It was deja vu all over again, as U.S. markets fell heavily from the opening bell, as crude oil prices dropped below the $30 level again. Production cuts seem to be off the board for the time being, and supply-and-demand concerns are once again paramount in the minds of investors.
The declining price of oil also weighed on market stalwart Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which saw its fourth-quarter profits drop 58%, to levels not seen in 14 years.
By day’s end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 300 points, or 1.8%, while the S&P 500 was off 1.9%. The Nasdaq was weakest of all, dropping 2.2%. As could be expected, sectors were all in the red, and energy and basic materials stocks were the worst of all.
Despite the gloomy day, good earnings drove several stocks higher, including well-known issues like Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Dow Chemical Co (NYSE:DOW) and Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT), making them three of today’s best stocks. Here’s how that happened:
Alphabet Inc (GOOGL)
GOOGL stock had a winning day after reporting adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $8.67 a share on $21.33 billion in revenue, ahead of analysts’ estimates for $8.10 a share on $20.77 of revenue. This was a 28% increase in earnings from a year ago.
Strong advertising sales, up 17% this year, and overall financial results were attributed to the ever-growing mobile searches, as well as YouTube usage.
Stifel Financial Corp was very impressed with GOOGL’s showing and decided to raise its price target on GOOGL stock from $900 to $930 a share.
GOOGL has now surpassed Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the most valuable company in the world.
GOOGL was up 5% in the morning, but could not sustain that with the pressure on stocks today, pulling back to a little over 1% up on the day.
Dow Chemical Co (DOW)
DOW stock lifted nearly 6% today after announcing fourth-quarter earnings of 93 cents a share, well ahead of the street’s expectations for only 70 cents a share.
In addition, DOW reported revenue of $11.46 billion, which also beat the estimates for $11.24 billion. One of the reasons for the highly successful quarter was a reduction in the price of oil, which was a boon to Dow’s plastics unit.
Dow also announced that CEO Andrew Liveris will be leaving his position by the middle of 2017, after DOW merges with rival E I Du Pont De Nemours and Co (NYSE:DD). The actual day-to-day operations will fall to DuPont CEO Edward Breen. Liveris will remain as the executive chairman.
Mattel, Inc. (MAT)
MAT stock ripped almost 14% higher after the toymaker reported fourth-quarter earnings Monday evening of 63 cents on revenue of $2 billion. The street was expecting only 60 cents a share on revenue of $1.92 billion.
In addition, the company reported 2015 earnings of $1.26 a share on revenue of $5.7 billion. The earnings were down over 20% from a year ago, and the revenue was 5% lower. MAT also said foreign exchange will impact negatively on their 2016 guidance numbers.
Also boosting the stock was an upgrade to “buy” from “hold”, also from Stifel Financial Corp, with a price target of $33 a share.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
