The Fed-driven rally from Wednesday came to a rather abrupt halt on Thursday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.48% to a close of 2089.35. Crude oil fell sharply too — again — losing 2.2% of its value to end the day at $45.63 per barrel. The dollar rebounded sharply from Wednesday’s dip, though, regaining 0.7% of its value today.
As for which names were leading the bearish charge, look first to Vince Holding Corp. (NYSE:VNCE), Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) and Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP). Here’s why.
Yelp Inc (YELP)
Just when it looked like the skies were starting to clear for Yelp shareholders, another dose of bad news came and pulled the rug out from underneath the stock. This one didn’t come from Wall Street, though. This one was rooted in reports that a documentary intending to expose the review site as a less-than-honorable platform was in the works.
Though the film is still only in the fund-raising stages and may or may not get made, the proposed working title of Billion Dollar Bully is pretty damning in itself, and concerning for Yelp investors.
Yelp ended the session off by more than 3%.
Nucor Corporation (NUE)
Just for the record, Nucor wasn’t the only materials stock deep in the red on Thursday; all of them finished the session underwater. NUE, however, was one of the worst of the worst for the group, and might have been a big reason that ball got rolling so quickly.
How so? Nucor informed Wall Street this morning that its earnings for the current quarter would be even worse than first anticipated. Now the company believes it will report a profit of somewhere between 10 cents and 15 cents per share of NUE, versus analyst estimates of 40 cents per share.
At the heart of the contracted earnings outlook as the extreme strength of the U.S. dollar. Its normal domestic customers are sourcing it cheaper overseas.
NUE finished the day down more than 6%.
Vince Holding Corp (VNCE)
Apparel maker Vince Holding may have topped fourth quarter estimates, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy investors, who sent VNCE shares more than 16% lower following an alarming fiscal 2016 forecast.
The good news: Although Vince Holding only generated $94.7 million in revenue last quarter versus expectations of $98.2 million, the 28-cent-per-share profit topped estimates of only 26 cents.
The bad news: The current year — fiscal 2016 — is going to be rather miserable. Now the apparel company is looking for a top line of somewhere between $360 million and $370 million, versus an average analyst estimate of $398.7 million.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
