Despite the decent start to the trading day, it didn’t take the bears long to roll the bulls over. By the time the day’s action ended, the S&P 500 was back to 2,328.95, down 0.68% for the last trading day of the week.
That was a mild setback in comparison to the losses United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) and Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY) booked today. These three names were among the worst of the worst, albeit for understandable reasons. Here’s the deal.
Infosys Ltd ADR (INFY)
Most of the headlines about tech company Infosys were positive, pointing out the organization not only met its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings estimates, but that Infosys is looking to return $2 billion back to INFY investors. Shareholders couldn’t get past the disappointing outlook though, sending INFY to a loss of 5.1% on Thursday.
For the quarter ending in March, Infosys Ltd earned 24 cents per share on revenue of $2.57 billion. Although the top line just missed expectations of $2.59 billion, profits per share of INFY were in line with analyst outlooks. Both were better than year-ago results, and the company confirmed it’s going to initiate a major buyback or ramp-up its dividend payout.
Looking ahead though, Infosys expects revenue growth of only between 6.1% and 8.1%, falling well short of analysts’ outlooks.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC)
INFY wasn’t the only name to take a hit following an earnings report on Thursday. Beleaguered bank Wells Fargo, still dealing with last year’s gaffe of opening unauthorized accounts so its bankers could meet sales goals, slumped in the wake of its first-quarter report.
For the accounting period ending in March, Wells Fargo earned $1.00 per share on revenue of $22.0 billion. Although the bottom line was better than the expected 97 cents per share of WFC the pros were expecting, those same analysts were also calling for revenue of $22.3 billion. The company earned 99 cents per share in the first quarter of 2016.
The bank’s community banking arm — arguably the most vulnerable to the damage done to Wells Fargo’s reputation — saw a 4.1% slide in sales, suggesting consumers haven’t been all that quick to forgive and forget as CEO Tim Sloan suggested on Thursday.
By the time the closing bell rang, WFC shares were down 3.3%.
United States Steel Corporation (X)
Last but not least, shares of United States Steel Corporation — you know it better as U.S. Steel — booked a 5.9% loss on Thursday, though not for any company-specific reason. Rather, X lost ground largely because of ongoing fears that China as well as the Unites States may not be as hungry for new infrastructure projects as first thought.
That said, CNBC’s Tom DiChristopher fanned those bullish flames today, commenting that high costs as well as delayed or cancelled projects are underpinning the bullish thesis that prodded materials stocks upward last year.
X was hardly the only name in the metals business to take a hit on Thursday, however. Mexican cement company Cemex SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:CX) fell 2.5%, and U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA) was off 5.9%.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
