It’s getting downright ugly on Wall Street.
U.S. markets opened lower and stayed down today, as another decline in oil prices combined with a world wide selloff of stocks to dampen enthusiasm for buyers today.
Oil slid another 4.5%, briefly falling below a low set 13 years ago at $26.19.
Thursday’s culprit was two-fold: Genscape, Inc. reported U.S. crude futures increased nearly 425,000 barrels to a record high 65 million in Cushing, OK in the week ending Feb. 9. Added to that was the report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) that oil prices will continue to be cheap and volatile at least until the second half of 2016.
Markets in China and Europe were down 5% and 3.6% respectively overnight, also adding fuel to the selling on Wall Street.
A Wall Street Journal report this afternoon that OPEC members are ready to cooperate together to cut production, helped lift oil prices and stocks off the ground.
But at the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was still off 1.6%, while the S&P 500 was 1.2% lower. The Nasdaq Composite was the strongest of the indices, but off 0.4%. Sectors were all lower, but gold and other precious metals were quite strong Thursday in response to falling stock prices. Financials and utilities had a rough day.
Although many dispirited Wall Streeters may need a loan soon, investors in LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC), along with Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) and O’Reilly Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:ORLY) were quite happy today as 3 of the best stocks on Wall Street. Here’s what put them in the driver’s seat.
Time Warner Inc (TWX)
Time Warner was in the winner’s circle today after announcing fourth quarter earnings of $1.06 a share on revenue of $7.1 billion. Although per-share earnings beat the analysts’ estimates for $1.01 a share, the company fell short of the $7.53 billion projection for revenue.
But the Street was in a forgiving mood, especially after TWX guided earnings for 2016 between $5.30 to $5.40 a share, ahead of the Street’s view of $5.26 a share. TWX stock finished ahead by more than 3%.
Like many issues lately, TWX stock was knocked down this week, from $72 a share to $57 a share before Thursday’s news. But TWX is likely to run into a lot of resistance as it tries to climb back to previous levels, as investors who bought shares higher may be in a selling mood.
O’Reilly Automotive Inc (ORLY)
O’Reilly stock also had a splendid day, after reporting fourth-quarter earnings of $2.19 a share, 24% above last year’s EPS and ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.07 a share.
Unlike TWX, O’Reilly also beat the Street’s estimates for revenue with $1.95 billion, above the $1.91 billion projection by the analysts. In addition, ORLY’s 2015 EPS of $9.17 also bested the Zacks Consensus of $9.07, while 2015 revenue of $7.97 billion was slightly better than the $7.93 consensus.
Thursday’s better than 5% rise put ORLY back above its 200-day moving average at $244.15, and 50-day moving average at $248.22.
LendingClub Corp (LC)
Investors were lending high fives to each other after LendingClub reported fourth-quarter earnings of 5 cents a share, slightly above analysts’ estimates of 4 cents a share. Revenue of $134.5 million also bested the consensus for $130.14 million.
Adding icing to the cake was the board of director’s decision to buy back up to $150 million of LC’s common stock shares.
LC, which came public in 2014 at $24.75, has struggled to impress investors, but this report was its best so far. The company believes it can still succeed if the economy suffers.
LC stock rose more than 5% on the day.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
