Local financial expert advises waiting out stock market drop

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Wall Street saw some big losses on Wall Street on May 18, with the Dow dropping more than a thousand points, and this is one of several days recently with a big drop.

In Layman’s terms, Jay McGowan says there were more sellers than buyers in the stock market, resulting in the big drop. He’s a senior advisor with the Welch Group.

McGowan says there is a lot of uncertainty right now with inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain issues. It all has to do with the volatility in the market. All that on top of the fact that Target reports missing their quarterly earnings estimate.

Even though it all sounds intimidating, McGowan says we’ve been here before.

“So since World War II, there’s been 12 recessions, 13 bear markets, but on average, since in that time period, the S&P 500 has turned about 11% a year,” he adds. “So the markets get rocky, they get volatile, we’ve been there before, but history tells us the market comes back and it comes back strong.”

His best advice for those with money in the stock market is to just wait out the ride. While he can’t give a time estimate on how long numbers will be down, he says eventually they should come back up.

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