Great Recession steels Main Street investors - 12NewsNow.Com
Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) - For many investors, lessons of the Great Recession are fresh. stock market took investors for a frenetic ride Monday, triggered by a sell-off in Chinese stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 588 points, or 3. 6 percent, to 15,871 points, after briefly plunging more than 1,000 points. The Associated Press talked with investors across the country about how the market's drop this year has affected their spending and investing. SELLING CARS IN MISSOURI. John Londoff Jr. cozied up to his computer Monday to check on the market at his family's Chevrolet dealership outside St. Louis and declared it was far too early to be concerned. "I think this market would have to continue in a volatile state for weeks before consumers would really pull back," he said from his office in Florissant, Missouri, where the dealership has about 1,000 new and used vehicles. Londoff isn't a stranger to tough times in an industry that closely follows the stock market. Sales of new vehicles hit a 30-year low in 2009. Business was "just staggeringly terrible" in November 2008, when typical monthly sales of 350 or 400 vehicles plunged to fewer than 200. The dealership's payroll dropped to 77 employees, well off... Londoff says his dealership is on pace to sell 5,000 vehicles for the first time since 2007. "Things seem to be on an upward tick," he said. Source: www.12newsnow.com
