In trading on Thursday, shares of AT&T were yielding above the 6% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $1.11), with the stock changing hands as low as $18.50 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market’s total return. To illustrate, suppose for example you purchased shares of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) back on 12/31/1999 — you would have paid $146.88 per share. Fast forward to 12/31/2012 and each share was worth $142.41 on that date, a decrease of $4.67/share over all those years. But now consider that you collected a whopping $25.98 per share in dividends over the same period, for a positive total return of 23.36%. Even with dividends reinvested, that only amounts to an average annual total return of about 1.6%; so by comparison collecting a yield above 6% would appear considerably attractive if that yield is sustainable. AT&T is an S&P 500 company, giving it special status as one of the large-cap companies making up the S&P 500 Index.

Visa, Mastercard Pause Crypto Push in Wake of Industry Meltdown

Recently, I received an email from a reporter that read in part:

Many, most especially the Biden White House, ran with the inflation moderation of last summer and fall. Federal Reserve (Fed) Board President Jerome Powell even suggested that he might not have been so wrong in 2021 when he declared the inflationary pressure as “transitory.” Now news for January contradicts this pleasant view of things. It reports that consumer prices rose 0.5% that month, 6.2% stated at an annual rate, and that producer prices rose by 0.7%, 8.7% stated at an annual rate. Neither says anything good about the inflation situation.

Former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was found guilty Thursday of killing his wife and adult son in a 2021 double-murder, following a trial that spanned more than five weeks and captivated the country given Murdaugh’s prominent background.

NFL players who reported experiencing symptoms of concussion during their careers showed problems with memory and cognition decades after retirement, according to a study published Thursday in the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, bolstering troubling research as concerns grow over the toll paid by athletes competing in America’s most popular sport.