Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993 TAG: 9305180047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's the forecast from Frederic Scott Bocock, vice chairman of Scott & Stringfellow Inc., who will be in Roanoke tonight for an open house at the securities brokerage's local office celebrating the firm's 100th anniversary.
Bocock said people with money invested in certificates of deposit, money market funds and the like are earning 3 percent or less from banks.
And, he said, they are realizing they can earn 5 percent, along with potential for growth, by investing in stocks such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Dominion Resources.
As long as people are pressured by low returns on savings, Bocock said, they will keep the stock and bond markets moving.
The only thing that could throw the brakes on the long-term market gain, Bocock said, is a tax increase such as the one proposed by President Clinton.
If there is a tax increase, he said, "this happy market will come to a crashing end."
But Bocock thinks Clinton's tax program will never get by the Senate, which will find other ways to reduce the federal budget deficit.
The market is happy because of rising home and auto sales and other signs of recovery. He said it will remain strong unless people get worried, which would cause "quite a market correction."
He sees that as a good sign for the continued growth of his firm, which is based in Richmond and has 25 offices in Virginia and North Carolina and one in Bluefield, W.Va. The company has 400 employees.
He said Scott & Stringfellow has plans to expand in West Virginia, South Carolina and other adjacent states, but will never extend beyond the South.
The publicly traded company recently hired a trainer to bring more young people into the firm and teach them how to deal in the financial markets. Scott & Stringfellow also is hiring some of the available experienced brokers who are out of work.
Bocock is the grandson of Frederic Scott, who with Charles S. Stringfellow founded the company in May 1893. Scott later bought out his partner.
The firm is run by Bocock and two of his cousins, Chairman Buford Scott and R. Strother Scott. Two members of the fourth generation also are working for Scott & Stringfellow.
by CNB