Jim Trippon: China’s overall government strategy of piling up additional energy and other resource assets while consolidating certain industries is ongoing. China watchers know that this has shifted into high gear in the last couple of years, with China’s major oil and gas companies Read more…

Jim Trippon: Nestled in among the earnings reports, sometimes along with them, are announcements of dividend increases. As we’ve written about consistently, this has been a year where dividend increases have consistently appeared, as many companies continue Read more…

Gas prices at the pump have been making news, so for consumers you know that’s almost never good. It usually means we’re paying more to drive, as gas prices seem to seldom go down, and if they do, somehow that news, rare as it is, gets buried. Why? Because the price increases are usually Read more…

From time to time we highlight some of the stocks that are part of the dividend universe, whether they’re increasing or decreasing their dividends or whether there is other news of interest, such as significant developments with earnings or other facets of these stocks’ Read more…

Jim Trippon: China, the world’s number one vehicle market in the world by sales, is still growing its vehicle sales amid an overall economic slowdown. That growth, however, like so much other economic activity, has tapered off. Total vehicle sales in China for August Read more…

Jim Trippon: The dividend hits keep coming, as 2012 continues to be a good year, quietly or otherwise, for dividends. Two fast food giants, McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) and Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) announced dividend increases. McDonald’s recently announced Read more…

Jim Trippon: Telecom giant Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) recently raised its quarterly dividend from 50 cents per share to 51.5 cents, for an annual payout of $2.06. This is a 3 percent increase in the dividend, and is the sixth consecutive year for a dividend increase. Read more…

Jim Trippon: Investors in stocks AOL (NYSE:AOL) and Fisher Communications (NASDAQ:FSCI) had to feel the glow of holding onto a lucky winner the other day, when both companies announced special dividend payments. As part of a plan to return $1.1 billion Read more…

Jim Trippon: With Chinese iron ore prices recently sagging to around $100 per metric tonne due to what has been a sluggish demand for steel, iron ore producers and steelmakers globally are finding the results pressing on their bottom line. Steelmakers such Read more…

Jim Trippon: Premier Wen Jiabao’s recent remarks last week on the state of the Chinese economy were no doubt closely followed by many China observers, his words parsed for any clues on upcoming policy. In a two-day visit to Zhejiang, a coastal export province, Read more…

Jim Trippon: We’ve written recently about a relatively simple way to apply a portfolio management technique to your dividend holdings, which we labeled as “keep some, sell some.” This enables a dividend investor to build and keep a core of portfolio holdings, Read more…

Jim Trippon: With the recent announcement that China’s major electronic advertising and display company, Focus Media Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:FMCN), was entertaining an offer to go private, observers are asking whether or not this will be the beginning of a stampede Read more…