"We're doing a lot of hand holding right now and calming people's fears," Beth Baldwin, a financial adviser at Edward Jones, said. "And, if we can keep the fear and emotion out of it, we're a lot better off."
Baldwin said people were buying Friday and that's what they should be doing because "there are some great 'dividend' stocks out there" and it's an ideal time to buy.
Wall Street Futures were down more than 500 points before trading began Friday, causing an automatic freeze on selling. The market opened about 160 points down and in less than five minutes it was down almost 500 points but it leveled off after that and by early afternoon was the Dow was down 320 point.
Baldwin says the presidential election and the uncertainty about it is one of the driving forces behind the behavior of the stock markets... here and overseas.
"But, I think we'll see some recovery, I think, after the election," she said, adding, "usually when we realize we are in a recession is when we are about out of it."
But, these are unusual circumstances, Baldwin was quick to add. "I don't know if that is going to be true in this case because so many financial institutions have had problems."
NYSE file photo
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/10/214561