Though retail sales slumped last month, apparent forward progress in Greece and rebounding oil prices moved stocks higher for a third day in a row on Tuesday. The S&P 500 finished the session at 2,108.95, up 0.45%.
It wasn’t a banner day for every name out there, however. EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), ArcelorMittal SA (NYSE:MT) and Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) all found themselves fighting an uphill battle from the get-go.
Here’s the deal with today’s worst stocks.
EMC Corporation (EMC)
Data storage and cloud computing name EMC Corporation was already in a bit of a slump, with EMC shares down 16% from their December peak as of yesterday. In the wake of today’s report, however, traders were once again more than willing to tear into EMC, sending it more than 3% lower … and frighteningly close to new 52-week lows.
The report revealed that Greenlight Capital, run by David Einhorn, exited its position in EMC last quarter, undoing one of the key reasons many investors had been sticking with it. Einhorn just doesn’t see a much-needed restructuring on the horizon, nor does he see any significant growth opportunity for the company’s data storage products.
ArcelorMittal SA (MT)
In some ways, ArcelorMittal SA may be feeling a little blindsided today.
On Monday, Reuters reported ArcelorMittal’s largest mine (by output) in Brazil was operating at full capacity, spurred by greater demand from Asian and North American customers. The implication? There was a light starting to shine at the end of the tunnel for the global metals market.
That light was extinguished today, though, pulling the rug out from underneath MT shares. As it turns out, while ArcelorMittal is working its largest Brazilian mine, it also has plans in place to shutter its long steel mills it recently established for its Joao Monlevade plant in Brazil.
MT shares fell nearly 2% on the swing back to decidedly troubling news.
Fastenal Company (FAST)
The good news: Fastenal Company topped its second quarter earnings estimates. The bad news: It still fell short of its revenue estimates. Opting to focus on the bearish side of the coin, traders sent FAST shares 4% lower on Tuesday.
When all was said and done, the building supply company earned 48 cents per share of FAST versus analyst estimates for a profit of only 47 cents. The total totally trounced the year-ago bottom line of 44 cents per share of Fastenal.
The top line of $997.8 billion for Q2 was better than the $949.94 million worth of revenue driven in the second quarter of 2014, but it was still shy of the $1 billion in sales the pros were looking for this time around.
Investors would have been able to overlook it and move on, with FAST coming out of the earnings report relatively unscathed. However, the company explicitly pegged tepid demand from the oil and energy industry as a cause for the shortcoming. With no end to that slump in sight, the market deemed FAST to be worth a little less than it was just yesterday.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
