Main Street holds up as Wall Street struggles, for a change
Business
Main Street holds up as Wall Street struggles, for a change
Wall Street is hurting, and Main Street doesn’t care. It’s got burgers and cars to buy. Big losses in stock markets around the world this year have the wingtip-set fretting, but regular consumers across the United States are confident enough to open their wallets and spend more. It’s an about-face from the early years of the economic recovery, which began in 2009, when stocks and big banks were soaring but many on Main Street felt like they were getting left behind.
It’s almost like a stock market is a different animal. We’re not seeing any of the negativity.
Earl Stewart, who owns a Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida, far from the roiling markets in New York, Frankfurt and Shanghai
The divergence underway between Main Street and Wall Street highlights the difference between the U.S. stock market and the economy. The stock market’s worries are centered on things like the strength of foreign economies. Low oil prices are crushing the shares of big energy companies and the big banks that lend to them — but leaving consumers with more money to spend after they fill up their car with cheap gasoline. Economists say the split trends between Main Street and Wall Street can continue, but only up to a point. It may just be Main Street’s time in the sun, says Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. He says economic recoveries have long been split into two phases.
The first half of an economic cycle is when markets tend to best, and that’s when Wall Street gains on Main Street. The second half is when labor gets an increasing share of GDP, and that’s just starting.
Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management
