Feature Article

Last month, Aggressive Holding AES Corp (NYSE: AES) bought a 183-megawatt capacity wind power facility in Mississippi from Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark: VWS, OTC: VWSYF). It started up 96 MW of solar/storage projects in Massachusetts and New York. And it forged a consortium with Clearway Energy (NYSE: CWEN) to buy 7 gigawatts of solar panels annually from US manufacturers starting in 2024.

First, let’s look at the record. For the first six months of 2022, the Conservative Holdings returned an average of 4.3 percent. The Aggressive Holdings were up 0.44 percent. And the Top 10 DRIPs—which feature a fair amount of overlap with the Conservative Holdings—were ahead by 5.31 percent.

Recession may not be inevitable for the US economy this year. But with the US Federal Reserve doing its best Paul Volcker impression, it’s well past time for investors to prepare against the worst.

The highest inflation rate in 40 years plus, the worst bond market meltdown in decades, increasingly unpredictable and sometimes aggressive US regulation, war in Europe, the highest oil and gas prices since 2008 and now rising recession risk, as the US Federal Reserve jacks up interest rates to slow inflation.

Last month’s Labor Party’s victory in parliamentary elections is a sea change for Australian energy policy. And long-suffering shareholders of AGL Energy (ASX: AGL, OTC: AGLXY) are now uniquely positioned to benefit.

The best network will win the most business: That was the underlying premise behind Verizon Communications’ (NYSE: VZ) successful rise to become America’s largest wireless company, as the leader of the previous decade’s 4G revolution.

Is this a bear market rally, or the start of another leg of the bull market that started in March 2009? How you answer that question will probably depend on what stocks you currently own.

Uncertainty is the order of the day for the economy and investment markets. But ironically, with Q1 results and guidance updates all in, 12 to 18 month dividend risk continues to drop for the essential services companies tracked in the Utility Report Card.

Huawei Technologies’ 5G-enabled “smart ports” promise to debottleneck China’s famously clogged global shipping. And linking digital innovations, artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things and automation solutions offers both a potential 50 percent increase in efficiency and 50 percent cut in operating costs as well.

If all management teams live within their means, there would be no need for an Endangered Dividends List. But reality is businesses take risks in good times that come back to burn them in bad ones. And the five companies on the EDL reporting Q1 results so far still have some very real vulnerability.