📅 On This Day
Wall Street Journal's First Issue Reshapes How America Sees Markets
On July 8, 1889, Dow Jones & Company published the first issue of The Wall Street Journal — a four-page afternoon paper built on a radical idea: that markets should operate on transparency, not rumor. Charles Dow, creator of the Dow Jones averages, wanted ordinary readers to understand the financial world as insiders did. More than 130 years later, the Journal remains the paper of record where dividend cuts are reported and the daily rhythm of markets is preserved.
From a four-page afternoon sheet to a global institution — the Journal still sets the terms of financial conversation.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Dow Jones & Company; Library of Congress
🌍 Around the World
South Korea Pushes Its Conglomerates to Finally Pay Real Dividends
For decades, South Korea's powerful chaebols — Samsung, Hyundai, SK — channeled profits into cross-holdings and expansion rather than shareholder returns, keeping KOSPI dividend yields below 2%. Now, Korea's 'Corporate Value-Up' program, modeled on Japan's TSE reforms, is pressuring companies trading below book value to raise payouts and buy back shares. Samsung Electronics tripled its dividend between 2017 and 2024, and new tax incentives are rewarding companies that follow suit.
Foreign investors face a 22% default withholding tax, reduced to 15% under most treaties — worth knowing as yields rise.
🇰🇷 KR
Source: Korea Exchange; Financial Services Commission of Korea; Samsung Electronics investor relations
🔥 Dividend Streak
GE's 71-Year Dividend Streak Crumbled When a Hidden Risk Surfaced
General Electric had paid a dividend since 1899 and hadn't cut it since 1938 — a remarkable no-cut streak that made it a bedrock of retirement portfolios everywhere. Then the 2008 financial crisis exposed GE Capital, its sprawling lending arm, and on February 27, 2009, GE slashed its quarterly dividend 68%, from $0.31 to $0.10, to preserve roughly $9 billion a year. It was the company's first cut since the Great Depression — and a humbling reminder that a hidden finance subsidiary can quietly undermine even an industrial icon.
GE cut again to a single penny in 2018 — the last original Dow member laid low by its own complexity.
GE — GE Aerospace
🇺🇸 US
Source: GE SEC filing (8-K, Feb 27, 2009); CNNMoney
🔥 Dividend Streak
GE's 71-Year Dividend Streak Crumbled When a Hidden Risk Surfaced
General Electric had paid a dividend since 1899 and hadn't cut it since 1938 — a remarkable no-cut streak that made it a bedrock of retirement portfolios everywhere. Then the 2008 financial crisis exposed GE Capital, its sprawling lending arm, and on February 27, 2009, GE slashed its quarterly dividend 68%, from $0.31 to $0.10, to preserve roughly $9 billion a year. It was the company's first cut since the Great Depression — and a humbling reminder that a hidden finance subsidiary can quietly undermine even an industrial icon.
GE cut again to a single penny in 2018 — the last original Dow member laid low by its own complexity.
GE — GE Aerospace CDR (CAD Hedged)
🇺🇸 US
Source: GE SEC filing (8-K, Feb 27, 2009); CNNMoney
💡 Did You Know
The 8-K Is EDGAR's Second Most Filed Form, and Investors Should Care
Among all SEC filing types, the 8-K accounts for roughly 11% of submissions on EDGAR, second only to Form 4 insider trading reports at about 29%. Its frequency reflects its purpose: any material event between quarterly and annual filings — a CEO departure, a merger, a cybersecurity breach, a dividend cut — must be disclosed promptly via an 8-K. For dividend investors, it's often the first place a payout change appears in black and white.
When something big happens at a company, the 8-K is usually how the market finds out — fast.
US
Source: sec-api.io EDGAR filing analysis (1994–2022)