Barron's suggests that when the stock market is unpredicatble and chaotic, savvy investors should buy stocks that reliably pay attractive dividends.

AT&T (T), Verizon Communications (VZ), and Southern Co. (SO), among others, all pay dividend yields that exceed the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, Barron's explained.

"After all, the humble dividend and inflation account for about 45% of the historic returns of common stocks. Investors would be remiss to ignore stocks that have the power to reliably pay attractive dividends," Barron's said.

AT&T stock, up 9% so far this year, has ranged from $26.80 to $34.53 over the past 52 weeks. The stock’s annual dividend yield is 6.6%, compared with 2.11% for the 10-year Treasury yield.

Verizon’s annual dividend is 4.3%. The stock, which is barely up for the year, has ranged from $47.13 to $61.58.

Southern, which operates electric-utility companies, has a dividend yield of 4.6%, or $2.48 annually. Southern’s stock ranged from $42.50 to $54.77. Shares are up 22% this year.

To be sure, the VIX Index -- often referred to as the market’s “fear gauge” -- is up over the past three sessions, Bloomberg reported Monday. At north of 16, it’s implying that U.S. stocks will tend to move more than 1% per day over the next month. In recent years, it hasn’t lingered above this level unless equities were weakening.

The higher reading belied the brisk advance of more than 2% for the S&P 500 Index over the same three-day stretch. It’s the first time implied volatility has failed to decline amid stock gains of this magnitude since 2009, when the bull market was in its infancy. The two variables tend to move in opposite directions.

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