.