4 Apr 2025

Think twice before bailing out of the stock market, financial advisers say

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By STAN CHOE and CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — The huge swings rocking Wall Street and the global economy may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, drops of this size have happened throughout history.

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Stomaching them is the price investors have had to pay in order to get the bigger returns that stocks can offer over other investments in the long term. Here’s a glimpse at what’s behind the market’s wild moves and what experts advise investors young and old to consider:

HOW BAD IS THE MARKET?

Wall Street’s main benchmark, the S&P 500, has lost more than 16% since setting an all-time high on Feb. 19, mostly because of worries about President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Any kind of uncertainty around the economy will give Wall Street pause, but the trade war is making it more difficult for companies, households and others to feel confident enough to invest, spend and make long-term plans.

The tariffs announced on “Liberation Day” sent stocks reeling to their worst day since since the COVID crash of 2020 because they were much harsher than investors had been expecting. They also raised the fear that Trump may push through with them to win long-term gains, such as more manufacturing jobs in the United States.

The hope among investors had been that Trump was using tariffs merely as a bargaining chip to win concessions from other countries. Some big names on Wall Street still think that’s the case, and a moderation of tariffs would help stocks recover, but it’s less of a certainty now.

STOCKS DO THIS OFTEN?

Regularly enough. The S&P 500 has seen declines of at least 10% every year or so. Often, experts view them as a culling of optimism that can otherwise run overboard, driving stock prices too high.

Before this recent downswing, many critics were saying the U.S. stock market was too expensive after prices rose faster than corporate profits. They also pointed to how only a handful of companies drove so much of the market’s returns. A group of just seven Big Tech companies accounted for more than half of the S&P 500’s total return last year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

SHOULD I SELL AND GET OUT?

Anytime an investor sees they’re losing money, it feels bad. This recent run feels particularly unnerving because of how incredibly calm the market had previously been. The S&P 500 is coming off a second straight year where it shot up by more than 20%, the first time that’s happened since baggy pants were last in style before the millennium.

Selling may offer some feeling of relief. But it also locks in losses and prevents the chance of making the money back over time. Historically, the S&P 500 has come back from every one of its downturns to eventually make investors whole again. That includes after the Great Depression, the dot-com bust and the 2020 COVID crash.

Some recoveries take longer than others, but experts often recommend not putting money into stocks that you can’t afford to lose for several years, up to 10. Emergency funds, for things like home repairs or medical bills, should not be invested in stocks.

A screen displays financial news as traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“Data has shown, historically, that no one can time the market,” said Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of WalletHub. “No one can consistently figure out the best time to buy and sell.”

SHOULD I CHANGE ANYTHING WITH MY INVESTMENTS?

For years, the U.S. stock market was the best by far to invest in worldwide. Now, more investors are questioning wither U.S. exceptionalism is dead.

But it could all be a reminder that investors often do best when they have a mixed set of investments rather than going all-in on just a few. And investors may no longer be as diversified as they thought after years of sheer dominance by the Magnificent Seven over the U.S. stock market and by Wall Street over global markets.

“It is hard to roll with the punches when some days you feel like your portfolio is being pummeled,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “But those moments should pass. A diversified strategy that is thoughtfully adapting to changing circumstances can’t prevent the punches, but it can help soften the blows.”

Phil Battin, CEO of Ambassador Wealth Management, advises investors to make sure they diversify their investments across regions and sectors to reduce risk. He says to lean towards “resilient sectors such as consumer staples, utilities and health care, which are less reliant on international trade.”

I JUST STARTED INVESTING IN STOCKS. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

The proliferation of online trading platforms and the ease of smartphones has helped create a new generation of investors who may not be used to such volatility.

But the good news is younger investors often have the gift of time. With decades to go until retirement, they can afford to ride the waves and let their stock portfolios hopefully recover before compounding and eventually growing even bigger.

Stephen Kates, financial analyst at Bankrate, says “now is not the time to make emotional decisions.” Young investors should “re-anchor to your (long-term) goals,” and consider using a financial advisor to help navigate uncertain times. “Investors with ample time to stay invested should remember how lucrative patience has been over the last 15 years,” Kates said.

WHAT IF I’M NEAR RETIREMENT?

Older investors have less time than younger ones to allow their investments to bounce back. But even in retirement, some people will need their investments to last 30 years or more, said Niladri “Neel” Mukherjee, chief investment officer of TIAA Wealth Management.

People who have already retired may want to cut back on spending and withdrawals after sharp market downturns, because bigger withdrawals will remove more potential compounding ability in the future. But even retirees, at least in the early part of retirement, should still be invested in stocks to prepare for the possibility of decades of spending ahead.

“You may want to slow that down and pick that back up once the market recovers,” Mukherjee said, “but it all comes down to having that conversation with your adviser and your portfolio manager.”

HOW LONG WILL THIS LAST?

No one knows, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

4 Apr 2025

Historic ocean liner off Florida’s Gulf Coast will soon be the world’s largest artificial reef

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By DAVID FISCHER

A historic ocean liner will become the world’s largest artificial reef once it reaches its final resting place off Florida’s Gulf Coast. Competing diving businesses are vying for the massive ship to be scuttled closer to them, while one group is suing to stop the ship from being sunk at all.

The SS United States, a nearly 1,000-foot (305-meter) vessel that shattered the trans-Atlantic speed record on its maiden voyage in 1952, is going through a monthslong scouring at the Port of Mobile in Alabama.

Workers will empty and clean all 120 fuel tanks, as well as remove chemicals, wiring, plastic and glass.

“There’s a lot of nasties on vessels that were built back in the ’50s,” Okaloosa County coastal resource manager Alex Fogg said. “Basically, when it’s ready to be deployed, it will be a steel and aluminum structure.”

FILE – The SS United States travels along the Hudson River as it begins its first voyage to Europe from New York, July 3, 1952, with the view of the Midtown Manhattan skyline including the Empire State Building at center right. (AP Photo/Jack Harris, File)

The SS United States is set to join Okaloosa County’s more than 500 artificial reefs, which include a dozen smaller ship wrecks. Officials hope to draw tourists and generate millions of dollars annually for scuba shops, charter fishing boats and hotels, as well as provide habitat for critical fish species and other sea life.

“The goal here is to be the dive capital of the state of Florida,” Fogg said. “We’re even trying to surpass the Florida Keys.”

Fogg said they expect to have the SS United States sunk by the end of the year at one of three permitted locations, all just over 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) from Destin, Florida. All three locations are the same depth, about 180 feet (55 meters) of water to the sand, but the vessel is so tall that the top decks will be about 60 feet (18 meters) from the surface.

“That’s very much within the beginner diver profile, and those deeper depths will be certainly attractive to those technical and advanced divers,” Fogg said.

Bay County officials have agreed to offer $3 million to Okaloosa County to sink the SS United States closer to Panama City Beach.

Visit Panama City Beach President and CEO Dan Rowe said his area has one of the largest dive boat fleets along the northern Gulf Coast. Bay County has a long history of developing technology used in underwater exploration and the U.S. Navy’s dive school is located at Naval Support Activity Panama City.

“Diving is part of our DNA,” Rowe said.

Escambia County officials are offering only $1 million to sink the ship closer to Pensacola, but Visit Pensacola President and CEO Darien Schaefer said the western location is just 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) away from to the USS Oriskany, another popular dive site sunk in 2006. He said divers would be able to visit both wrecks in a single day.

“We just think it would be a legendary dive site to have those two wrecks within close proximity,” Schaefer said.

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The SS United States arrived in Alabama at the beginning of March following a 12-day tow from Philadelphia’s Delaware River, where it has spent nearly three decades. Okaloosa County was able to take ownership of the vessel after a years-old rent dispute was resolved in October between the conservancy that oversees the ship and its landlord.

Various groups have attempted to restore the SS United States over the years, but all plans were eventually abandoned because of the steep cost. Recently, increased media attention has generated more calls to preserve the ship, and a group called the New York Coalition has even filed a lawsuit in Pensacola federal court asking a judge to halt sinking such a historically significant vessel.

But preventing the SS United States from becoming a reef would only send it to the scrapyard, Fogg said. Also, the county’s $10.1 million plan to purchase, move, clean and sink the ship includes $1 million toward a landside museum to promote the ship’s history.

“Once the vessel is deployed as an artificial reef, there are going to be more people visiting it in the first month of it underwater than have visited it in the last 30 years,” Fogg said.

The SS United States, more than 100 feet (30 meters) longer than the RMS Titanic, was once considered a beacon of American engineering, doubling as a military vessel that could carry thousands of troops. Its maiden voyage broke the trans-Atlantic speed record in both directions when it reached an average speed of 36 knots, or just over 41 mph (66 kph), The Associated Press reported from aboard the ship.

The ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, besting the RMS Queen Mary’s time by 10 hours. To this day, the SS United States holds the trans-Atlantic speed record for an ocean liner.

4 Apr 2025

House Committee Passes ‘Texas Two Step’ of Vouchers and Public Ed Funding

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After hours of intense debate on Thursday, the Texas House Public Education Committee passed altered versions of its marquee education legislation this session: a bill to add $7.7 billion in new funds for the public school system and a $1 billion bill for a private school voucher program. 

Most Democrats on the GOP-controlled committee voted in favor of House Bill 2, the school funding bill, while acknowledging it still came up short for public schools that are in financial straits and shuttering campuses across the state. Democrats focused much of their ire on the voucher bill, which as expected, was passed out of committee on a party-line vote.  

“We said this was a historic funding bill but our schools are in a historic hole, and this bill does not even catch us up to 2019 funding levels,”  said state Representative James Talarico, an Austin Democrat, adding that he did not want to “overpromise” what HB 2 would do. On top of that, he said, “now we’re considering a bill that’s going to send a billion dollars in the first year and perhaps $7 billion in the second biennium to kids who are in private school.” 

Three weeks ago, the committee heard nearly 24 hours of public testimony on the voucher bill from around 700 people. Talarico stated 70 percent of those who showed up testified  against the voucher bill. Over 12,000 others submitted written testimony, of which he said 90 percent expressed opposition to the bill. 

This time, the meeting was a more quiet affair—in part because notice was posted only the afternoon before and  because the committee did not livestream the meeting. The GOP committee chairman, Representative Brad Buckley, said this was “in accordance with House rules,” though it’s highly unusual—if not an affront to government transparency—for debate on a major bill to not be broadcast online.  

“There have been significant changes made to these bills, and they’re going to be heard in a closed door meeting that’s not accessible to the public. No livestream. No public comment,” Talarico said at a press conference before the meeting. While there was no official recording, the House Democratic Caucus and at least one local TV news station provided their own livestreams. 

At the meeting, the public ed committee took up Senate Bill 2, the universal voucher bill that the Senate passed back in February, though it was swapped out for a committee substitute that is a slightly modified version of the House’s voucher bill, House Bill 3. 

The committee substitute for SB 2 maintains the HB 3 funding formula that tethers the amount allotted to a voucher to public school funding levels. Instead of providing each program participant $10,000 to use on private school tuition, as SB 2 does, the House substitute would set the voucher amount at 85 percent of the estimated statewide average of state and local funding for students.

The Legislative Budget Board estimates that amount would be $10,330 per student in the program’s first year, growing to $10,889 by 2030. Under the House version, students with disabilities could receive up to $30,000, versus the $11,500 amount in the Senate version. Home-schooled students would be eligible for a $2,000 voucher in both the House and Senate versions. Critics of the voucher proposals have emphasized that unlike public schools, private schools are not mandated to enroll or provide services for students with disabilities. 

Last week, the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus issued a letter calling the House voucher bill a “blank check for unlimited spending,” citing language in HB2 and the House budget bill. They warned the bill could allow the governor and the Legislative Budget Board to unilaterally transfer more money into the program in the interim without the Legislature’s approval. 

The committee substitute for SB 2 now includes a cap of $1 billion in the first biennium, which would expire in September 2027. In the next legislative session, lawmakers could increase appropriations to cover every applicant on the waiting list; that may require over $6 billion, according to a fiscal analysis.

In an attempt to allay concerns that taxpayers would be subsidizing vouchers for wealthy families with children already in private school, the House version also now caps the number of participants who currently do not attend public schools at 20 percent of total program participants. That provision also expires in 2027. (Buckley dismissed Democrats’ urging to add an income cap for eligible families). 

During the March hearing, Josh Cowen, a Michigan State University professor, testified that data collected from states with a universal voucher program showed only a quarter of participants were previously in public schools. “The rest had either never been in public school because they were kindergartners, or, more commonly, were coming into the voucher system from a private school,” Cowen said. “These are new dollars the state’s obligating itself to those kids who are already in private school.”

The House’s committee substitute also added a provision that limits eligibility to students who are a “ citizen or national of the United State or was lawfully admitted into the United States”—a nod to conservative skeptics who said the voucher program would extend the government handouts to undocumented students.  

The voucher bill passed along party lines with the six Democrats on the 14-member committee voting against the bill. Only two Democrats, Representative John Bryant and Representative Alma Allen voted against the Committee Substitute for HB 2, the House’s public school funding bill. 

In public testimony on HB 2 last month, school district leaders and public ed advocates urged the House to do more to increase funding. Under the committee substitute, HB 2 ups the proposed basic allotment increase to $395 instead of the $220 increase originally proposed. It would also provide automatic increases to the basic allotment every biennium, tied to property values. Rep. Allen, a veteran Houston lawmaker,  said the amount was “certainly not enough” to help school districts catch up to 2019 pre-inflationary levels, which she said would require a $1,400 increase. 

The new version of HB 2 also attempts to address concerns that proposed salary increases may not reach the most experienced teachers in the state, as well as problems with districts having to depend on inexperienced and uncertified teachers to fill staffing shortages. 

According to TEA’s 2024 annual report, 56 percent of first-time teachers hired in the 2023-24 school year were uncertified. “With uncertified teachers we have lost generations of children already,” said Democratic Representative Gina Hinojosa at the committee meeting. 

The amended HB 2 also adds preschool students and bilingual students to the originally proposed funding increases for students with disabilities. 

Meanwhile, Dallas Rep. John Bryant called the bill “a catastrophe” for the largest 49 school districts who would not see as much help under the bill because of what he said was a proposed elimination of the “hold harmless provision.” That was originally added as part of the state’s previous property tax relief to cover funding losses for school districts who lose revenue from lower property tax rates. Buckley said the bill would “step it [the state aid] down as districts grow” to ensure there is “more equity between districts,” but told Bryant, “You have my commitment to find a fix.” 

Now out of committee, the two bills—which House leadership have marketed as a “Texas Two Step” package—could soon be on the floor for a full debate. House Speaker Dustin Burrows previously indicated that after the committee approved a voucher bill, it would get a floor vote “very soon thereafter — and pass.” 

For the first time in Texas history, there is a tentative majority of Republicans in the House who support school vouchers. If it passes, it would be up to the Senate to accept any changes, or the two chambers would negotiate the differences. 

We may be past the halfway mark of the session, but there’s still a long way to go ‘til Sine Die.

The post House Committee Passes ‘Texas Two Step’ of Vouchers and Public Ed Funding appeared first on The Texas Observer.

4 Apr 2025

Opinion: Asking the NYC Mayoral Candidates for a Real Discussion on Family Homelessness

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“Some families live in the shelter system that is meant to be temporary for years. We need concrete responses and leadership, not just campaign slogans, regarding candidates’ plans to address these issues.”

A family outside the city’s former shelter for immigrants at Floyd Bennett Field in 2023. Photo by Adi Talwar.

In New York, there are many bridges, not only those made of steel and stone that connect our boroughs, but also human bridges that connect our communities. This invitation is a chance to cross such a bridge: to meet people, hear their voices, and together build a path forward.

These constructions link opportunity, people, and neighborhoods. However, for the thousands of families trapped in our shelter system, the only roads they can find are those leading them into further crises, bureaucracy, and uncertainty.

I am personally sending an open invitation for any potential candidate seeking the vote in the upcoming Democratic primary for New York City mayor to participate in a panel discussion on family homelessness Monday. And after the June primary, we hope any candidates running in the November general election will similarly engage with us and other stakeholders on these issues. 

This problem is a curse on our city, one that now even middle-class families are experiencing. Knowing personally the problems that the city, state—and hell, the entire nation—faces, especially in these uncertain times, I value a leader who will overcome resistance and not hesitate to embrace a task. I appreciate the courage needed to defend what is right and essential, as well as a leader we can rely on to protect our interests. You know policies are just one aspect of the issue; if you want to run this city, then face the people most in need of leaders.

Our concerns are children being forced to complete homework in shelter hallways, parents deciding between food and MetroCards, or even finding a place to park. Thousands of families whose futures are uncertain are seeking answers and a chance to thrive in a city we love.

New York City has treated family homelessness with negligence and lack of competence. Some families live in the shelter system that is meant to be temporary for years. We need concrete responses and leadership, not just campaign slogans, regarding candidates’ plans to address these issues.

This panel will not be a routine panel discussion. Instead, it will be a genuine commitment to a fair, direct conversation with those impacted by homelessness, those who work 24/7 in advocacy venues, and those who have fought to get out of the system. We need true leadership, a mayor who will pledge to present proposals that place families above bureaucracy.

Families without homes deserve more than promises; they deserve a place at the table when future decisions are made. The invitation is still open. Will you please accept?

Rhonda Jackson is a lived experience community engagement consultant and senior fellow with the Family Homeless Coalition. 

Editor’s note: The Family Homelessness Coalition is among City Limits’ funders

The post Opinion: Asking the NYC Mayoral Candidates for a Real Discussion on Family Homelessness appeared first on City Limits.