| Experts: Ride out volatile markets
And the gyrations the market experienced this week didn't exactly calm investors' nerves. Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 300 points early in the day because of fears of a pending recession. Then it roared back and gained nearly 300 points. Stocks advanced again Thursday, extending the comeback. Friday, the three major U.S. indexes fell more than 1 percent. Is the volatility reason to worry? Maybe. But local stock brokers and economists say it's no time for investors to panic. "I don't know if I'd use the word 'worried,' " said Leigh Baldwin, president of Leigh Baldwin & Co., a brokerage in Cazenovia. As long as someone isn't retiring very soon and doesn't need the money right away, he or she should be able to ride out the storm, he said.
Industry dragging feet on 'piggyback' antidote
So-called "piggyback" credit-score inflation schemes for mortgage applicants haven't been reined in, despite industry pledges to do so at the end of summer. As a result, lenders continue to be misled into treating loan applicants with poor credit as prime-credit candidates - worsening already critical fraud and delinquency problems in the mortgage market. Fair Isaac Corp., developer of the FICO score widely used for home loan underwriting, confirmed that its "FICO '08" scoring model is not yet available at any of the three national credit bureaus. .
Credit woes leave 3m fearing loss of homes
Nearly three million home owners fear that they will have their homes repossessed this year, as the credit crunch starts to cause a "frenzy of fear" among consumers, according to a survey released on Monday. How to be a first-time buyerThe study suggests that people have been spooked by the plummeting stock market, falling house prices and rising utility bills. .
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