Dividend sale in aisle 4, but are there any buyers left to heed the call?

We are all so past being wowed by the market’s capacity to careen. There’s Torstar with a 9.5% dividend. Canadian Oilsands is now forecast to pay a 15.6% annual distribution. BMO’s dividend yield is at 8.4%. Spectra Energy is north of 7%, and they run a pipeline business. “Highly rated” JP Morgan bounced above 6.5%. Even Royal and Manulife have inched up to ~5.6%.

All I keep thinking is: most people have neither the capital nor the conviction to enter at these levels. But, with the S&P 500 now 52% off its 2007 high, these dividend levels have arrived with all of the grace and nuance of a 24 pound newborn.

Having feared that the Dow Jones would head below 8,000 (see prior post “Globe & Mail coverage on stock market turmoil” October 6-08) back when it was at 10,230, I wish I felt as though 7,000 wasn’t just days away.

You know the old saying about “for every seller there is a buyer”? Why does it feel as though the people that buy on the one day just turn around and sell a few days later at a loss?

Damn those hedge funds!

MRM