Surprising Income Stocks

Fellow Investor,

These may be the most exciting dividend stocks on the market right now.

They pay big dividend yields... have strong fundamentals that can add stability to your portfolio... and they've tripled, quadrupled, even sextupled the market over the past 2 years.

And each still has plenty of room to climb.

Whether you're already enjoying your retirement or you still have years to go, these are stocks worth checking out right away.

Download 3 Dividend Stocks to Include in Your Retirement Strategy report. Today, it's absolutely free.

All the best,

Kevin Matras
EVP, Zacks.com

☕️ GM Munchers! Perfect golf weather this weekend. Playoff hockey tonight. Life is good. My wife just walked in holding a paint swatch and asked if I preferred "Warm Linen" or "Soft Canvas." They are the same colour. I have a tee time in 24 hours that I am no longer confident about.

On today’s menu:

• 📈 The Best Month In 5 Years

• 😬 Terrible Day For Meta

• 🍎 Apple Beat Earnings & Tik Cook Is Leaving

• 🤯 The U.S. debt Just Got Crazy

Yesterday’s numbers:

BREAKING NEWS

📈 April Is Over. It Was The Best Month In Five Years. Now What?

April 2026 was extraordinary. The S&P 500 hit a new all-time high of 7,201 yesterday and finished the month up 9%. The Nasdaq gained 14% in April, its biggest monthly gain since November 2020. Over $6 trillion was added to US stock market value in a single month. A month that started with war fears, oil shocks, and mass panic ended at record highs.

Yesterday itself was a mixed bag with tech stocks like Meta crashing 10% while the old economy saved the day. Caterpillar jumped 11% and Eli Lilly surged 9% as investors rotated out of expensive AI names and into businesses that make actual physical things.

The economic data was complicated.

• GDP grew 2% in Q1, below the 2.3% estimate.

• Inflation came in at 3.5% year over year, well above the Fed's 2% target.

• Initial jobless claims hit 189,000, the lowest reading since 1969. Growing economy, sticky inflation, strong jobs market. The Fed's nightmare continues.

Here is what matters most heading into May:

• 🇮🇷 The Iran Endgame. Trump has told advisors to prepare for a drawn-out blockade with new Pentagon strikes being planned. A ceasefire deal in May sends oil crashing and the market ripping. No deal means $120 oil and a very different economic conversation by June. This is the single biggest binary outcome hanging over every portfolio right now.

• 🏦 The Warsh Era Begins May 15. The most important job in global finance changes hands mid-month. Trump will immediately want rate cuts. Warsh has historically been hawkish. How he handles that pressure in his first 30 days sets the tone for the rest of 2026.

• 💰 The Consumer Is Getting Tired. PCE inflation hit 3.5% in March. Gas is over $4 a gallon nationally. Jobless claims are low but wages are not keeping up. May retail sales data will tell us whether the American consumer is still spending or finally tapping out.

The Munch Take: April was the best month in five years. The market went up 9% during an active war, record oil prices, and the most chaotic earnings season in recent memory. Either investors know something the rest of us don't, or the market is pricing in a perfect resolution to every single problem at once. May will tell us which one it is. My wife saw the portfolio up 9% for the month and immediately started a Pinterest board called "Europe 2026." I think a small correction from here wouldn’t be a bad thing.

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All the best,

Kevin Matras
EVP, Zacks.com

MARKET OVERVIEW

🍿 Tasty Movers & Shakers

📉 $META dropped 8.55% after telling investors it plans to spend significantly more on AI this year than it already said it would. Beat earnings. Raised the bill. Got punished. This is the third time in twelve months the market has had to reprice what Zuckerberg's AI ambitions actually cost.

☁️ $MSFT fell 3.93% despite solid Azure cloud numbers. The problem was the same as Meta. The spending guidance was enormous and Wall Street is running out of patience for big capex numbers without a clear payback timeline.

🚢 $RCL Royal Caribbean climbed 3.81% after beating profit expectations and reporting that cruise demand has fully recovered to pre-war levels. People are still booking vacations even with oil at $105 a barrel. The consumer is tired but apparently still wants a buffet.

🚗 $HTZ Hertz jumped 13.84% after launching Oro Mobility, a new robotaxi operation built in partnership with Uber. Hertz went bankrupt in 2020. It is now running a robotaxi fleet. Quite the character arc.

💊 $LLY Eli Lilly surged 9.81% as Zepbound and Mounjaro continue to print money. Weight loss drugs are not a trend. They are a structural shift in how people manage their health and Lilly is the company sitting at the center of it.

🌯 $CMG Chipotle gained 2.99% after posting a surprise same-store sales increase. Management then spent most of the earnings call trying to lower expectations for the rest of the year. The guac is still extra. The guidance is conservative.

🏗️ $CAT Caterpillar ripped 9.88% after raising its full-year revenue forecast on surging demand for power equipment tied to AI data center construction. Every server farm needs electricity. Every electricity plant needs heavy machinery. Once again, the guy selling the shovels is the one that gets rich.

STOCK OF THE DAY

🍎 Apple Beat Earnings & Tik Cook Is Leaving

$AAPL just closed out the most important earnings week of the year with a clean beat. Revenue came in at $111.18 billion, ahead of the $109.66 billion Wall Street expected. EPS of $2.01 topped the $1.95 forecast. The stock barely moved after hours. That tells you something about expectations.

The bigger story is what is happening at the top. Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO on September 1. John Ternus, Apple's hardware chief, will take over. Cook has run Apple since 2011. Under his watch the company went from $350 billion to nearly $4 trillion in market cap. That is not a typo.

📈 The Bull Case:

• iPhone shipments in China surged 20% year over year in Q1 while the overall Chinese smartphone market declined 4%. Apple is taking market share in the most important market on earth.

• Services revenue is approaching $30 billion per quarter with margins above 70%. It is quietly becoming the most profitable part of the entire business.

• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives maintains a $350 price target, arguing the iPhone 17 cycle and AI features will drive the stock 30% higher over the next year.

📉 The Bear Case:

• Tariffs are a real cost. Apple flagged a $1.4 billion tariff impact in a single quarter and the trade environment has not improved since. Every iPhone made in China has a tax attached to it now.

• Tim Cook leaving is a genuine uncertainty. He is one of the greatest operational CEOs in business history. His replacement is unproven at this scale.

• The stock is flat for the year despite the broader market ripping higher. The market is not convinced Apple is keeping up with the AI trend.

The Munch Take: Apple beat earnings on the last day of the best month the market has had in five years. Tim Cook is retiring after tripling the company's value since 2011. The business is rock solid. The tariff risk is real. The new CEO is an unknown. My wife has owned an iPhone since 2009 and has never once considered switching. That is the bull case in one sentence.

TRADING SUCCESS

🤑 Friday Motivation

🚀 Pre-Market Fuel

1. 🤯 The U.S. debt just got crazy.

2. 🤑 Google’s stock is just insane.

3. 🇨🇦 Alberta just bought $219 million of Bitcoin.

4. 💰️ This watch is $1.2 million.

5. 🚀 CEO wages are growing fast.

🍪 Munchy Memes

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