Everybody Out of the Pool! — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | February 20, 2013 4:58 pm

[1]Investors weren’t willing to push stocks higher Wednesday just a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed at new five-year highs — especially in the face of mixed housing data and Fed minutes that indicated some concern about continued bond-buying.

The Nasdaq took the biggest hit, losing 1.53% to close at 3,164.41, while the S&P 500 shed 1.24% to 1,511.95 and the Dow fell 0.77% to 13,927.54. Gold also closed at a seven-month low of $1,561.60 per ounce.

On the merger front, Office Depot (NYSE:ODP[2]) and Office Max (NYSE:OMX[3]) made it official, announcing they will merge[4] in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.2 billion. Both stocks started the day higher, but plunged after details of the deal were released. ODP finished Wednesday down more than 16%, while OMX fell 7%. Sectormate Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS[5]) fell 7% in sympathy.

An unexpected 8.5% decline in housing starts coupled with an earnings miss at Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL[6]) hit the entire sector[7]. TOL dropped 9%, and Ryland (NYSE:RYL[8], -8.3%), KB Home (NYSE:KBH[9], -7.5%) and Pultegroup (NYSE:PHM[10], -6.8%) also fell hard.

Shares of equipment maker

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT[11]) sank over 2% helping to lead the Dow lower as sales of the company’s mining and construction equipment fell 4% worldwide in the three-month period ending January 31.

Herbalife (NYSE:HLF[12]) announced record Q4 and full-year revenues and earnings, and gave a rosy outlook for 2013 … but that did nothing to help the stock, which fell nearly 5%.

Navigation and communications device maker Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN[13]) led the Nasdaq lower Wednesday, falling over 9% after missing on both Q4 and full-year earnings estimates.

Finally, after eclipsing the $800 mark and setting all-time highs Tuesday, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG[14]) cooled off just less than 2% to finish under $793 per share.

Earnings notables for Thursday include Walmart (NYSE:WMT[15]), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ[16]) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN[17]).

Three Up

• Allscripts Healthcare (NASDAQ:MDRX[18]): Up 13.8% ($1.54) to $12.72.
• La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB[19]): Up 11.5% ($1.77) to $17.23.
• Demand Media (NYSE:DMD[20]): Up 6% (47 cents) to $8.31. (Read more here[21])

Three Down

• Millennial Media (NYSE:MM[22]): Down 37.5% ($5.38) to $8.95. (Read more here[23])
• Owens Corning (NYSE:OC[24]): Down 7.9% ($3.43) to $39.91.
• Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS[25]): Down 7.1% ($1.93) to $25.36.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/02/wednesdays-ip-market-recap-jwn-hpq-wmt-cat-grmn-goog/

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