The start for Tuesday’s trading may have been lackluster thanks to a lull in May’s housing starts, but by the time the closing bell rang that early stumble was more than wiped away. The S&P 500 closed at 2,096.29 today, up 0.57%.
It wasn’t a winner for every stock on Tuesday, though. United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE:UAL), Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) and Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AAVL) all lost ground, albeit for understandable reasons.
Avalanche Biotechnologies (AAVL)
Shareholders of Avalanche Biotechnologies may have felt like they were caught in an avalanche today. AAVL shares were down a painful 56% after the company reported disappointing results with one of its drug trials.
The good news is, its wet age-related macular degeneration therapy AVA-101 seems to work, in that it met the phase 2a study’s desired efficacy endpoint compared to the control group, and did so safely.
The bad news is, the study’s results only looked relatively good because the control group — the placebo/comparison group — actually looked so bad. On an absolute basis, Avalanche Biotechnologies didn’t truly take a huge leap forward with its macular degeneration drug.
Perhaps even worse, AAVL investors were left a little bewildered by the fact that the drug in question failed to stop a thickening of the retinal wall when it should be reducing its thickness.
Oshkosh Corporation (OSK)
Truck maker Oshkosh Corporation harshly reminded investors this morning that “expect it when you least expect it” is still good advice.
The news has seemingly been encouraging for OSK shareholders lately. In early June the company made a good showing at the Interschutz 2015 conference with its fire-fighting apparatus, and the company was well-lauded at the recent Stifel Industrials Conference. Oshkosh was even recently pegged as a possible manufacturer of the vehicles that will eventually replace the U.S. military’s Humvee.
In the meantime, however, things aren’t going to be as peachy as once thought. Per today’s news release, the company has lowered its 2015 profit guidance from $4.00 to $4.25 to only $3.75 to $4.00 per share of OSK. Poor weather and product delays were cited as a couple of the reasons for the retracted outlook. Oshkosh shares fell 7% after releasing the revised outlook.
United Continental Holdings (UAL)
Just for the record, United Continental Holdings wasn’t the only airline stock to deep into the red ink today. Peers and competitors like Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) and American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) were also underwater on Thursday. UAL, however, doled out the most pain with its selloff-leading 2% decline.
The prod for the pullback wasn’t actually news from, or even about, United Continental Holdings. American Airlines Group gets the bulk of the blame. In a move that caught the market a little off guard, AAL delayed delivery on an order of A320neo jets from Airbus.
Assuming if American Airlines Group was hitting a headwind then other airlines must be too, traders dumped them all. UAL simply led the way.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
