July -- The Month of the Dividend

The S&P 500 is up about 70 basis points so far this month, but dividend stocks have been surging.  As shown below, the iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY) broke out to a new 2012 high today.  At least based on stock performance, not many people seem too worried about the upcoming spike in dividend taxes in 2013.

In the S&P 500, there are exactly 100 stocks that pay no dividend at all, and these stocks are down an average of 1.30% so far this month.  But while stocks that pay no dividend are heading lower, the 100 highest yielding stocks in the S&P 500 are up an average of 1.02% month to date.  Below is a list of July's top performing S&P 500 stocks that yield more than 4%.