Wall Street again had a roller-coaster week.
Following what appeared to be a slight rebound at the beginning of the week, the stock market took several big hits before ultimately rebounding Friday, with the Down Jones Industrial Average finishing up 233.30 points. The Standard & Poor?s 500 Index also rose, 34.65 points during the day, as did Nasdaq, which went up 53.96 points Friday.
Much of the comeback has been attributed to the Federal Reserve cutting its key discount rate a half percentage point to 5.75 percent.
“We may be a bit battered and beaten, but not broken,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group. “The global economy is still strong, and it?s not going to deteriorate to the point of recession.”
In the Examiner Top 10, a portfolio of some of the largest publicly traded companies in the Baltimore region, companies had very diverse weeks. Foundation Coal dropped $2.40 for the week, Black & Decker fell $1.69 per share and Sinclair went down 87 cents. Laureate Education stayed where it started the week, trading at $61.97 per share.
Friday, all facets of the stock market prospered, especially financial stocks and energy and industrial companies. Local company stocks reflected this pattern, with Constellation Energy finishing up $2.40 per share and PNC, Legg Mason, T. Rowe Price and McCormick and Co. each posting gains in excess of $1.40 per share for the week.
Some investors are using this drop to jump onto stocks that previously might have been trading at too high a price to make the reward worthwhile.
“To the average investor, we first say, ?Don?t panic,? ” Hoffman said. “We see this as a buying opportunity.”
Examiner Staff Writer Andrew Cannarsa and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
