Despite all the bearish warnings heading into September, the month has gotten off to a decidedly bullish start. Stocks all around the globe rallied today, helped by better-than-expected economic data from China. The U.S. indices are rallied as well, extedning yesterday’s significant gains.
Dow 30 Shake Up
Probably the most widely-covered story on Wall Street this morning was the shake up in the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was announced that Goldman Sachs (GS
), Visa (V), and Nike (NKE) would replace Bank of America (BAC), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and Alcoa (AA) on the widely-watched (and scrutinized) 30-stock index. These changes will be put into effect after the closing bell on Friday, September 20th.
Because of these moves, investors and traders are sent shares of Goldman Sachs, Visa, and Nike higher this morning. Hewlett-Packard and Alcoa shares edged slightly lower on the day, while Bank of America shares rallied along with the rest of the financial stocks.
Stocks on the Rise
Other stocks getting a bump today were Cisco Systems (CSCO), after the company announced an acquisition, Wal-Mart (WMT), after it announced a new smartphone trade-in program, Pep Boys (PBY), after its second-quarter earnings call pleased investors, and Casey General Stores (CASY), following its investor-pleasing first quarter earnings release.
Wall Street analysts’ upgrades helped shares of Raytheon (RTN), Masco Corp. (MAS), National-Oilwell (NOV), Merck (MRK), and Marvell Technology (MRVL) head into positive territory as well today.
Stocks on the Decline
Due to the news that a resolution might be on the horizon in Syria, the price of oil and gold have been sliding in today’s trading. As such, stocks like Hess Corp. (HES), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Goldcorp (GG), Barrick Gold (ABX), and other energy and gold mining stocks were dragged into negative territory.
Other stocks on the decline today were PVH Corp (PVH), after it reported disappointing second quarter earnings, ConAgra Foods (CAG), after it cut its fiscal 2014 outlook below analysts’ expectations, and W.P. Carey (WPC), after it announced a new acquisition.
Be sure to check the Dividend Daily for all the latest earnings reports, analyst moves, and much more.
Stay One Step Ahead of The Game When It Comes To Retirement Savings
It seems that just about every day I come across story after story about how many retirees and near-retirees are still relying solely on pension plans and Social Security payments for their retirement incomes. Unfortunately, these individuals failed to properly prepare for retirement during their core working years as they thought that a pension and Social Security would be enough for retirement because that had been the case for generations prior. However, this just doesn’t cut it anymore, which is leaving many retirees and near-retirees scrambling to find some sort of way to ensure adequate income.
This is why I implore individuals and investors to start preparing for retirement as soon as possible to prevent these kind of financial struggles in what are supposed to be our golden years. While 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement accounts have flaws and put retirement responsibility and risk on individuals rather than a company or the government, they are currently the best way for investors to build their wealth in a tax-advantaged way to prepare for retirement. By utilizing a dividend investing strategy in these accounts, reinvesting the dividends to take advantage of compounding interest, investors will ensure that they are ahead of the curve when it comes to preparing for retirement. Even if you are in a position of retirement financial stability, I urge you to reach out to friends, family, a child, or a grandchild and tell them to get started as soon as possible to prepare, save, and invest for retirement. This way we will all be a bit happier in our golden years.
For more on retirement savings and investing, check out Dividend.com’s Money Management Center, Retirement Center and IRA Guide.
Thanks for reading everyone! Be sure to check us out on Twitter @dividenddotcom. We will see you tomorrow.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks, as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here.