Dreary Day for Gold, Oil — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Kyle Woodley | December 14, 2011 4:44 pm

[1]The European hangover continued into Wednesday, with fears about decreased government spending across the euro zone taking its toll on commodities. Oil futures were down about $5 per barrel, and gold prices fell below $1,600, breaking its 200-day moving average[2] for the first time in almost two years — taking down numerous funds and stocks as a result.

Across the oil world, powerhouses like Chevron (NYSE:CVX[3]) and Hess (NYSE:HES[4]) were sustaining losses, to the tune of 3% and 4%, respectively. The drop also was reflected across oil-based funds, such as the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return (NYSE:OIL[5], -5.23%), the PowerShares DB Oil Fund ETF (NYSE:DBO[6], -4.83%) and the United States Brent Oil Fund (NYSE:BNO[7], -4.39%).

Much that was gold didn’t glitter, either, with the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD[8]) down around 3.5% and the iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU[9]) down almost 4%. Miners were especially burned, with Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY[10]) down almost 6% and NovaGold (AMEX:NG[11]) shedding 5.6%. Silver suffered, too, with the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV[12]) down about 6%, but those betting against the metal today through the ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF (NYSE:ZSL[13]) had one of the biggest upside surprises of the day, gaining almost 12% on their investments.

The solar sector wasn’t faring much better Wednesday after First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR[14]) reduced fiscal year forecasts for the third time this year and saw shares shredded by more than 21%. A number of factors have weighed on solar stocks[15] for some time, but First Solar’s news was a strong catalyst that bombed companies like SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR[16], -16%) and Suntech Power (NYSE:STP[17], -4.17%).

Three Up

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX[18]): Up 6.56% ($1.88) to $30.54.
• Avon Products (NYSE:AVP[19]): Up 5.08% (82 cents) to $16.96. (Read more about Avon ousting its CEO and whether AVP is a safe stock here.[20])
• Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL[21]): Up 2% (16 cents) to $8.15.

Three Down

• Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S[22]): Down 5.02% (12 cents) to $2.27.
• Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW[23]): Down 4.86% (56 cents) to $10.97.
• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD[24]): Down 4.73% ($2.54) to $51.17.

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[25].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/12/gold-prices-oil-prices-first-solar-stock-market-summary/

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