With the Federal Reserve kickstarting a new rate-cutting cycle, dividend stocks have become even more attractive. On Wednesday, the Fed made a hefty 50 basis points cut, surprising many who had anticipated a more modest 25 basis point reduction.

With the Federal Reserve expected to enter a long-tailed rate-cutting cycle, dividend-paying stocks with yields above the 3% mark are under the spotlight. For instance, AT&T (NYSE: T), a longtime favorite among income investors, has seen its stock surge approximately 30% year to date, outpacing the benchmark S&P 500.

The average dividend stock currently yields less than 1.5% based on the S&P 500 's dividend yield. That's well below the historical average of more than 4% over the long term because many companies have deemphasized dividends in recent years.

But not all supercharged high-yield stocks are worth avoiding. With the Federal Reserve kicking off a rate-easing cycle this week, two income stocks with truly eye-popping yields of 12.5% and 13.9% are perfectly positioned to thrive.

Dividend investing is always top of mind for many investors, but the process of building a portfolio can be complicated. It's critical to find high-yielding stocks that have safe dividends and, ideally,

These five dividend stocks have among the largest payouts, perfect for passive income generation, and offer the best current entry points.

That's exactly what has happened with Nvidia. Over the past year, Nvidia stock is up by 166% as the surge in AI investment has been a massive tailwind to the business. On the other hand, even including its massive dividend yield, the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF is up by about 105%. That's 61 percentage points of underperformance.

The ETF has a simple selection approach focused on high yield. Will that set it up to benefit from falling interest rates?

Asian markets have forged higher after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession in the U.S. with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates

Markets on Wall Street were positioned to open at record highs Thursday after the Federal Reserve issued a bigger-than-usual interest rate cut intended to fortify a cooling labor market and prevent a