Dividend income is often overlooked amid gyrations in the stock market. Consider that in 2024, market bulls were boasting about 24%-plus S&P 500 returns. No one was very focused on the broad market index's 1.2% dividend yield. But dividends are an important element of return, and 2025 for a while was bearing that out. Through May, the S&P 500 was up a thin 1.1%; without dividends, there was essentially no returns at all. Of note, dividend income accounted for 42% of the total return of the S&P 500 between 1930 and 2012, according to Hartford Funds. And that's just the average. In some of those decades, dividends accounted for more than 50% of total returns and even 100%. More recently, dividends have accounted for a smaller portion of returns, at around 15%-20%. But not all dividends are created equal, though, and it is important to understand the difference between the two main investment categories: high-yield stocks and dividend-growth stocks.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Argus has published its latest Portfolio Selector, which features its popular Focus List. Each month, Director of Research Jim Kelleher, CFA, surveys the team of Argus Research industry analysts for their timeliest recommendations out of the company's fundamental universe of approximately 500 stocks. The Focus List typically includes 30 stocks: turnover is high, as Jim typically adds three or four new stocks per month. Below are the latest additions, all of which are rated BUY at Argus.

Everything is more expensive, which happens when oil prices jump. Oil, in the form of gasoline, is a critical component in the budgets of consumers. It also is a factor in many adjacent industries, as transportation and delivery costs impact most businesses. So with the war in Iran having pushed oil prices higher, consumers and investors have had to address higher costs. That was evident in two important inflation reports last week. The first report was for the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the most widely quoted inflation measure in the financial press. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the CPI rose at a 4.2% rate year over year through May, up from the prior reading of 3.8%. And it was a far cry from the Federal Reserve's stated goal of 2.0%. Moving up the value chain, the Producer Price Index (PPI) report has risen at a 6.5% annual rate through May. These are the costs that manufacturers bear, and ultimately are passed down to consumers. So let's take a step back and think of the inflation cycle. Pricing pressures peaked in 2022 at a rate of 9.0% and came down consistently for years, bottoming at 2.3% last April. Now the CPI is back to 4.2%. It seems safe to say that the downcycle for inflation is over, and the trend is headed up. We think this change in the pricing environment will keep the Federal Reserve on the sidelines in 2026 and our updated forecast is that the fed funds rate will be stable at the current level of 3.5-3.75% through the end of the year.