It's time to be bullish

when you flip on CNBC or turn to your paper's business section, it's all gloom and anxiety. The talking heads are warning that the economy could be headed for a double-dip recession or maybe something worse. Individual investors have caught the pessimism bug too: At the end of August, only 21% of individual investors described themselves as being bullish, vs. about 50% who said they were bearish.

As merger-and-acquisition activity has begun to pick up recently, stock prices have also begun to rise. In addition, companies in the S&P 500 have boosted their dividend payments by nearly $14 billion so far this year, after slashing their payouts by $37 billion in 2009. Dividend-paying stocks have returned more than 10% this year, three times the return of the broad market.

Source: CNN Money

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