These three stocks create a diversified foundation for long-term dividend growth—even if their yields aren’t huge today.

Risk-averse investors seeking a balance of growth and value may opt for investing in large-cap blend mutual funds.

All three major indexes finished firmly higher as cooler-than-anticipated, albeit delayed, inflation data from November boosted investor outlook.

While 2025 is not quite in the books yet, we can look to forecasts from the end of 2023 and 2022 to understand how well strategists did at predicting S&P 500 performance in subsequent years.