Many Americans feel economy secure amid stocks slump
Many Americans feel economy secure amid stocks slump
NEW YORK (Reuter): Thirty-seven percent of Americans polled about the U.S. economy think that despite last week's decline in the stock market, the economy is improving while 26 percent said it was getting worse, according to a Newsweek poll.
The poll, published in the issue of the magazine which went on sale yesterday, also said an additional 34 percent thought the economy is staying about the same and three percent did not know.
The Dow Jones industrial average slumped sharply last week as near panic selling against the background of soaring interest rates triggered five straight sessions of losses before the index regained its footing slightly Thursday.
At the end of the holiday-shortened week, the index was at 3,635.95, down 139.07 points on the week. More significantly, the Dow was off 342.41 points from its record high of 3,978.36 set January 31, and stocks may have suffered their worst battering in years, according to analysts.
The market's psychology soured after the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, raised interest rates Feb. 4, the first time in five years, to cool inflationary pressures in the improving economy.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the Fed's second rise in rates nearly seven weeks later, fueling concern that the central bank's rate hikes would continue unchecked, market experts said.
Asked if they agreed with the Fed's interest rate hike, 34 percent of those polled said rates had gone up the right amount but 37 percent thought the increase was too high.
Forty-seven percent of Americans believed the decline in the U.S. stock market was a serious or somewhat serious problem for the country, while 38 percent thought it not a serious problem at all. Five percent were not aware of a fall in stocks and 10 percent did not have an opinion.
A majority of people polled, 53 percent, said they were not likely to change their personal spending habits and 61 percent said they would not sell or buy stocks at the moment.
The poll, carried out by Princeton Survey Research Associates, interviewed 753 adults by telephone March 31 and April 1. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.