S&P 500 loses yield advantage over 3-month T-bills

Investors looking for income have more incentive to cast aside U.S. stocks for Treasury bills than they have in the past decade. The S&P 500 Index closed last week with a dividend yield of 1.89 percent, or 1 basis point less than the bond-equivalent yield on three-month bills. Friday was the first day since February 2008 when the S&P 500 had a lower yield, based on payouts for the past 12 months. Each basis point amounts to 0.01 percentage point.