Investors had a full weekend to reflect on Friday’s deal among European nations to address the region’s debt problems — and they thought less of it by Monday. Stock markets reeled for most of the day before a slight afternoon respite helped the major indexes close well above the day’s lows.
The Dow Jones was down nearly 250 points before finishing down about 162. Financials, among some of the biggest winners Friday, likewise fell to the floor Monday. ING Group (NYSE:ING) fell 8.68% to $7.15, with Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS, -7.07%) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB, -5.88%) taking significant cuts, too. Domestically, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS, -6.11%) and Citigroup (NYSE:C, -5.39%) tumbled, with giant Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) also coming close to shedding 5%.
Doubts surrounding the EU plan seemed to vary in nature. Among the many issues facing the union include the U.K.’s refusal to back the plan, as well as the perceived difficulty of European leaders trying to pass national belt-tightening measures before March, when the plan is expected to be finalized. Moody’s also was sour on the deal, saying it would review European Union members’ credit ratings in early 2012.
A rare bright spot came to a company that’s seen few of them lately: Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) jumped about 6% on rumors that Verizon (NYSE:VZ) was considering buying out the company. Verizon, best known for its telecom service, also has branched out in providing Internet and cable service, and an acquisition of Netflix would give the telecom a 23 million-customer jump start in the streaming video business. Netflix shareholders could use the bump, with NFLX shares down almost 75% from their July peak around $300.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) shareholders got a double helping of good news Monday when the company announced a stock buyback and dividend hike. The drugmaker will buy back up to $10 billion in stock — that’s in addition to $6.5 billion already bought this year as part of a plan to buy back $7 billion to $9 billion worth. Pfizer also bumped up its dividend from 20 cents per share to 22 cents per share, a 10% increase. However, PFE shares saw little immediate effect from the news, with the stock down less than 1% by the end of trading.
Three Up
- Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC): Up 15.35% ($5.15) to $38.70.
- Arena Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:ARNA): Up 9.5% (19 cents) to $2.19.
- Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG): Up 5.46% (52 cents) to $10.04.
Three Down
- Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT): Down 6.07% (68 cents) to $10.52.
- Weatherford International (NYSE:WFT): Down 5.54% (83 cents) to $14.15.
- Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): Down 5.24% ($1.23) to $22.25.
As of this writing, Kyle Woodley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks. Check out our list of previous IP Market Recaps.
