low

That’s right, I said WIMPS!

I have never heard so much whining and crying and complaining about a market drop as I have the past few weeks. Last week, I pointed out that we had only fallen 105 points from the prior week (10,172 to 10,067) and this week we fell ALL THE WAY to 10,012 to finish the week and you would think the world was ending (again) from the way the MSM has been acting.

There are certainly many ways to categorize the different styles of investing in dividend stocks, including yield, risk, growth, etc. Over the years, I have found that most dividend investing styles fall into one of the three major categories listed below:

The U.S. Dollar fell to a 15 month low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday as concerns about debt issues in Dubai subsided, leading to increased demand for higher yielding currencies. Further weakness in the Dollar was attributed to a report that Chinese manufacturing increased at its fastest pace in five years.

Support for the U.S. Dollar continued to erode all day triggering a collapse in the Dollar Index to near last week’s low at 74.27. A break through this level sets up a further decline to 73.67 which would match the April 2008 bottom.

The U.S. Dollar finished lower against all-major currencies today. The down move was triggered by comments from highly ranking individuals including Fed Chairman Bernanke and a Chinese banking official.

Penford Corporation (Nasdaq: PENX) reported $0.12 per diluted share, compared to net loss of $1.83 per diluted share last year.

Net income from continuing operations was $1.3 million compared to net loss of $20.4 million last year.

The U.S. Dollar hit a 15-month low against a basket of currencies last night on the prospect the Fed will keep interest rates at low levels for a prolonged period of time. This assumption is based on last week’s Fed FOMC statement and recent comments from a Fed official suggesting that unemployment is the major concern.

The U.S. Dollar Index reached a 15 month low on Monday following a massive sell-off against most major currencies. The Dollar has gone down since November 3 when it topped at a 50% price at 77.50. The 2008 bottoms at 73.79 and 73.67 are the next downside targets.

U.S. equity markets traded sideway-to-better after the government released a weaker than expected jobs report. The unemployment rate hit also hit a 26-year high at 10.2%. The bears see this report as a sign the economy is worsening. The bulls read it as a chance to continue to demand higher risk because it reduces the likelihood of a Fed rate hike until mid-2010.

The U.S. Dollar finished sharply lower today against most major currencies except the Japanese Yen. Speculators bet early and often this morning that the Fed would do nothing with interest rates nor hint at an end to its stimulus plans. These bets paid off as the Dollar weakened further after the FOMC announcement in the afternoon.

After a sharp sell-off earlier in the week, which took a basket of currencies to a 14-month high versus the Dollar, the greenback managed to post a small gain. The strong comeback in the Dollar was helped on Friday by an early sell-off in stock index futures and a weaker than expected consumer confidence figure.

I am a firm believer in keeping things simple. However, you can simplify things to the point they no longer have value. In my opinion, a lot of the commonly used financial metrics can be very misleading unless you understand what is behind them. Let’s take a closer look at Dividend Payout.

The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) announced $0.23 per diluted share compared with $2.65 per share, for the first quarter ended August 31, 2008. analysts average 0.35. MOS misses by $0.12.

Net earnings were $100.6 million for the first quarter. These results compare with net earnings of $1.2 billion for the first quarter ended August 31, 2008.

The U.S. Dollar lost ground against all major currencies as record low U.S. interest rates encouraged the selling of the Dollar and the buying of higher yielding assets. Overnight the Dollar firmed until a better than expected U.S. Weekly Initial Claims Report helped put in a top and set off a gradual decline throughout the day.

There has been some controversy over harvesting forests of hardwoods and reseeding them with pines. Valuable hardwood require decades to reach financial maturity. The southern pine reaches financial maturity in a fraction of the time. Growing hardwoods is very similar to investing in dividend stocks.