Subject: Re: Dividends
"it does baffle me just how a stock can drop say 2-3% to reflect the dividend payout that quarter/half year

When AT&T pays out $2,000,000,000 ($2 billion) in quarterly dividends, the company is obviously worth $2B less than it was the day before."

I understand that, it's the actual drop in the market price to reflect that change I find difficult to understand given the wide number of actors buying and selling at any one time and the wild swings we can see in prices.