BCE Inc. (BCE)

Weekly Stock ListDividends are supposed to lend stability to a portfolio. However, U.S.-based income investors have experienced a high degree of volatility in recent years, as the Federal Reserve since 2018 has embarked on two campaigns to raise interest rates, sandwiched around a desperate program that lowered the federal funds rate to zero in order to help the economy recover from the pandemic. The endless speculation over the direction of rates has created market-timing headaches for equity income investors. They have endured wide swings in prices for rate-sensitive equity sectors such as Utilities, REITs and MLPs. In our view, investing in international income stocks is one way to increase portfolio diversification while reducing sensitivity to volatile U.S interest rates. Investing in overseas stocks carries its own set of risks, including the impact of currency exchange and geopolitical turmoil. But there are also a number of positives in this asset class for U.S. investors, including a wide selection, robust industry diversification, higher yields, and lower valuations. Argus has recently boosted its global coverage, and recommends the following international dividend stocks. Note this list of 25 companies offers exposure to eight of the 11 major sectors. The list includes companies from 10 countries.