The quarter ending earlier this week was the worst for stocks in three years, with some dropping by double digits. Those include well-known companies with Charlotte connections. The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter's Tony Mecia joins me now to talk about that, and other stories, for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So what are some of the companies you looked at, and how much did those stocks drop?
Tony Mecia: Yeah, Marshall. This week the Charlotte Ledger looked at a couple dozen local stocks, either locally based companies or companies that are based somewhere else with a large presence in Charlotte with a lot of employees. This is a quarter in which the NASDAQ fell about 10% and the S&P 500 fell about 4%. Among local companies, American Airlines' stock was down 40% in the quarter. Jeld-Wen was down about 27%, they make doors and windows. AvidXchange, local tech payments company, it was down 18%. But there were some companies that did well in the first quarter — including LendingTree, whose stock was up about 30%; Brighthouse Financial up 21%; and Duke Energy, a name everybody knows, their stock was up 13% in the first quarter.
Terry: You spoke to some financial advisors who said their clients are becoming nervous over tariffs and overall economic uncertainty. What are they telling their clients to do?
Mecia: Well, the advice is usually keep an eye on your risk and don't invest money that you can't afford to lose. But at the same time, just be mindful that if you're investing for the long term, if you're talking about retirement money that is decades away, you're going to have peaks and valleys of the stock market. And, so, they're kind of counseling patience and sort of a bigger perspective, and not getting too worried about the day-to-day ups and downs of the stock market.
Terry: Let's go now to the ongoing saga involving finances at Aldersgate. One of Charlotte's most well-known retirement communities announced (Wednesday) it's affiliating with an Asheville-based retirement community. Remind us why Aldersgate is taking this path?
Mecia: Over the last couple of years, the finances at Aldersgate have gotten a little bit shaky. The state stepped in to supervise their finances, which is a move that is unprecedented, but the insurance department did that because they were having problems paying vendors and paying refunds that they owed. There's new management there trying to get everything back on track. And, yes, Aldersgate announced (Wednesday) it's affiliating or linking up with Givens Communities, which is an Asheville-based operator of similar retirement communities. The hope is that this will put Aldersgate on more firm financial footing as it moves forward.
Terry: What kind of changes will there be at Aldersgate?
Mecia: Well, there are going to be a few. Aldersgate will no longer have its own board of directors — it'll be represented on the board of Givens. It will retain its nonprofit status, and its mission and values will stay the same. Its interim CEO said that day-to-day operations aren't expected to change. And he also said, in talking to residents, staff should expect greater job security and enhanced benefits as a result of this combination.
Terry: Finally, you report a piece of Charlotte baseball history is back home: It's a scoreboard. What makes this one unique?
Mecia: Yeah. This is the old scoreboard at Myers Park Trinity Little League. This is a league that started in the 1950s in Charlotte. And starting around 1980 or so, they used an old manual scoreboard — the kind where you had to have to put in the numbers, not the new digital ones. It sort of got moved around somewhere and got lost. It was rediscovered recently in a garage, and some volunteers restored it. And now they've put it back out on display at the Myers Park Trinity's new home — where it's been for the last several decades — at Randolph Road Park, which is across the street from the original location, which was turned into an apartment complex. But it's now there on display for all to see, in all of its glory: a decades-old manual scoreboard at Myers Park Trinity Little League.
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