Why Seagate Technology, Alder Biopharmaceuticals, and Avis Budget Group Slumped Today
The stock market fell on Tuesday, with more extensive losses than investors have seen in quite a while. The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 100 points, or just over 1.6%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrials had more modest declines. Negative comments from central bank leaders in the U.S. and Europe added to concerns about the ability of the Trump administration to move forward on its business-friendly domestic agenda, weighing down the market. Certain company-specific news sent some individual stocks down much more sharply, and Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX), Alder Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALDR), and Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ: CAR) were among the worst performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so poorly.
Seagate falls in sympathy
Shares of Seagate Technology declined 7%, following in the footsteps of its main rival in storage devices despite news that ordinarily might have sounded positive. Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) preannounced last night that its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings would be better than it had initially expected. The company cited strong demand for its storage products, especially in the flash-memory and high capacity hard-drive markets. Yet investors seemed to be less than satisfied with the news, and the fact that Western Digital only repeated its full-year outlook rather than boosting it showed some reluctance to project solid growth forward. Western Digital bounced back from most of its losses earlier in the session, but Seagate investors seemed to want even better industry news following a tough period in its most recent quarter back in April.
Alder's headache drug might not be a winner
Alder Biopharmaceuticals stock plunged 28% after the company released mixed results from a phase 3 trial of migraine-treatment candidate eptinezumab. Many industry followers were pleased with the study results, because they indicated statistically significant impacts in reducing the number of migraine headaches per month in its patients. However, the magnitude of the benefit wasn't as strong as most were hoping to see, and that could make it difficult for Alder to persuade medical professionals to choose eptinezumab over existing treatments even if it does manage to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If Alder can't demonstrate bigger advantages in its drug, then it will face difficulty dislodging already available treatments from regular use.
Avis Budget gives back some gains
Finally, shares of Avis Budget Group dropped 8%. The downward move gave back more than half of yesterday's gains for the car rental company, which soared after announcing a deal to supply fleet support and maintenance to the self-driving car business Waymo. The stock rose yesterday on the idea that a fleet of self-driving cars could be a huge boon for Avis, because it could reposition vehicles to wherever they're needed. Moreover, Waymo sees the benefit of Avis' expertise in maintenance and fleet operations. However, today's drop seems to recognize the amount of competition in the autonomous vehicle space and the potential for problems that could offset some of the positives of the arrangement for Avis.
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Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Western Digital. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.