Second quarter and first half of the year was still very much aftermath of the pandemic. Stocks have soared as the monetary policies have been adjusted to support economic recovery. Chances are that those monetary policies are too loose and late in general but size of the balloon remains to be seen. It’s hard to consider current stock valuations as a whole representative of the underlying economy. Therefore it has been very difficult to find anything to buy. As a compromise I’ve tried to nibble on existing positions with smaller maintenance purchases.
Pre tax dividend income during second quarter was 2684.31 EUR and 3874.46 EUR during first half. Quite solid rebound in progress from last year. It remains to be seen if finance sector is allowed pending dividends this year. Nordea’s dividends for two years are pending on ECB permission. Assuming that permission is granted during Q3 and dividends are paid during Q4 at latest, remaining dividend rebound would then be mainly about few REIT dividends.
Otherwise there were few major news except for the ever ongoing pandemic. Still few will have impact on my portfolio. AT&T will spin off Warner Media. It’s almost guaranteed that dividend will be cut as a whole. I’m a bit torn with this but probably will hold on and see how it plays out eventually. Most annoying thing with these spin offs is the eventual impact on taxation as handling will be a bit more complicated. Second news was Realty Income‘s plan to buy VEREIT. Owning both I don’t really mind but going forward this is positive news.
Plan for the next two quarters? Probably wait and see is the way to go. I’ll do small maintenance purchases and pretty much try to reinvest received dividends. Should there be major correction, I have plenty of cash waiting to be deployed.