Kearney, Neb.-based Buckle () raised its dividend six times since it began paying one in 2003. That’s made for a dividend growth rate of 79%, putting Buckle in an elite club. Among the 1,592 dividend stocks that yield at least 2.1% which is what Buckle yields only 25 can match or beat Buckle’s dividend growth rate. The operator of 370 teen apparel stores in 38 states gets good marks in Stock Checkup at Investors.com. It’s rated No. 1 in Overall, Technical and Attractiveness...
TSX tumbles on lower commodities, credit worries
May 16, 2008 on 3:57 am | In Finance |
Falling commodity prices and worries about further credit writedownssent resource and financial shares sharply lower Thursday.
The S&P/TSX composite index slid 250 points to close at 13,524.
Weakness in commodity prices was responsible for much of the drop. The golds sector shed 2.9 per cent as bullion futures plunged $28 US an ounce to $786.70 US an ounce as the U.S. dollar gained strength. Silver futures fell almost four per cent.
The metals and minerals group dropped 3.4 per cent and energy stocks slid 1.3 per cent. Oil prices fell 66 cents to $93.43 US a barrel following an unexpected increase in U.S crude inventories.Copper prices slid more than six per cent.
A four per cent drop in the consumer staples group was due largely to shares of Loblaw, which lost 12 per cent of their value (down $5.04 to $35.55) after the grocery giant reporteda bigger-than-expected plunge in quarterly earnings.
The heavily-weighted financials group dropped two per cent amid a continuing parade of foreign banks announcing major writedowns related to the slumping U.S. mortgage market and the resulting credit crunch.
Britain’s Barclays Capitalannounced a $2.7 billion US writedown Thursday
Shares of all the big banks fell, led by CIBC’s fall of $3.73 to $88.57.
Financial stocks in Canada and the U.S. sold off on fears that more big credit-related writedowns are coming. The chief executive of the second biggest U.S.mortgage lender, Wells Fargo, told a conference Thursday thatthe U.S. housing downturn wasthe worst since the Great Depression and was far from being over.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 121 points to 13,109.
The Canadian dollar lost almost two full cents to close at $1.0151US as the slide continued from its $1.10 US top reached a little more than a week ago.
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U.S. paper ends print edition to live online »With print revenue down and online revenue growing, newspaper executives are anticipating the day when big city dailies and national papers will abandon their print versions. That day has arrived in Madison, Wisconsin. Last Saturday, The Capital Times, a fabled 90-year-old daily newspaper founded in response to the jingoist fervor of World War I, stopped printing to devote itself to publishing its daily report on the Web. (The staff will also produce two print products: a free weekly...