Continuing its skid, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down more than 3%, a loss of over 37 points, to take it under 1,162. The rout in the global financial markets continued, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down about 8% for the year and more than 10% during the past five trading days. Even though this has been a strong earnings season, those report the past. Forward results are not encouraging, as few companies are projecting robust future earnings for the third quarter of 2011. These concerns, along with macroeconomic factors such as the U.S. debt downgrade, have all financial markets roiled to begin the week.
Sprint (NYSE:S) was down about 10%, a 40-cent loss to under $3.35 per share on labor problems at Verizon and concerns about its financials. Sprint is down more than 10% for the week and more than 40% for the month. It has been upgraded twice in the last month, however.
Goodyear Tire (NYSE:GT) also was down about 10%, a drop of around $1.25, to below $12 per share as all tire stocks were skidding because of poor results from Cooper Tires. Goodyear is down more than 15% for the week.
Not that long ago, Big Oil was living large on the high price of oil and takeovers in the sector, but Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) was off about 10%, more than $3 to under $30.20 a share because of a second-quarter loss. Sunoco is now down about 16% for the week.
Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was fighting the tide of red ink with a gain of about $1.50, or around 3%, to over $56 as the gold producer jumped on the strength of the yellow metal. Gold has been the main beneficiary of global economic weakness and is reaching new highs. Central banks are starting to buy gold to diversify their holdings. Newmont is up about 2% for the quarter.
Up about 20 cents to over $16.80 was Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) on a strong earnings report for the second quarter of 2011. The food company is down for the week, month and quarter while trading beneath its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages.
O’Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ:ORLY) was up about 0.2%, a gain of around 20 cents, to hit $59 in early morning action because of the announcement of a $500 million share repurchase program. For the year, O’Reilly is up more than 20%. Its earnings per share are increasing more than 30% on a quarter by quarter basis.
Jonathan Yates does not own any of the stocks mentioned in this article.
