Whew! Last week was something, wasn't it? Stocks in free fall and panic in the streets. According to Barron's Monday edition ("Attention Shoppers: It's Time to Buy," by Andrew Bary), this is the fourth such decline in a bull market since WWII ended. The other three rallied an average of 18% in the next quarter (from Barron's lips to God's ear, right?).
I did find on Thursday, during the precipitous drop, that quality stocks did not fall nearly as much as lesser names. Friday brought some relief and an uptick so that we could have tolerable weekends.
It seems clear that we are going to have volatility in our future. Even so, there seem to be a number of awfully attractive buys out there, and some pay good and growing dividends. It's pretty hard to find a market bottom, but how bad is a 4.5% dividend and a growing company? In the Bary article, he points out that PFE (Pfizer) and MRK (Merck) are yielding more than 4.5%. PFE was one of the stocks I looked at on Thursday — its percentage decline was less than the general fall from grace.
Have a wonderful next week and try not to let the market or the media get you down. This blog was written Sunday, and who knows what will happen by the time it's published Wednesday? Only The Shadow knows, right?
For more on market declines, see:
