![politicalcalculations.blogspot.com: S&P 500 Average Monthly Index Value vs Trailing Year Dividends per Share, January 2008 through Present [15 July 2008]](http://www.newstin.com/image.a?id=5996882.png)
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Once again, we've updated our signature tool The S&P 500 at Your Fingertips, with all the latest available data through June 2008. The chart below, which we've tweaked a bit from the version we showed late last week, shows where we're at and where things sit here at the midpoint of July: Elsewhere, Tigerhawk has asked if the recent market action is a reaction by investors discounting the possibility of a likely Obama presidency (HT: Instapundit). The answer to that question is no, at least not yet. The trigger behind sharp market declines is, almost invariably, the risk of financially-distressed companies cutting their dividends to improve their balance sheets. Since changes in expected dividend payments in the future directly drive stock prices, when investors can reasonably expect that this will happen, stock prices... [read full story]
