Why Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX) and Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX) Are 3 of Today’s Worst Stocks

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Stocks bounced back rather well from Wednesday’s setback, with investors digesting the possibility of more rates hikes in 2017 than they were previously expecting. By the time the closing bell rang, the S&P 500 had regained 0.39% to end the day at 2,262.03.

Why Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX) and Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX) Are 3 of Today's Worst StocksIt wasn’t a winner for every name though. Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) were all underwater in the shadow of ugly headlines.

Here’s a closer look.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)

Oops! Yahoo did it again.

Actually, it happened three years ago. Internet giant Yahoo didn’t know it until recently, alerting users as well as YHOO shareholders that it had discovered yet-another breach that happened in 2013. Add it to the one the company did learn about and finally told the market about earlier this year … two years after it happened.

This time around, the breach garnered data of more than a billion users, though the complete scope of hack has still not been determined.

The reports come at the worst possible time for YHOO shareholders who were counting on a pending acquisition by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) to serve as an effective “out” of an otherwise troubled trade. With the prospects that the deal will go through being dinged up a bit after September’s announcement of a 2013 data breach, today’s news opens the door wide to a much lower acquisition price, or maybe even an outright cancellation of the deal.

YHOO ended the day down 6.1%.

Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX)

Most gold stocks were rather deep in the red today, but none among the large caps so much as Barrick Gold; ABX fell 5.0% on Thursday.

The prod for the pullback was the Federal Reserve’s decision from Wednesday to raise interest rates not just immediately, but likely to raise them three more times before the end of 2017. Higher rates means a higher-valued U.S. dollar, and since gold is priced in U.S. dollars, gold took a hit … to the tune of 3%. That setback has been particularly tough on highly leveraged gold miners like ABX.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX)

Last but not least, the sordid saga for Valeant Pharmaceuticals sunk to new lows today, with VRX shares doing the same.

The meltdown was still underway, but accelerated on Tuesday on the heels of reports that three key executives were resigning. Former CFO Rob Rosiello, Executive Vice President Anne Whitaker and Executive Vice President Ari Kellen are all stepping down.

Later that day, activist investor Bill Ackman fanned the bearish flames that scorched VRX by reporting his fund had sold a substantial portion of its Valeant position in order to harvest tax losses. But it’s also a sign of his waning commitment to the company.

Morgan Stanley threw another log on the fire today, downgrading VRX from “Overweight” to “Equal weight” today, essentially admitting the firm’s optimism was flat-out wrong. Analyst David Risinger explained:

“Since our upgrade in August, our investment thesis that management would stabilize the business and execute accelerated deleveraging via divestitures has been wrong. When we upgraded Valeant shares from EW to OW on August 17, 2016, we expected business stabilization and material divestitures. Neither has happened to date. Additionally, Valeant announced the departure of certain executives on Dec. 12 (see Executive departures an area of concern), and we no longer believe that shares can outperform.”

VRX lost 3.7% of its value today.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/12/why-yahoo-inc-yhoo-valeant-pharmaceuticals-intl-inc-vrx-and-barrick-gold-corporation-usa-abx-are-3-of-todays-worst-stocks/.

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