Stocks, commodities, and the U.S. dollar were all up on Wednesday, taking a cue from a rising ISM Services index and employment growth. Payroll processor reported the net addition of 208,000 new jobs in November, which fell short of the anticipated total of 225,000 new payrolls, but was growth nonetheless.
Not every stock found the wind was at its back, however. Bob Evans Farms Inc (BOBE), Puma Biotechnology Inc (PBYI), and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) were battered and bruised rather badly today, for a myriad of reasons.
Amazon.com (AMZN)
Amazon.com shares slumped 3% on Wednesday, bringing the week-to-date total loss for AMZN stock to almost 7%.
There’s no one particular reason for this batch of weakness, though the core of it is still most likely to be concerns that Amazon.com is losing ground to other e-commerce venues. It was only one day ago we learned Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) drove record-breaking traffic to the online shopping portion of its website on Cyber Monday.
Contributing to the worry is the company’s recent sale of $6 billion worth of bonds. In the past AMZN stock owners didn’t mind heavy-spending as long as there was promise of a big return on the investment later.
There’s been no meaningful monetary success in a long while, though, and the market may be concerned this $6 billion obligation is more of a burden than a benefit.
Puma Biotechnology (PBYI)
Biotech name Puma Biotechnology spooked its shareholders today when the company announced it was delaying the filing of a breast cancer drug application.
The drug in question, Neratinib, is a HER2 protein inhibitor that was tentatively scheduled for submission to the FDA in 2015. In the meantime, however, the Food & Drug Administration asked Puma Biotechnology to perform a safety study on the drug that could take a year to complete.
Although the requested data and the delay won’t make Neratinib any less likely to win the FDA’s approval in 2016, traders were plenty displeased all the same, sending PBYI stock down 12% on Wednesday.
Bob Evans Farms (BOBE)
Though Bob Evans Farms earned more than it was expected to earn in its second fiscal quarter, little else about the quarterly report was encouraging. Namely, its narrowed full-year revenue forecast was less than the market was hoping to hear.
Last quarter, the restaurant chain earned an operating profit of 36 cents per share of BOBE stock — topping estimates of 34 cents — on $343.9 million in sales. Its previous full-year profit guidance of $1.90 to $2.20 per share was whittled down to a range of $1.90 to $2.20, versus analyst expectations of $1.92. Full-year sales were guided to something between $1.35 billion and $1.37 billion — a range which entirely fell short of the market’s estimate of $1.38 billion.
The news was dire enough to send BOBE stock lower by 14% today.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
