Stock Market

Ed Fishel is a year and three months from retirement. Ask him if he noticed that the stock market plunged last week, and the Monkton man will laugh incredulously. "Are you kidding me?" he said Friday, less than 24 hours after stock-market indexes turned in their biggest one-day drop since the financial crisis. "For somebody like me, who's butting up against their retirement, yes — it's pretty much all we talk about. … This is scary as heck. " Local brokers fielded nervous calls from clients last week.

The Baltimore Sun has been part of my family since my earliest memories. We eagerly awaited the paper's arrival on our doorstep -- The Sun in the morning and The Evening Sun in the afternoon. Growing up in the mayor's house, we would get the early "bulldog," then later editions; it was part of our routine. Getting the papers throughout the day gave my brothers and me an early experience in 24/7 news -- locally, nationally and globally. The news was certainly of interest, but I fondly remember also reading reports of ships coming into the port of Baltimore, the times of sunrise and sunset, the phases of the moon and, of course, the comics.

Good thing Ron Shapiro isn't a told-you-so kinda guy. Not after The New York Times reported recently on how Chinese companies are finding a back door into the U.S. stock market . Shapiro, a prominent sports agent-attorney whose clients have included Cal Ripken Jr., warned about the same sort of stock market shenanigans 42 years ago, as lead author of a Maryland Law Review article titled, “The 'Going Public Through the Back Door' Phenomenon...

A political campaign is about the worst time to have a discussion about economic realities. The party that is out will speak of nothing but looming disaster, while the party that is in will be singing nothing but "Happy Days Are Here Again. " And, since our current political system is in a permanent campaign mode, economics never escapes the warp of politics. The truth is, it is easy for politicians to pick and choose among the facts to support whatever best serves their campaigns because economic news can be good and bad at the same time.

The stock market sank Friday into its worst three-day slide since the depths of last year's financial crisis, stung by deepening concern about President Barack Obama's bank-regulation plan and fresh economic doubts. The Dow Jones industrial average sank more than 200 points - its third triple-digit loss in a row. The index has fallen 5.2 percent from its 15-month-high set Tuesday. It was the Dow's worst three-day drop since the furious sell-off last March, which marked the end of the bear market and the launch of a powerful rally that had been in place until this week.

DOW JONES (up) +58.84 closed at 10,136.24 NASDAQ (up) +24.07 closed at 1,893.94 S&P 500 (up) +4.74 closed at 1,114.80 SUN-BLOOMBERG (up) +1.62 closed at 268.28 Euro in dollars (up) +$0.0001 closed at $1.2327 10-year T-Bonds (up) +0.09 closed at 4.09%

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers navigated a tough consumer market to gain in profit and stock price in the past fiscal year. The Hampstead retailer's chief executive R. Neal Black also did well, taking home $2.6 million in pay, more than double his compensation in 2008. On the other end of the executive pay spectrum, A.L. "Tom" Giannopoulos, head of Columbia-based MICROS Systems Inc., saw his total compensation drop $4.1 million. Giannopoulos' $2.8 million pay package, while not a small sum, reflected the declining profit and stock market value at the information systems company during the past fiscal year.

The spectacle of nearly one million Chinese clamoring to invest their money in the Shenzen stock market -- and creating the largest civil disturbance since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests -- is the clearest sign that China's policy of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is falling apart. It is new evidence that the capitalist experiment started in southeastern China 15 years ago is poised to overwhelm the country.When Deng Xiaoping imposed reforms to introduce market forces into China's stagnating economy in the late 1970s, he created a tremendous spurt of economic growth, particularly in south China.

Based on the way it's usually been over the decades, what you see in the stock market today is an indication of what the economy will be in about six months. The market is not a thermometer, it's a barometer.However, the stock market is uneven to an unusual degree. A number of share prices have been hit hard, but many others are near their highs, a mixture that throws a haze over the picture down the road.In the financial world, for example, the share prices of securities firms are strong but those of banks and savings and loans are weak.

The 200th anniversary of the New York Stock Exchange featured a carnival, the release of a 29-cent stamp commemorating the event and the exchange's first television commercials ever. Even former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev dropped by to pay his respects.The anniversary gives time for the market to reflect in a record-setting year."The bicentennial is a bullish factor, and the public relations surrounding it will draw the attention of more individuals to the market," said Joseph McAlinden, managing director of Dillon Reed.

Eileen Ambrose 's article about "the reward of waiting" for Social Security benefits calls to mind a few observations about the system ("Here's what you should know about Social Security," March 11): With the stock market quite variable in total returns, and interest rates at historic lows, there is no advantage to taking Social Security benefits early - unless, of course, you don't plan on living very long. I take exception, however, to Ms. Ambrose's reference to the total value of the annuity that it would take to generate current Social Security benefits.

If you had slept Rip Van Winkle-style through 2011, you'd be awakening now to find that your stock portfolio was much the same as you left it. Presuming you stayed awake, you endured a volatile year for equities. Market swings were so violent that by the third quarter many investors threw in the towel for a loss. Had they stuck it out, they would have found that stocks — despite all those gyrations — ended flat for the year. That's past. The new year is a good time to poll market analysts on their outlook and to find out if there are moves small investors should take — or avoid — in 2012.

Investors had plenty to keep them jittery in 2011. There were the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, economic woes in Europe, and, here at home, politically tinged fiscal showdowns in Washington over deep government spending cuts. Still, the stock market will enter 2012 in a spot that wasn't too different from late 2010. Looking ahead, economic and stock market observers see uninspiring U.S. economic growth, financial problems in Europe, and the health of Far East markets looming large in investors' minds.

As expected, the stock market is down and the citizens of this country are financially poorer through no fault of their own. Members of Congress need to be reminded that they once took an oath of office - to the people, to God, and to their own souls. Many others have made such pledges. Physicians, firefighters, nurses, policeman, soldiers. They have promised that even the middle of the night, if they hear the cries of the people they pledged to serve, they would willingly relinquish their own sleep, their safety and even their lives to attend to the needs of others.

After a brutal third quarter in which the United States saw an unprecedented downgrade of its credit, many weary investors are staying on the sidelines. Despite encouraging signs about new unemployment claims in recent days, uncertainty remains as the continuing European debt crisis threatens to erode an already fragile economic recovery in the United States. Meanwhile, investors fear that failure by the congressional "supercommittee" to reach a deficit-reduction plan by this week's deadline could further hurt consumer confidence, especially as the crucial holiday shopping season begins.

First Mariner Bancorp, locked in a fight for survival, suffered another setback Wednesday when its stock was delisted from the Nasdaq stock market. Starting Thursday, First Mariner shares will be traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board. The latest development comes as the company is trying to raise desperately needed capital to close a deal that would keep regulators at bay and the bank in business. The deal requires the Baltimore company to raise nearly $124 million by Thursday or risk losing a cash infusion from a New York investment firm.

What lies ahead for the U.S. economy? Will it remain strong? Or will it collapse? Will all the Internet billionaires go broke and be forced to use their Palm Pilots to kill rats for food? Wouldn't that be great? To answer these questions, we need to understand how the U.S. economy works. We'll start by following an imaginary dollar bill on its fascinating journey as it circulates through our economic system: Our dollar is "born" in the U.S. Mint when a blank piece of paper goes into a printing press and comes out with a picture of George Washington and a pyramid with a weird eyeball.

Lest we forget, the stock market is in thrall to forces beyond rich baby boomers, tassel-shoed pension jockeys and panicked Japanese. Biding in Wall Street's shadows are buccaneers from the 1980s, cash raked up to their Ferragamo belts, ready to lunge.Leverage-buyout firms once were famous for using borrowed money to buy RJR Nabisco, Federated Department Stores and other big outfits. But they've sat in the dugout for years, immobilized by sticker shock. When public-company prices double and then double again over a few years, even gimlet-eyed LBO trolls can't in good conscience fill the shopping cart.

As the Dow took another 400-point tumble Thursday, Baltimore money manager David Stepherson found himself talking one client out of selling everything. "I advised him that it would not be a good idea because our view of things is that this is going to be OK, and he ought to be thinking about what to buy," said Stepherson, who is also the chief investment officer at Hardesty Capital Management in Baltimore. Still: "At the end of the day, it's the clients' money, and they have to sleep at night.

Has the most recent market plunge made you swear off stocks? Do U.S. bonds --- or maybe your mattress --- seem like the most attractive place to save for retirement? If you are taking all or some of your money out of the stock market, we'd like to hear your story. Please email business reporter Hanah Cho at hcho(at)baltsun.com about the changes you're making to your investments.