📅 On This Day
S&P 500 Crosses 2,000 as Post-Crisis Bull Market Matures
On August 26, 2014, the S&P 500 closed above 2,000 for the first time — a round-number milestone in a bull market that had started at 676 in March 2009. The climb was powered by earnings growth, share buybacks, and a Federal Reserve holding rates near zero, steering yield-hungry investors toward equities. For dividend investors, it was a golden era: companies raised payouts steadily, and dividend growth paired with price appreciation was delivering double-digit total returns.
A market that tripled from its 2009 lows rewarded patient, dividend-focused investors as richly as almost any other.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Wikipedia; The Wall Street Journal
🌍 Around the World
Singapore Taxes Dividends at Zero — and Built an Empire on It
Before 2003, Singapore taxed dividends at both the corporate and shareholder level. Then the government moved to a one-tier corporate tax system, fully mandatory by January 2008: the 17% corporate tax is the final tax, and shareholders — local or foreign — owe exactly nothing more. That single policy pivot is widely credited with making Singapore a global magnet for income investors and seeding the sprawling S-REIT market, where yields of 5–7% arrive entirely tax-free.
0% withholding tax for all investors makes Singapore one of the most income-friendly markets anywhere.
🇸🇬 SG
Source: IRAS Singapore dividend guidance; PwC Singapore tax summary
🔥 Dividend Streak
Kinder Morgan Promised a Raise, Then Cut 75% Seven Weeks Later
On October 21, 2015, Kinder Morgan management guided investors toward a 6–10% dividend increase for 2016. Seven weeks later, on December 8, 2015, the company slashed its quarterly dividend 75% — from $0.51 to $0.125 — as collapsing energy prices shut the capital markets it depended on to fund both growth and its payout. The episode is a stark reminder that a dividend built on borrowed money and equity issuance is only as durable as the markets willing to supply it.
When outside capital dries up, a promised raise can become a brutal cut almost overnight.
KMI — Kinder Morgan Inc
🇺🇸 US
Source: Kinder Morgan SEC filing (8-K, Dec 2015); The Motley Fool
💡 Did You Know
SEC Cybersecurity Clock Starts at 'Material,' Not at Discovery
A 2023 SEC rule requires companies to disclose material cybersecurity incidents on Form 8-K within four business days — but that countdown begins when the company determines an incident is material, not when it first learns of the breach. In practice, a company could be aware of a breach for weeks while assessing its scope before the four-day timer even starts. For investors, that gap between discovery and disclosure is worth keeping in mind when a cyber event eventually surfaces.
The materiality determination — not the breach itself — is what triggers the four-day disclosure deadline.
US
Source: SEC Press Release 2023-139 (July 26, 2023)