U.S. markets were weaker today as further concerns about the ongoing crisis in Greece and a 1.5% drop in the Dow Transports had Wall Street on edge throughout the day.
Uncertainty remained as several eurozone leaders continued to say that while progress was being made, they were still quite far from having a deal locked up that would benefit all.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, even went so far as to say that no real progress has been made since Monday, and that a deal today was quite unlikely. By day’s end, he had been proven right as no accord was struck. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras noted that some creditors have not accepted Athens’ proposals that were put forth earlier in the week.
CSX Corporation (CSX) and many of the other transport stocks were hit hard, losing 2% earlier on, causing some analysts to wonder if the divergence between the Dow and the transports could continue for much longer.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite lost 0.7% each. Every major sector finished lower today, with only the energy stocks being near even.
Despite the gloom, some stocks managed to post gains. Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Lennar Corporation (LEN) and Box Inc (BOX) were winners in their own right, and are three of today’s best stocks.
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX)
FCX stock was up 4% this morning but ran smack up against its 50-day moving average, pulling back to finish up 2.2% for the day. Late on Monday FCX announced that it hopes to raise $100 million by selling shares in Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas in an IPO managed by Barclays (BCS).
Freeport created the oil and gas subsidiary two years ago after acquiring it for $9 billion. The IPO is being created at a time when commodity prices of gold and copper are still slumping, as FCX seeks to fund its various oil and gas projects, including its wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
FCX stock has underperformed the general markets this year, but has recently risen from a bottom of $17 to today’s closing price of $20.56.
Lennar Corporation (LEN)
LEN stock was home free today after reporting second-quarter results of 79 cents a share, ahead of last year’s 61 cents a share, and easily besting analysts’ estimates for 64 cents a share.
LEN stock gained 4.2% on the day.
Sales were up 32% year-over-year to $2.4 billion, with an 8% increase in the average sales price of homes to $348,000. Real estate markets have been hot in 2015 and Lennar’s new home orders also increased by 18% year-over-year to nearly 7,300.
Box Inc (BOX)
A new partnership agreement with International Business Machines (IBM) sent BOX stock up 5.6% today. Under the terms of the partnership, both companies will merge their existing cloud services. BOX services will become part of IBM’s content management and IBM’s security technology will become part of the security features within the BOX products.
Apple (AAPL) will also benefit as BOX’s technology will become part of the enterprise iOS apps that IBM utilizes in its affiliation with Apple.
IBM stock was off less than 1% today. AAPL stock rose 1%.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
