Don’t be fooled by the counter-trend bounce, and stick with dividend stocks, according to Josh Brown. “Dividend aristocrats are the right place to be,” the co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.” ” Companies that pay dividends , companies with great cash flow , quality balance sheets, international stocks — international value in particular — this is where the puck has been headed already, and I think it will continue,” he added. The major averages are higher to start the year. In 2023, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 6%, as risk-on sentiment spurred investors to snap up beaten-up tech stocks. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S & P 500 advanced by more than 2% and 4%, respectively. Even so, Brown urged investors to take a step back, as two straight weeks of gains does not necessarily spell how the rest of the year will go, especially in a rising interest rate environment. “Why do we all of a sudden want to call an end to something that is very obviously the predominant trend just because of like seven great days for penny stocks and bitcoin?” Brown said. “Let’s all relax. The big picture is: investors in a rising rate environment with a sort of, not quite sure, picture on the economy going forward are going to select for quality and cash flow and dividends. They do it every time. This time will not be different. The playbook works. Don’t try to be a hero and don’t try to anticipate the move after the move,” he said. One ETF that tracks these so-called dividend aristocrats is the ProShares S & P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) .
