September 16, 2008 07:33 am
—
By Denise Richardson
Staff Writer
The financial crisis not only rekindles
a need to review family budgets
and holdings but also sparks opportunities
to invest, local industry professionals
said Monday.
``It’s not a crash _ it’s a bear market,’’
said Erna Morgan McReynolds,
director of wealth management at
the Morgan McReynolds Group at Citi
Smith Barney in Oneonta. ``Markets go
through this _ it’s always ugly. People
get nervous.’’
After news Monday that Lehman
Brothers investment bank filed Chapter
11 bankruptcy and Bank of America
Corp. said it would buy Merrill Lynch
& Co. Inc., the Dow Jones industrial
average lost more than
500 points, or more than 4
percent.
Paul Hogan, research
analyst and co-manager of
FAM Equity Income Fund,
said Lehman Brothers
was on top of a short list
of financial institutions in
jeopardy and Monday’s development
wasn’t unforeseen.
The challenge is to
look beyond the crisis and
recognize the investment
opportunities, he said.
``Every bear market
we’ve had, we’ve come
out of,’’ said Hogan of the
Cobleskill firm. ``The real
question is what can we
do today to be in position
for the upturn.’’
The fund specializes in
purchasing dividend-paying
stocks for long-term
holding, Hogan said, and
the ongoing financial crises
are additional times
to speak with institutional
and individual investors.
McReynolds in an August
letter told clients they
would see volatile markets
at least through the presidential
election and that
bad news on the housing
market is likely through
the middle of 2009.
``When the market
looks ahead to our recovery
from the recession (or
slowdown, if you prefer),
you will see stock prices
go up,’’ McReynolds wrote.
Investors who hold stock
for the long term are rewarded,
McReynolds said.
Douglas C. Gulotty,
p r e s i d e n t
and chief
e x e c u t i v e
officer of
the Wilber
Corp.,
owner of
W i l b e r
N a t i o n a l
Bank, said
the crises
re-emphasize a need to
review family budgeting.
Employees of firms doing
well would have a different
approach to spending
than recently hired state
employees, he said.
Choices must be made
between needed and discretionary
spending, Gulotty
said, and retirement
funds shouldn’t be tapped
to support current lifestyles.
Wilber Bank is among
the small, community
banks that are well-capitalized
and profitable,
Gulotty said. Other sectors
of the economy are doing
well, he said, and investment
opportunities are
developing, but purchases
should be judicious and
have a tangible value.
The market should be
allowed to correct itself,
Gulotty said, and the Federal
Reserve Bank should
``calm down’’ and not
prompt an artificial correction
through changing
a key interest rate.
McReynolds said the
financial market looks
similar to that of 1990-91,
when the United States
had a war, a bear market,
a recession, a savingsand-
loan crisis and a real
estate plummet. As markets
anticipated recovery,
there were big increases
in stock prices, she wrote.
``We’ve been in business
for a long time,’’ McReynolds
said. ``We’re going to
be here for a long time.’’
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