Easy Peasy #41: Build Your Dividend Portfolio & Live Off Dividends with Pre-Selected Stock Sets

Dividend Growing Stock Sets – Start with $300, $500, or $1,000 Weekly

MaxDividends Mission: Helping & Supporting Everyone in Building a Growing Passive Income, Retiring Early, and Living Off Dividends.

In this section, we share ready-made sets of promising dividend growth stocks with strong future dividend potential.

We also track performance and provide portfolio links for each set, so you can monitor past results and real-time updates.

⭐️ Premium content for paid subscribers

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Intro

Tech Drags, Buyers Take a Breather After Wild Run

Stocks cooled off Tuesday as the S&P 500 snapped a 6-day winning streak, slipping -23.14 points (-0.39%) to close at 5,940. The Dow dipped -114.83 (-0.27%) to 42,677, while the Nasdaq shed -72.75 (-0.38%) to finish at 19,142. Small caps stayed flat, with the Russell 2000 up just +1.15 (+0.05%) to 2,105.

The pullback came on the lowest volume SPY trading day in months, with profit-taking hitting the Mag 7 — NVDA, GOOGL, AAPL, AMZN, META, and TSLA — all down ~1% intraday before trimming losses.

Nine of eleven S&P sectors finished in the red, with Utilities and Consumer Staples the only green spots. Investors seemed to take a break after a monster +20% run off April lows.

📊 Economic Data

No major U.S. macro releases today, but the market’s still chewing on China’s April report card:

• Retail sales slowed to +5.1% YoY (vs est. +5.8%, prior +5.9%) — consumption cooling.

• Industrial production came in strong at +6.1% (vs est. +5.7%), but down from +7.7% prior.

• Fixed asset investment rose +4.0%, in line with consensus, but property investment dropped -10.3%, deepening the real estate funk.

💰 Commodities, Currencies & Treasuries

• Gold rallied hard, jumping +$51.10 or +1.55% to settle at $3,284.60/oz — biggest one-day gain in weeks. The move was driven by safe-haven demand and a broad pullback in the dollar, which hit a 1-week low versus the yen, euro, and Swiss franc.

🔩 Autos

• TSLA got a short-term jolt after Elon Musk told CNBC the robotaxi service will launch in Austin by late June. He’s expecting “hundreds of thousands” of autonomous Teslas on the road by next year — market took that with a grain of salt but liked the optimism.

• Waymo (GOOGL) secured California approval to expand its robotaxi service across more of the Bay Area, including San Jose. Another chess move in the autonomous wars.

🛒 Retail, Consumer Staples & Restaurants

• Home Depot (HD) reported mixed Q1:

— EPS came in at $3.56, just shy of the $3.60 estimate.

— Revenue jumped +9% YoY to $39.86B, beating the $39.31B consensus.

— U.S. comps up +0.2%, while total comp sales dipped -0.3%. FY25 guidance held steady: EPS -2%, revenue +2%, comp sales +1%.

• Levi’s (LEVI) selling Dockers brand to Authentic Brands for up to $391M (base $311M + $80M performance earnout).

• Ulta (ULTA) got a price target boost to $465 from Oppenheimer ahead of earnings next week — analysts still bullish on FY25 execution.

⚡ Energy, Industrials & Materials

• Chevron (CVX) looking at Indonesian gas blocks with 15 TCF in reserves. That’s big.

• Equinor (EQNR) downgraded after slashing its long-term distribution outlook; restarted production at Johan Castberg oilfield.

• Southern Co (SO) issued $1.25B in new convertible debt.

🏥 Healthcare

• Pfizer (PFE) signed a $1.25B licensing deal with China’s 3SBio, plus $100M equity stake; total potential value tops $6B.

• Vertex (VRTX) announced a $4B buyback — flexing balance sheet.

📰 Internet, Media & Telecom

Google (GOOGL) launched Gemini Flash 2.5 at I/O Day 1. App now has 400M+ MAUs. Also previewed AI upgrades to Meet and introduced Beam for immersive video.

🔌 Semiconductors, Hardware & Software

• Nvidia (NVDA) opened its AI server ecosystem to QCOM and MRVL. Also teaming with Foxconn to build AI factory in Taiwan.

• KLA (KLAC) downgraded at Deutsche Bank — said upside from Gate-All-Around ramp largely priced in.

• Intel (INTC) reportedly exploring spinoff of network & edge divisions.

🧠 What’s Next?

1️⃣ Big earnings ahead: TGT, LOW, and TJX report.

3️⃣ NVDA earnings drop Wednesday night — semis are holding their breath.

4️⃣ Biden admin’s AI chip export policy rewrite still looming.

5️⃣ Will S&P 500 break 6,000 this week or stall out again? Still just ~1% shy.

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But none of this news really matters to MaxDividends members. We're focused on growing the cash flow that lands in your pocket every month—not stressing over price swings or stock market noise.

At MaxDividends, we focus on a dividend growth strategy, perfect for investors seeking capital appreciation, solid safety, and a steadily growing income.

A rising dividend is a strong sign that a company is thriving—and wants its shareholders to thrive with it.

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This week, we’ve rolled out a fresh batch of ready-to-go Stock Sets 💪.

Easy Peasy #41: Pre-Selected Dividend Growth Stock Sets