Montana’s Stillwater Mining (NYSE:SWC) is proving precious to investors today, up about 7%, coinciding with big gains in precious metals. The company mines a lot of platinum and palladium, and with the latter up 2.5%, the company’s proven reserves of 20 million ounces of the metals are worth more today than they were yesterday.
Stillwater Mining is the best-performing stock on the InvestorPlace.com Real America Index today. Other top performers include:
Utah’s Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) was up almost 5% today, reversing five weeks of selling for a very bizarre reason: Founder Jon Huntsman announced his candidacy for President. Investors seem to be bidding up the stock on a wing and a prayer, since it seems unlike that Huntsman will both win and get favorable chemical regulations passed.
Florida’s Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) was up over 4%, as it beat analyst’s earnings expectation by 3 cents despite fuel costs chopping those earnings down by 19 cents. Nevertheless, investors are cheering what appears to be increased leisure expenditures by the public.
As for the worst performers in the Real America Index today, they are actually hard to find. But we dug up these:
Washington D.C.’s Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO) is off less than a tenth of a percentage point, on no apparently news. One could point to the fact that they exited a $500 million credit facility and replaced it with another for the same amount, but that’s hardly news for the front page.
Pennsylvania’s famous chocolatier Hershey
(NYSE:HSY) ticked up a tiny bit today, also on no discernible news. This is a shock, considering the company just named John Bilbrey as their new CEO. It is an internal promotion, however, so management consistency may not be enough to excite investors.
New Hampshire’s Timbeland (NYSE:TBL) was flat. The stock is still digesting it’s big 11-point gain last week, after the North Face’s buyout offer.
Looking at the broad perspective, the Real America Index is up a fraction of a percent, keeping pace with the other three major indexes.
About the Real America Index
When Americans wonder how healthy the nation’s economy is, where can they turn? At InvestorPlace, we hope we have the answer: a list of 50 publicly traded stocks we call the Real America Index. Check out the interactive Real America Index map, browse a list of all 50 component stocks, or find out how we created this index.
