Between a hint of strengthening inflation and evidence that consumers are feeling — and spending — just fine, any lingering bastions of hope the Fed wouldn’t raise interest rates next week were largely wiped away. The market saw that glass as half-empty today, sending the S&P 500 1.94% lower to a close of 2,012.37.
Leading the bearish charge were Sprint Corp (NYSE:S), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Energy Transfer Equity LP (NYSE:ETE). Here’s what investors need to know about each.
Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE)
For not the first time (or even the second time) this week, Energy Transfer Equity LP shares found themselves on the daily “Worst three” list.
It was hardly alone in the gutter. Most stocks were in the red today, with other energy stocks leading the marketwide bearish charge in the shadow of a 3% plunge in oil prices; crude oil futures reached a new multiyear low of $35.35, dragging all energy and oil stocks lower. ETE was the proverbial poster child though, losing more than 13% of its value on the last trading day of the week.
Fanning the bearish flames for ETE was this commentary, pointing out that Energy Transfer Equity is presently debt-leveraged by a factor of more than seven…
…not that the market needed to hunt for a reason to beat up on ETE. Its jeopardized dividend/distribution yield was and is reason enough by itself.
Sprint Corp (S)
Not unlike ETE, the market didn’t exactly need to search high and low for a reason to push Sprint shares lower to the tune of nearly 8%. But, in that they found one, investors were more than willing to reverse course, up-ending this week’s doomed recovery effort to let S shares lose more than their fair share of ground.
In all fairness, some of the reason S suffered a setback today had to be the market’s broad bearish action. Much of it, however, stemmed from the fact that over the past two days, Sprint has implemented a number of personnel changes that are confusing at best, and disruptive at worst. Tim Donahue is now a regional president, as are Michael Miess and John Stevens. More regional appointments are on the way.
Meanwhile, Roger Sole was named as chief marketing officer, and Kevin Crull was picked as one of four area presidents.
The complete (and completely unexpected) corporate hierarchy change spooked S investors, who may be fearing the structural overhaul does more harm than good.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)
Last but not least, while Sprint moved a handful of executives around today, Yahoo! outright lost another good one. Senior VP of Products and Engineering, Advertising Products, Prashant Fuloria will be leaving the company at the end of the year. There’s no word yet on where Fuloria is going, but the former Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) — then Google — and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) should have no trouble finding a job.
The exit of Fuloria marks the 26th exit of a senior-level executive Yahoo has seen this year so far, although given the 5% pullback YHOO dished out today, it may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak. It’s difficult for the market to conclude anything except insiders see a grim writing on the wall.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
