The titans of Corporate America are flush with cash, and blue chips aren’t being stingy with that money either. Dividend payments from U.S. firms rose 5.1% in 2023 to a record $602.1 billion, according to research from money management firm Janus Henderson Global. Boosting dividends was a global phenomenon as well last year, with worldwide payouts rising 5% to an all-time high of $1.66 trillion, according to Janus Henderson, which published its Global Dividend Index on Wednesday...

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Private equity firm KKR & Co will invest $400 million in telecoms tower operations and expansion in the Philippines, the U.S. Department of Commerce said on Wednesday, among a slew of deals in a $1 billion investment announced in a landmark trade mission. KKR will develop and acquire roughly 2,000 telecoms towers to support digital connectivity across the Philippines, the department said in a statement following a two-day trade and investment mission led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. In 2022, a unit of KKR acquired 3,529 telecoms towers for 45 billion pesos ($814.73 million) in a sale and leaseback deal with Philippines' Globe Telecom Inc. The KKR unit bought another 1,012 towers for over 12.1 billion pesos from PLDT Inc...

Oracle and Nvidia led a big-tech rally, with Microsoft and ServiceNow among actionable stocks. But breadth was lackluster...