After taking a breather on Tuesday, the bulls were back to work today, pushing stocks even deeper into record-high territory despite the lack of any real news. Today’s 0.43% advance from the S&P 500 left it at a close of 2173.02.
It wasn’t another winning day for every stock, however. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX), Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) and Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) were each sent south, albeit for understandable reasons.
Here’s what traders need to know.
Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX)
Barrick Gold Corporation and its peers/rivals may have managed to sidestep what could have been an ugly day on Tuesday, but they weren’t so lucky on Wednesday. Today, ABX lost more 7.7% of its value not because the company did anything wrong, but because the gold miner is powerless to do anything about it.
The sucker-punch? Falling gold prices, which are simply an extension of the value of the U.S. dollar. The greenback jumped 0.5% on Tuesday, though gold held its ground as traders weren’t so trusting that the dollar’s rise was the real deal. The U.S. Dollar Index was up a little more on Wednesday though, confirming the worst for gold bugs. Gold prices fell more than 1% today.
While ABX was out in front of the parade, other gold mining stocks weren’t far behind. Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (USA) (NYSE:AEM) fell more than 6%, and Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG) lost more than 5% of its value.
Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR)
Interactive Brokers Group may have topped estimates last quarter, but the market couldn’t get past the fact that some of the numbers were down on a year-over-year basis.
In its second quarter of the year, Interactive Brokers Group earned 40 cents per share on revenue of $369 million. The bottom line topped analyst expectations for a profit of 35 cents per share of IBKR, and earnings were 8% better than the year-ago figure. But, revenue fell nearly 5% from Q2 2015’s top line, and ended up missing most top-line estimates.
The bulk of the weakness stemmed from declining trading activity. Market making revenue was down $72 million versus year-ago levels, and correspondingly, the number of daily revenue-bearing trades was off to the tune of 5% for the quarter.
IBKR ended the day down nearly 7%.
Kellogg Company (K)
After rallying 12% between late June and Tuesday, shares of Kellogg Company were up-ended today when news surfaced that the rumored merger/acquisition with Kraft Heinz Foods Co (NYSE:HNZ) wasn’t likely to happen after all.
Whispers of the possibility were first floated by 3G Capital a couple weeks ago, and although the whole idea was rejected by expert observers at the time, that didn’t stop speculators from bidding K higher.
However, David Faber said it in a way today that investors had little choice but to believe. After discussing the matter with people who would know if such a deal were looming, he flatly and plainly said, “there is nothing going on here,” sending K down 5.4%.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
