ROANOKE, Va. – A day after the Dow Jones saw its largest one-day point dip, stocks rebounded to close up more than 560 points Tuesday.
After a record-breaking day on Wall Street Monday with the Dow's nearly 1,200-point plunge, many people are wondering how this could impact their finances. So 10 News went to an economics professor at Roanoke College to find out.
"If you didn't know the stock market went down by that much yesterday and Friday and you just walked into a store, you wouldn't know unless you heard someone talking about it so it doesn't really affect our daily lives," professor Alice Kassens said.
If you've checked your retirement account in the last few days, you may have noticed a dip, but Kassens said not to worry about short-term impacts.
"If you've got a decade or so left of working, it's going to come back up," Kassens said.
While Monday’s numbers are daunting, she said it's the percentage that matters.
"I mean it's still unbelievably high right now. If you look at historical numbers, we're, even with the drop, 4,000 points higher than we were a year ago and double what we were five years ago," Kassens said.
Experts say the economy is doing well in terms of unemployment and wages, but some on Wall Street worry the Fed will soon raise interest rates to keep inflation in check.
"What happens then? Well that makes people worried. If I am an investor, if I own a business, it's going to be more expensive for me to get a loan to expand my factory or to do some new repairs, those kinds of things," Kassens said.
Kassens said her best advice is don't do anything just yet.