S&P 500 Fighting off Fifth Consecutive Drop

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Down four of the last five trading periods, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up two points in Thursday’s morning session to 1,200. Energy stocks were heading higher in morning buying and selling. Gold was up again as the U.S. jobs report disappointed and investors sought safe-haven assets. Advancing stocks barely outnumbered those declining. The S&P 500 is down more than 2.2% for the past week and more than 5.2% for the year.

Leading the S&P higher was Valero (NYSE:VLO), up more than $1.30 to over, gaining over 6%. The refinery company announced it was increasing production by about 30% from its facilities in Texas and is considering buying refineries from Sunoco, which would augment its market position. Valero is up more than 20% for the month and 30% for the year.

Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) was trading over $61.50, gaining about 4%, or around $2.30 per share. This morning, Hess announced it had bought more $750 million in new acreage in the natural gas-rich Utica Shale region of Ohio, giving it 85,000 net acres.

As gold gained, so did Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) which was up more than 3%, about $2 higher, to around $65.80. The bull market in gold has stocks in the industry climbing. NEM is up more than 18% for the month and 22% for the quarter.

Down by about 9% was Pall Corp. (NYSE:PLL), which lost more than $4.20 per share to under $44.60. Wall Street did not like the preliminary fourth-quarter results issued by Pall after the closing bell yesterday, as estimates were missed by 12 cents.

Financials were taking a beating in early action and Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW) had a bull’s-eye on its back, down about 2.55%, around 20 cents, to under $6.40 per share. A title insurance firm, Genworth is suffering the backlash from the declines in both housing and financials. Genworth is down more than 5% for the month, more than 30% for the quarter and more than 50% for the year.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) was off about 2% to around $16 per share, falling more than 30 cents. The investment bank is down more than 4% for the week, more than 25% for the quarter and almost 40% for the year. It is trading close to its year low.

Jonathan Yates does not own any of the stocks mentioned in this article.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2011/09/sp-500-fighting-off-fifth-consecutive-drop/.

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