USA Today stocks reporter Shell takes buyout

Adam Shell, the USA Today reporter who covers Wall Street, has accepted a buyout and is leaving the paper after 19 years.

“In a two-decade run as a stock market reporter, ‘the market’ has been my friend, but also an enemy,” said Shell in his farewell column this week.

He added, “I started on March 20, 2000, which turned out to be 10 days after the market top that signaled the end of the 1990s bull run and coming dot-com stock bust. The Nasdaq plunged nearly 4 percent on my first day.

“I spent the next 19 months covering my first bear market and explaining to readers why stocks kept going down. Most of the blame was heaped on irrationally exuberant investors who had driven up fledgling and profit-starved internet stocks to sky-high valuations.

“I survived that bear, which sliced the broad market’s value nearly in half. But the swoon left a lasting imprint on my psyche and taught me to respect the stock market like hockey players in the NHL who fear a lethal enforcer on the other team.”

Read more here.