Energy ETFs: No More A Dividend Haven?

Energy stocks may be the most-cursed securities in the last one-year period, but all was not repulsive in this corner of the investment world. Investors should note that energy stocks are always rich with dividends.
With crude prices having lost more than one-third in the last one-and-a half year and many of the energy stocks falling by the wayside, dividend remained the only attraction and the only point of certainty for the space. So a steady dividend profile used to lure investors toward a stock which was otherwise on a fast-falling mode (read: Short Oil ETFs in Focus as Crude Prices Keep Falling).
However, this lone promise too started to lose its appeal for valid reasons. U.S. crude is now trading at $28 per barrel on supply glut worries. Market watchers had earlier projected that the long-exhausted commodity oil can slip to even $20, which is way below the psychologically resistant level of $40 (read: 4 Country ETFs to Shun if Oil Hits $20).
The latest blow can largely be blamed on that the lifting of the Western ban on Iran. Possibilities of more supplies to the market from Iran along with global growth worries renewed fears in oil investing. The Chinese economy's slowdown story is now known to all. Being one of the largest users of oil, this became a big time worry for the oil industry.
Moreover, OPEC announced that will continue to pump out more oil despite piling-up supplies and falling demand. OPEC terminated the production limit after the December 4... Read more