The 2016 Presidential election saga took yet another surprising turn this weekend, with a great deal of doubt about Hilary Clinton’s eligibility to take on that role wiped away by FBI Director James Comey. With a huge unknown taken off the table, investors plowed back into stocks, sending the S&P 500 to a close of 2,131.52. That was 2.22% better than Friday’s closing level.
Not every name jumped on board Monday’s bullish train, however. EarthLink Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:ELNK), GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) and Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) were all headed in the other direction, though for understandable reasons. Here’s a closer look at what went wrong with each.
Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX)
In the aftermath of two weeks of selling and one week of concern that Hillary Clinton may not be allowed to serve as president even if she’s elected, those concerns were put to bed on Monday following this weekend’s affirmation from the FBI that the agency wouldn’t be pursuing a criminal indictment.
Anything that could go up on the news did go up, including the value of the U.S. dollar; the U.S. Dollar Index jumped 0.75%, reversing a steep pullback.
That surge in the dollar’s value, however, did take a huge toll on gold prices (gold is priced in U.S. dollars), and an even bigger toll on gold miners.
Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG) and Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) were among the hardest hit, with GG falling 3.7% and NEM losing 3.5% of its value. Barrick Gold, however, was hit harder than any than any other major name, with ABX ending the day down 5%.
EarthLink Holdings Corp. (ELNK)
It wasn’t all about the presidential election today; some stocks were upended for other reasons. Case in point? Network and cloud computing service provided EarthLink Holdings. ELNK shares plunged 10% on Monday following a disappointing third-quarter report.
For the quarter in question, Earthlink lost two cents per share on revenue of $235.1 million. Analysts were only looking for sales of $233.2 million, but those same analysts were also only expecting a loss of one cent per share of ELNK.
The company also announced it was merging with Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN) in a $1.1 billion deal, which swaps ELNK for $673 million worth of WIN shares and also transfers Earthlink’s debt to Windstream’s books. That wasn’t enough to stave off a selloff though, perhaps because ELNK investors are less than thrilled they’re being pulled under the Windstream umbrella.
GoPro Inc (GPRO)
Last but not least, already deep in the red since peaking in early October, action camera company GoPro saw its shares lose another 4.7% of their value today in response to a downgrade from Bank of America.
As of today, Bank of America rates GoPro as an “underperform,” lowering its stance from a “buy.” The bank’s research arm also lowered its price target on GPRO from $17 to $10.
Analyst Jason Mitchell is particularly concerned about the Hero 5’s production problems, commenting “GoPro encountered manufacturing issues on the Hero5 Black and the Karma Drone and was unable to ship enough Hero5 black units at launch.
“These operational issues hindered crucial new product launches and potentially endanger holiday sales with its fan base, retailers, and new consumers.”
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
