Post by papaof2 on Aug 13, 2021 16:54:04 GMT -6
A bit of history:
I worked for AT&T (the pre-2000 company, not the name Southwestern Bell bought a few years ago) and bought stock using the employee purchase program - painless, and I increased the contribution a liitle each year. Those were the days of AT&T as one company which owned all the local Bell operating companies - Southwestern Bell, Southern Bell, etc, etc.
Then came the breakup of the Bell System with each operating company being an independent entity and the AT&T stock we had became AT&T stock plus an amount of stock in each "new" company comparable to its value as part of the whole. We had the option of keeping all the "Baby Bell" stock or exchanging the stocks we didn't want for stocks in some other of the "Baby Bells". My better half and I did some research and Bellsouth looked to be the best of the lot - we were correct, as their stock split 2-for-1, 2-for-1 and 3-for-2 in short order. Plus we still had some AT&T stock.
We basically let that ride - dividends being reinvested on Bellsouth and AT&T stock and just paid the minimal taxes - we didn't have enough dividends to live on, just a few hundred dollars of reliable income each year. Eventually we sold small amounts of the stocks - pay off a car, pay college tuition for one of the kids, major repairs on the house. The ups and downs (mostly downs) of the market weren't a concern - most of the stock had come from the splits and had effectively cost us nothing so the "losses" were only on paper (like the "value" of the derivatives in that fiasco)
The point of all this:
Now we just have the AT&T stock - a "blue chip" for decades because they ALWAYS pay a yearly divident - and, while the rest of the stock market seems to not know where things are going this week, AT&T has been slowly moving up: 0.6% two days in a row. Not a big deal? Perhaps, but it could be a sign that people are looking for a not-losing-money stock. It's Friday, which is traditionally "profit taking day" - sell what you have to get the most from the week's gains, and some analysts are saying "Get your money out of the market before September" - but AT&T is up a bit instead of the usual down-on-Friday so maybe some in the market are looking for safer havens?
I worked for AT&T (the pre-2000 company, not the name Southwestern Bell bought a few years ago) and bought stock using the employee purchase program - painless, and I increased the contribution a liitle each year. Those were the days of AT&T as one company which owned all the local Bell operating companies - Southwestern Bell, Southern Bell, etc, etc.
Then came the breakup of the Bell System with each operating company being an independent entity and the AT&T stock we had became AT&T stock plus an amount of stock in each "new" company comparable to its value as part of the whole. We had the option of keeping all the "Baby Bell" stock or exchanging the stocks we didn't want for stocks in some other of the "Baby Bells". My better half and I did some research and Bellsouth looked to be the best of the lot - we were correct, as their stock split 2-for-1, 2-for-1 and 3-for-2 in short order. Plus we still had some AT&T stock.
We basically let that ride - dividends being reinvested on Bellsouth and AT&T stock and just paid the minimal taxes - we didn't have enough dividends to live on, just a few hundred dollars of reliable income each year. Eventually we sold small amounts of the stocks - pay off a car, pay college tuition for one of the kids, major repairs on the house. The ups and downs (mostly downs) of the market weren't a concern - most of the stock had come from the splits and had effectively cost us nothing so the "losses" were only on paper (like the "value" of the derivatives in that fiasco)
The point of all this:
Now we just have the AT&T stock - a "blue chip" for decades because they ALWAYS pay a yearly divident - and, while the rest of the stock market seems to not know where things are going this week, AT&T has been slowly moving up: 0.6% two days in a row. Not a big deal? Perhaps, but it could be a sign that people are looking for a not-losing-money stock. It's Friday, which is traditionally "profit taking day" - sell what you have to get the most from the week's gains, and some analysts are saying "Get your money out of the market before September" - but AT&T is up a bit instead of the usual down-on-Friday so maybe some in the market are looking for safer havens?
