Income Insights

24.

That’s how many stocks we track at Energy & Income Advisor and Conrad’s Utility Investor that yield more than 10 percent.

Taper talk is rife again in the financial media. And the all-too-familiar consensus is still that the Federal Reserve will abandon cheap money in the near future, driving up interest rates and sending dividend-paying stocks plummeting.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an official retraction. But after the past few days’ events, arguments made by Hedgeye and Barron’s against oil and gas producer master limited partnerships are effectively in tatters.

The $48 billion leveraged buyout of the former TXU Corp by KKR & Co. LP (NYSE: KKR) and other private-equity outfits set record in 2007. Now, the company's impending bankruptcy underscores the risks of looking for a quick buck in the utility sector.

We’ve yet to see third quarter results for most of the US communications industry. But it’s not too soon to ask what happened to the assertion the Big Two US Telecoms — AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) — would be skewered by rivals’ cut rate pricing and a cheaper iPhone.

At its core, the stock market is about people. The numbers offer clues to the odds of company’s success. But as an analyst for nearly 30 years, I’ve found keeping tapped in to the market mood is no less essential.

Don’t believe everything you hear. The odds are still heavily in favor of enough Democrats and Republicans joining forces to prevent the first bona fide US default since the government operated under the Articles of Confederation.

You had questions about utility and telecom stocks, we had answers. 

Forget what you’ve read about iOS7, iPhone 5C, China sales and the rest of the various and sundry device hype. Put your money in AT&T (NYSE: T), not Apple (NSDQ: AAPL).

The Environmental Protection Agency's ongoing crackdown on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants continues to dominate the headlines. But investors shouldn't overlook the importance of utility-regulator relations at the state and local level.