dividend yields top treasury yields

[11/19/08] U.S. stocks’ dividend yields were lower than the yield on 10-year Treasury notes for half a century. Not any more.

Dividends paid by Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies in the past 12 months amounted to 3.51 percent of the benchmark’s closing value yesterday. In early trading today, the 10-year yield fell as low as 3.42 percent.

The CHART OF THE DAY tracks the yields, and the difference between them, on a quarterly basis since 1953. S&P provided the dividend yields. The data on the Treasury’s yield, holding the maturity constant at 10 years, comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

[via brknews]