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Stocks ended the day deep in the red as investors weighed several worries.
Under the shadow of the rapidly approaching Oct. 18 deadline by which Congress must raise or suspend the debt ceiling so that the U.S. does not default on its financial obligations, the 10-year Treasury yield briefly topped 1.50% before ending up 1.5 basis points (a basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point) at 1.482%.
This rise in bond yields sparked a selloff in Big Tech, with Facebook (FB, -4.9%) the most notable decliner.
Last night's "60 Minutes" episode on CBS in which a former FB employee accused the company of misleading the public on the negative effects of its platform put the FAANG stock in Wall Street's sights, while a major outage across all three of its properties – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – did it no favors.
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As such, the Nasdaq Composite was by far the day's biggest loser, slumping 2.1% to 14,255. The S&P 500 Index gave back 1.3% to 4,300 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.9% to 34,002.
Other news in the stock market today:
YCharts
With volatility running high, the case for dividend stocks is as strong as ever.
"Dividend strategies have gained a foothold with market participants seeking potential outperformance and attractive yields," notes Tianyin Cheng, senior director of Strategy Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Stocks with a history of dividend growth could present a compelling investment opportunity in an uncertain environment."
And while there's no shortage of stocks offering dividends these days – with the regular payouts allowing investors to ride out the market's zigs and zags with a little less stress – not all of them are worth your investment.
To that end, we've compiled several lists of the best dividend growers, including these top Dow dividend stocks. All of the names listed here have yields of at least 2%, above the blue-chip benchmark's average, and are highly rated by the pros on Wall Street.
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