It's been a raucous time for the marketlately as it has not only rallied, but been fired up, surging, soaring, running, and zooming. Heck, I think it's even bestirred at times.

The S&P 500 is up 60% from the March lows, and many formerly beleaguered stocks like Citigroup (NYSE: C) and MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) have rebounded much further. So the question on everyone's mind is whether the equity soldiers have enough pep to continue their northward march.

And I think the answer is yes ... at least for now.

Choices, choices, choices
The other night I had dinner at a California Pizza Kitchen , and when dessert time rolled around I found myself at a total loss when trying to choose among delicious options like pumpkin cheesecake, red velvet cake, and chocolate banana royale cake.

The problem was that they all sounded really darn tasty. If my options had instead been hot fudge brownie sundae, caramelized shoe leather, and broken glass pie, my decision would have been very easy.

Now hang on, don't run off to grab a slice of pie just yet, we're still talking investments here.

In a similar way, investors are constantly facing a buffet of choices when it comes to where they stash their hard-earned money. Sometimes there are a number of choices that look promisingand it's hard to go wrong. At other times, many options, if not all, can look pretty unappetizing.

The investment buffet du jour
Leaving aside more exotic investments like art and vineyards, most investors are facing a broad allocation choice between equities, fixed-income investments, and cash. Logically, the way most investors are going to judge these options is based on returns, and right now, equities look to be the most attractive.

The current dividend yield of the S&P 500 is 3.4%, and that's a yield investors can collect while simultaneously having the opportunity to see both their principal (the value of the S&P index) and yield grow. And while the forward S&P earnings yield-- which is the inverse of the price-to-earnings ratio -- is of concern to manyas stock prices rise, it's currently at 3.9% and would rise to 5.6% in 2010 if Standard & Poor's earnings estimates are on track.

But we can also go under the hood of the S&P index and find individual stocks that have even more attractive yields:

Company

Earnings Yield

Dividend Yield

Verizon (NYSE: VZ)

8.5%

6.6%

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)

11.4%

3.6%

Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT)

7.5%

4.3%

Chevron (NYSE: CVX) Continued...