archiveDividends

The U.S. Federal Reserve increased its key interest rate a total of 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023. And while the central bank hasn't made additional increases lately – and some think it may even move toward cuts soon – the bottom line is that the current rate environment makes fixed-income instruments much more attractive than most dividend stocks.Consider that the average yield of a stock in the S&P 500 index of the largest U.S. companies is just 1.7% at present, while 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds provide 4.7%...