Or maybe shareholders have been so traumatized by the Tech Wreck that they are content to sit on the sidelines with cash. Someday soon, that money will come flooding into the stock market fueling a powerful rebound. But that recovery may still be several months away. In the meantime, all investors can do is wait, making occasional additions to their holdings. Whatever you buy over the next few months should help balance your portfolio, particularly if you became heavily overweighted in growth stocks during the 1995-2000 boom.
Many investors think that dividends went out with disco balls.
But it's actually possible to find stocks that yield nearly as much as money-market funds pay. Most stocks with yields of 4 to 5 percent are shares of Old Economy companies. And because such stocks closely track the business cycle, they are relatively cheap right now, offering the chance for substantial capital gains over the next five years as well as current income. Here's a brief look at four of them. Bank of America is one of the three biggest U.S. bank holding companies, along with J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup.