IAMGOLD Corp. (IAG) suspended its dividend after the close today. This decision was many months in the making - anyone who looked through the company's latest investor presentation would have quickly deduced that with gold waffling near $1250/ounce, IAG would be hard pressed to be able to continue paying a dividend due to its relatively high cost structure:

IAG_All-in_cost

In after hours trading IAG shares are trading at the lowest levels since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis:

IAG_Weekly_12.11.2013

While the IAG chart certainly does look quite poor and like many mid-tier and senior gold producers, IAG's fate will largely ride on the price of gold, the IAG dividend suspension in the context of a cyclical bear market is reminiscent of bank dividend reductions/suspensions during the 1st quarter of 2009:

XLF_Weekly

When the chips are down we tend to operate out of recency bias and become ultra-defensive in the interest of survival. It is just this instinctive response based out of fear that plants the seeds for the next bull market. Seeds were planted today.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." ~ Mark Twain