Investors watched Tiger TV closely

By Clytie Bunyan The Oklahoman Comments 0
Published: February 21, 2010

There’s nothing like a good scandal to bring a workday to a halt. Friday’s extraordinary apology from golf great Tiger Woods did just that. Normally, it would take someone like the treasury secretary or the president of the United States to affect whether the Dow Jones Industrial Average counter moves up or down as he speaks.

But productivity clearly came to a crawl as Tiger delivered his apology, while the Dow moved lazily between positive and negative territory. Financial network CNBC even showed traders riveted to the TVs on the trading floor.

What likely would have been a morning when analysts hammered at the Fed’s move to boost the rate banks pay for emergency loans instead got the hype equal to a presidential address.

Why all this interest among traders in a sports celebrity publicly acknowledging his shortcomings?

Because it’s Tiger Wood — a moneymaker — and many investors have an interest in whether he can redeem himself, a factor that could determine where they put their money.

It’s hard to say just how much effect Tiger’s comments had on some stocks. Among companies still backing him, Nike lost 9 cents to close at $64.35 and Electronics Arts Inc. bumped up 16 cents to end the day at $16.75.

Charlotte Lankard, marriage and family counselor, perhaps best puts Tiger’s situation in context: "We need heroes, so when we have someone that does something well and they’re charming, we bestow on them attributes they do not have ... and when they become human we just vilify them. But some of them we love, and we love somebody that makes a comeback.”

Looks as if investors were watching to see

how soon that comeback will be.