The Best Sectors for Dividends Now

Last week, I told you where my favorite places were to get solid income and protection from a possible double-dip recession. Today, I want to follow-up on that theme by telling you about some of the latest trends in the dividend landscape. Let’s start with a roundup of the second quarter: The good news is that Standard & Poor’s says the number of dividend cuts continued to slow — with just 34 issues decreasing or omitting their payments. Even better, S&P reports that a full 335 public companies increased their dividends during the quarter, which was a 43.8 percent jump from the second quarter of 2009! In terms of…