5 dividend stocks increasing their payments in this tough market

Last week we saw further market volatility as major indexes continued extending their losses for October, which could turn out to be the worst month for the markets since 1938. There was an announcement from S&P which decreased the expected dividend growth for 2008 to 1.20% and also provided a cautionary outlook for dividends and earnings in 2009.
Despite all the doom and gloom there were several notable dividend increases over the past week.