Judy Chevres cashed out her stocks about two weeks ago, seemingly leaving the nurse and her husband, a doctor, immune from this week’s market shocks.
Instead of expressing relief at her good timing, Chevres brushed away tears as she talked about the economy Friday while shopping at Perimeter Mall.
“They will never achieve what we did,” the Stockbridge woman said of her six children and 15 grandchildren, adding: “The average American is living paycheck to paycheck and has no savings. The littlest emergency throws people into a tailspin.”
Her emotions seemed an apt reflection of a whipsawed week marked by a last-minute debt ceiling deal, a stock market free fall and a mixed jobs report Friday that sent the market on a roller coaster.
Weary Atlantans reacted with calm and hope, worry and tears.
Despite the slight rebound Friday, a year’s worth of gains on the Dow — until now one of the bright spots in the economy and a buoy to consumer confidence — have vanished. The latest employment report was a bit better than expected but not enough to signal a recovery gaining strength.
“If you’ve got a job, you’ve got to keep it,” said Terrence Jones, who has lived in a Decatur efficiency with Quiera Cooper since the pair was evicted from an apartment.
Cooper has been working at a Ross clothing store for the last two weeks, after having her hours reduced drastically at another retail job.
“Anything is better than nothing,” she said.
The couple remains optimistic. Still, Jones said it’s hard to be positive about the economy.
Rex Macey, the chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust, said choppy, unsettling economic news is a hallmark of a balky recovery from a recession.
“The problem with a slow, weak recovery is that they don’t proceed along steadily,” Macey said. “Sometimes they’re stronger and then get weaker. Sometimes they look like recessions or near recessions. That’s what we’re going through now.”
He paused, adding, “And we’re holding our breath.”
Macey said investors and companies continue to lack confidence in the consumer and the direction of the economy. Corporate profits are good overall, but questions about government finance and the future of entitlement programs cast a shadow.
“What we’ve seen in the last few weeks and months leading up to this debt crisis, it has not instilled confidence that America is a place to make large [investment] commitments,” Macey said.
With the shift away from guaranteed pensions to 401(k)s, workers are more reliant than ever on steady stock market gains to fund their retirements.
Marcus Richardson, 35, summed up the fears — and hopes — of many.
“It’s definitely a shocker to see your account take a dip like that,” said Richardson, an engineer in Cincinnati who is from Atlanta and was at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “It’s a major impact on my retirement savings. But I’m a young guy. I have time to recoup. The market has a tendency to correct itself. I’m not going to panic at the moment.”
Rob Burts, senior vice president of Synovus Securities in Alpharetta, regards the week’s mark gyrations as an “overreaction.”
But volatility will rule, he said, until credible job creation and federal spending plans emerge. Then, he added, the next obstacle is the housing market, where falling or stagnant values undercut consumer confidence and spending.
“It definitely makes you think, how long is the recovery going to take?” said John Wilson, an Emory University graduate student seeking his Master’s degree in public health.
It’s taking longer than Wilson or most Americans would prefer, though he remains hopeful.
“In due time, things tend to sort out.”
The important thing is to not let negative thinking take over, said retired real estate broker Barbara Kyle.
“I’m not panicked,” she said. “Markets go up, markets go down, markets come back. Fear is the greatest thing. It can be terribly destructive — if we dwell on it.”
