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By Lukanyo Mnyanda and Keith Jenkins - 2012-05-26T06:00:00Z

Frances bonds rose in the week, with 10-year yields falling the most in five months, as investors sought higher-yielding alternatives to German securities as havens from Europes debt crisis.

Yields on the French benchmark debt slid to a record yesterday as a report showed consumer confidence improved and after Le Parisien reported the government may raise tax-free state savings-account limits, potentially boosting demand from banks holding the deposits. German 30-year bonds pared a fourth week of gains as Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said Europes largest economy can be persuaded to support joint euro bonds. Spanish 10-year yields stayed above 6 percent.

It may just be a product of a hunt for yield as the yield compression has continued almost unabated across the bund curve to the point where even 30-year bonds dipped below 2 percent, said Richard McGuire, a senior fixed-income strategist at Rabobank International in London. That perhaps informed the positive performance that weve seen in semi-core paper.

The French 10-year yield fell 34 basis points, or 0.34 percentage point this week, to 2.52 percent at 4:28 p.m. London time yesterday, after reaching 2.422 percent, the least since Bloomberg began collecting the data in 1990. The 3 percent bond due April 2022 rose 2.93, or 29.30 euros per 1,000-euro ($1,257) face amount, to 104.19.

Austrias five-year note yield was at 1.25 percent, after falling to a record 1.216 percent.

The extra yield, or spread, that investors get for buying 10-year French bonds over similar-maturity German bunds narrowed 28 basis points in the week 114 basis points. It widened to a euro-era record 204 basis points in November.

Investors looking for safety within Europe amid speculation that Greece may withdraw from the monetary union are looking beyond Germany, which sold two-year notes on May 23 at an all- time low average yield of 0.07 percent. The securities carried a zero-percent coupon. The country also sold index-linked bonds due April 2023 with a real yield of minus 0.24 percent.

Dramatic rallies in core-to-semi-core markets have dominated price action in the past couple of days, Padhraic Garvey, head of developed-market debt at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The likes of France, Austria and Belgium are perceived to be offering the characteristics of relative safety, but with a spread that more than compensates for the extra risk.

Benchmark 10-year German bund yields declined six basis points to 1.37 percent.

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French Bonds Gain as Investors Seek Crisis Havens

Now more than ever, a comfortable retirement depends on secure, stable investments. Unfortunately, the right stocks for retirement won't just fall into your lap. In this series, I look at 10 measures to show what makes a great retirement-oriented stock.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is regarded as one of the primary forces behind the proliferation of the Internet. Without its networking infrastructure products, it's hard to imagine what the Internet might look like today. Yet now that the Internet is a well-established part of modern society, Cisco has tried to go past its roots to search for new growth paths. In doing so, though, it has alienated some of the companies with which it worked together earlier in its history. Can Cisco recover from tough times? Below, we'll revisit how Cisco Systems does on our 10-point scale.

The right stocks for retireesWith decades to go before you need to tap your investments, you can take greater risks, weighing the chance of big losses against the potential for mind-blowing returns. But as retirement approaches, you no longer have the luxury of waiting out a downturn.

Sure, you still want good returns, but you also need to manage your risk and protect yourself against bear markets, which can maul your finances at the worst possible time. The right stocks combine both of these elements in a single investment.

When scrutinizing a stock, retirees should look for:

With those factors in mind, let's take a closer look at Cisco Systems.

Factor

What We Want to See

Actual

Pass or Fail?

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Will Cisco Systems Help You Retire Rich?

NORMAN ROTHERY From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, May. 25, 2012 6:30PM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 25, 2012 7:08PM EDT

The bear market is back and Canadian investors have the claw marks to prove it.

The S&P/TSX composite is now down just over 20 per cent from its highs of early 2011. The European financial crisis and Chinas slowdown have taken a bite out of portfolios and continue to stalk the market.

Fortunately, there is good news even during a rough patch like this. Lower prices can be an opportunity for bargain hunters. In fact, a bear market can be an excellent time to track down a few juicy dividend stocks while theyre on sale.

To guide us in our hunt, lets follow the path of conservative dividend investors a group that has historically done quite well over the long haul.

Investors of this type tend to stick to larger companies because big guys tend to be more stable than small fry, which have the disconcerting habit of swooning after every economic twitch.

When it comes to size, I think its good to employ a two-stage test. Start by looking for firms with market capitalizations in excess of $500-million, then search for those with revenues of $500-million or more. Each factor weeds out slightly different stocks and they work well in combination. For instance, by demanding large revenues you effectively eliminate many speculative junior mining concerns from consideration.

You can get a full list of large Canadian common stocks that trade on the TSX by taking a quick trip to globeinvestor.com's stock filter. If you do so this weekend, youll likely find more than 200 stocks that pass the dual size test.

With such a long list of large Canadian stocks in hand you can develop a good sense of the dividend yields on offer. To form a picture of the dividend landscape, Ive sorted all the stocks into groups based on their yields; Ive then added up the number of stocks in each group. The result is displayed in the accompanying graph, which shows the distribution of large Canadian stocks by dividend yield.

Dividend investors should be pleased that most large Canadian stocks pay dividends because that diversity allows for a good deal of choice when it comes to selecting the best ones for your portfolio.

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10 dividend stocks for safety-conscious bargain hunters

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