Dreary Day for Gold, Oil — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

InvestorPlace Market RecapThe European hangover continued into Wednesday, with fears about decreased government spending across the euro zone taking its toll on commodities. Oil futures were down about $5 per barrel, and gold prices fell below $1,600, breaking its 200-day moving average for the first time in almost two years — taking down numerous funds and stocks as a result.

Across the oil world, powerhouses like Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Hess (NYSE:HES) were sustaining losses, to the tune of 3% and 4%, respectively. The drop also was reflected across oil-based funds, such as the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return (NYSE:OIL, -5.23%), the PowerShares DB Oil Fund ETF (NYSE:DBO, -4.83%) and the United States Brent Oil Fund (NYSE:BNO, -4.39%).

Much that was gold didn’t glitter, either, with the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) down around 3.5% and the iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) down almost 4%. Miners were especially burned, with Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) down almost 6% and NovaGold (AMEX:NG) shedding 5.6%. Silver suffered, too, with the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) down about 6%, but those betting against the metal today through the ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF (NYSE:ZSL) had one of the biggest upside surprises of the day, gaining almost 12% on their investments.

The solar sector wasn’t faring much better Wednesday after First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) reduced fiscal year forecasts for the third time this year and saw shares shredded by more than 21%. A number of factors have weighed on solar stocks for some time, but First Solar’s news was a strong catalyst that bombed companies like SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR, -16%) and Suntech Power (NYSE:STP, -4.17%).

Three Up

Three Down

  • Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S): Down 5.02% (12 cents) to $2.27.
  • Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW): Down 4.86% (56 cents) to $10.97.
  • Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD): Down 4.73% ($2.54) to $51.17.

As of this writing, Kyle Woodley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks. Check out our list of previous IP Market Recaps.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2011/12/gold-prices-oil-prices-first-solar-stock-market-summary/.

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