This may seem like an archane, wonky point to some, but yesterday the S&P 500's dividend yield nudged above the yield on the Treasury 10-year note. That has not happened since 1958, the year when the dividend yield first slipped below bond yields. Back then, it was a sign of greater comfort with holding stocks, that some of the nervousness from the Great Depression had finally faded.
Today, the oppposite action could mean a tipping point in people's attitudes toward holding stocks. Not that I could really blame them given the horrible return from stocks over the past decade or so. But to abandon the stock market as a way of building net worth would be a shame with market down so much. Terrible timing, especially since the stock market is our only escape from the meager retirement returns being promised by Social Security.
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of 12:30PM November 21, 2008