Wall Street endured its second consecutive dismal day, as the “triple witching” of options expirations and another decline in the price of crude oil weighed heavily on the major indices.
A large volume of selling, related to third week of the month options expirations, was dragging down the major indices.
Crude oil dropped below $35 a barrel after Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) announced that the U.S. rig count showed a rise of 17 in the number of oil rigs. When oil rig counts rise, a rise in production creates more oversupply and thus enacts a lower crude oil price.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 2.1%, while the S&P 500 was off 1.8% and the Nasdaq 1.6%. Selling was quite heavy into the closing bell. As one would expect, all sectors were down, but basic materials did show a surprising bit of strength That sector has really been pummeled over the past six months, but looked a bit brighter today.
Despite the selloff, strong earnings and/or revenue drove several stocks higher today — among them Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL), Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) and BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). Here’s the details of why they are three of today’s best stocks:
Carnival Corp (CCL)
CCL investors were a happy crew today after Carnival reported fourth-quarter earnings of 50 cents a share, well beyond the 41 cents expected by the street. However, revenue fell 0.2% from a year ago to $3.71 billion, just slightly shy of analysts’ estimates.
Investors were in a forgiving mood and sent CCL stock higher by almost 4%.
The Miami, FL-based company also announced that their advance bookings for the first three 2016 quarters have surpassed the comparable three quarters for 2015, and with an increase in prices.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI)
DRI was also a tasty stock today after reporting second-quarter fiscal 2016 earnings of 54 cents a share, nicely above analysts’ estimates of 42 cents a share. However, as with CCL, revenue of $1.61 billion was just a tick below the street’s estimates.
Another catalyst propelling DRI stock 7% higher was the board of directors’ decision to increase the quarterly dividend by 14%, while pledging to buy back $500 million in stock going forward.
Commenting on the good earnings report, CEO Gene Lee said that customers seem to be spending more confidently in recent months.
BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY)
BlackBerry stock also excelled today after besting Wall Street expectations. The mobile communications provider reported 2016 third-quarter earnings with a loss of 3 cents a share, not good, but much better than the 14 cent loss that analysts had projected for the company.
Yet unlike Carnival and Darden, BBRY actually beat the street on revenue as well, coming in with $557 million, above expectations for $489 million. That made BBRY a real winner today, surging 10% higher on heavy volume of 45.2 million shares.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
