New ways on Main Street to cover stocks' slide on Wall Street

These dramatic stock market selloffs are sort of like watching a bad auto accident while riding on a passing bus: You feel that you should dial 911, or something, but figure 20 other people already have done the same thing.

As business writers, we want to address stock market plunges so our readers know we’re on the ball, but the choices often seem limited to repeating the same macroeconomic factors that wire and markets reporters have enumerated, or trotting out local financial advisers to issue the standard “hold the course, don’t panic, you’re in this for the long term, and this is a great opportunity to dollar-cost-average” advice that’s generally offered to consumers.

Both approaches are feeling a bit stale, but it’s hard to overlook 200-plus point drops (oops, make that 300 points even as I write) on the Dow and headlines such as MarketWatch’s “Bear ripping through Street,” which notes that the S&P is in correction territory now.

And that’s even before Friday’s much-watched national employment situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is unlikely to contain good news if it echoes recent reports that l ayoffs just hit a 16-month high and job growth is slowing.  A grim employment report Friday probably won’t touch off a buying spree on Wall Street.

Here are a few suggestions for finding stock market news relevant to  your readers:

Performance of local companies’ shares. A chart or graphic showing how local firms’ share price performance are tracking or bucking the overall market will be of interest to the audience. You can focus it by concentrating on the largest employers, whose workers might also hold a fair portion of company stock in retirement plans.  Use data from all of 2011 to show the year’s trajectory, and if possible show how peers are performing, too.  (The company will have defined at least some peer stocks in its most

recent proxy statement.)  From there, you can get analyst and the company’s own comments to explain the trends.

Share repurchases. Just by Googling around a bit, it seems that a number of firms are taking advantage of low prices to repurchase their own shares.

Partnersjo-Advocacy.com | Blog | Buying and Selling Gold Information

This syndicated article is a fantastic resource for gold cash

Why should you buy gold coins? Because during economic market corrections, gold coins go up in value, while paper money erodes as the government inflates the number of bills circulated. People who made the choice to buy gold coins in November 2002, for example, paid less than $400 for a one ounce gold coin. In October 2009, the price of that same gold coin went over $1,000. Inflation, on the other hand, eroded the US Dollar by 20 percent. So, for example, if someone decided to buy gold coins with $1,100 in 2002, today his gold coins would be worth more than $3,000. On the other hand, if he placed his money in a piggy bank instead of buying gold coins, his $1,100 of paper money would be worth $880. (You can play around with this inflation calculator to see how your paper money is losing its value over time).

We all know that we must put money aside for a rainy day. One sure way to do that is to buy gold coins with our savings. Even skeptics would benefit from setting at least some of their hard earned cash aside to buy gold coins with. There are several safe and easy ways to do that, but there are also places that you should avoid. Here are a few simple dos and don’ts on how to buy gold coins.

Buy Gold Coins—DON’TS

Don’t buy gold coins from a pawn shop or a jeweler. Typically the prices they charge are higher than specialized sources that sell and buy gold coins on a regular basis. For the same reason, do not sell gold coins you may have to a pawn shop or jeweler. Refer instead to the list of recommended venues below, both when you buy gold coins and when you sell them.

If you see a newspaper or magazine ad promising a low introductory price when you buy gold coins, don’t assume that the promotional rate is indeed the best you can get. Again, refer to the recommended list below to find the best prices and value when you buy gold coins, and to be sure that you are protected from fraud or loss during delivery.

Buy Gold Coins—DOS: APMEX

American Precious Metals Exchange (APMEX) is an online exchange where you can buy gold coins and other precious metals. The exchange is set up like an ordinary online store. You browse coins by categories and add items to your shopping cart. Pay close attention to the ounces in each coin, as these will determine the value.

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