When the closing bell rang Thursday, it looked like a boring day for U.S. stocks as the S&P 500 rose just 0.02% following the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting and a decline in oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.03% while the Nasdaq Composite was the laggard of the major U.S. benchmarks with a loss of 0.26%.
The euro advanced against the dollar even after the ECB added to its stimulus efforts. Gold benefited from the weaker dollar, adding to its already impressive year-to-date gains as gold miners’ stocks were among today’s top performers.
Big-name energy and technology stocks declined today as well, but big gains were the order of the day for AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) and Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG).
AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS)
Shares of AK Steel climbed 12.5% as iron ore prices continued surging, boosting shares of U.S. steelmakers in the process. JP Morgan was out with bullish commentary on four U.S. steel stocks Thursday, revealing overweight ratings on the quartet, which includes AKS.
Ohio-based AKS recently said it plans to raise spot prices for “all carbon flat-rolled steel products by a minimum of $30 per ton,” which should be a viewed as a positive for shareholders, reports 24/7 Wall Street.
Shares of AKS are up over 80% year-to-date.
Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX)
Barrick Gold, one of the world’s largest miners of the yellow metal, saw its shares rise 3.5% today as gold prices advanced 1.2% while the U.S. dollar traded slightly lower. Commodities, such as gold, are denominated in U.S. dollars, meaning dollar weakness often lifts commodities prices.
Separately, media reports are saying some current and former ABX employees are facing charges in Argentina related to a cyanide solution spill there last year. ABX has not confirmed whether charges have been filed yet.
Shares of ABX are up more than 91% year-to-date, easily outpacing the nearly 20% gained by the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSEArca:GLD), the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund.
Dollar General Corp. (DG)
Shares of discount retailer Dollar General soared 10.7% on volume that was more than triple the daily average after the company forecast full-year same-store sales growth of 2% to 4%. Analysts were expecting same-store sales growth of 2.8%.
The company also boosted its quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share from 22 cents and said it plans to repurchase $1 billion worth of its own shares in fiscal year 2016.
For its fiscal fourth quarter, DG earned $1.30 per share on sales of $5.29 billion. Analysts expected DG to earn $1.26 a share.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
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