Home / Markets
Friday, November 21, 2008
Market Winners & Losers: Gap, Citigroup
David O'Brien
FOXBusiness
What a day to end the week! Amid a flurry of Cabinet appointments, the market rallied to close the week up an average of 6.01%. Here are a few of the day’s winners and losers.
Winners:
Prologis (PLD)
The bleeding has stopped, at least momentarily. With news of an all-star team being assembled in Washington, the stock made a last-minute rally. That’s good news for a company that was setting new 52-week lows daily. The stock closed at $3.04 an increase of 76 cents, or 33%.
Gap Inc. (GPS)
Retailers on the whole saw gains in the market. Gap can thank its better-than-expected third-quarter earnings for its nearly 30% jump. The company pulled in $246 million last quarter, which helped the stock bounce off its lows of the year. It finished trading at $12.10, a gain of $2.59 a share.
Lincoln National Corp. (LNC)
The financial sector took a big jump with reports of Tim Geithner being tapped as Treasury Secretary. The stock made a strong push during the final minutes of trading to finish up $1.32, or 26%, to end the week trading at $6.39.
Newmont Mining Corp (NEM)
As crude prices fell, gold rose, and Newmont made a 25% surge to end the week. The mining giant gained $5.79 a share to finish trading at $28.79.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (S)
The global communications giant rebounded after setting a 52-week low yesterday, rising 34 cents -- 25% -- on Friday to close out the week at $1.71.
Losers:
Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (DDR)
It still does not pay to be in real estate. The investment company’s stock set another 52-week low, but a last-minute rally helped it close at $2.75, losing just 75 cents on the day.
Citigroup Inc. (C)
There seems to be little the company can do to halt the landslide. The stock set another low today as shares tumbled another 20%. Though CEO Vikram Pandit tried to boost morale this morning, not even his kind words could stop the stock from closing down 94 cents at $3.77.
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK)
Despite a rise in third-quarter profit, the software designer turned around and lowered fourth-quarter guidance, driving the stock down 14.57%. The stock followed a trend and set a new 52-week low today, closing $2.45, or 15%, lower at $14.37.
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG)
This stock, which has been struggling lately, dropped another 11%. Since becoming a thrift, shares have dropped nearly 60%. Shares finished trading on the week at $4.95, a loss of 62%.
KeyCorp (KEY)
After lowering its dividend, the stock dropped considerably but managed to finish the day down only 9.23%. The stock's performance marked another new 52-week low, closing 64 cents lower at $6.27.
FOX Translator
No data currently available.
No data currently available.
Everyone would agree they see more "Made in Taiwan/China/Japan/etc..."tags than "Made in the USA" tags for the past several years. Well, that "Made in _____" tag on your clothing has an economic term sewn into it: trade deficit. A trade deficit happens when one country buys more goods than it sells to other countries.
For example, if the entire United States (all 300
million of us) made only 100 shirts this year, and if all of China made 100 shirts, some of those shirts would be traded between
us- we would sell a few to China, and vice versa. But a trade deficit happens when one country sells more shirts than another.
China, in this example, could sell 85 shirts to America. The U.S. could sell 55 shirts to China. So, in this trade, China
sold more shirts to the United States, 30 more in fact.
Most businessmen and economists believe that most trade deficits
aren't a bad thing; it's just part of trade, and at some point trade between two countries should balance out eventually.
The big exception is the U.S., which buys vastly more stuff than it sells, and has done so for decades.
Why does this matter? Well, in order to buy those shirts, you need money. And if you are buying more shirts than you're selling shirts, you're losing money. If you're a business, you won't be in business much longer.
But, countries aren't businesses. They are, well, countries, and can print all the money they want. People who deal with currencies, or each country's version of money, look at trade deficits as one way to find out how much each country's currency is worth. If you have to print more money, each dollar you print can possibly lower the value of the other dollars out there. Like stocks, you can buy and sell currencies on what's called the foreign-exchange market (or, if you want a buzzword for the office, say Forex market).
Well, because the U.S. has been buying a lot of stuff from China for many, many years, China holds a lot of U.S. dollars. If China were to sell those dollars on the market at some point, well, it wouldn't be very good. The U.S. dollar's value would fall -- making imports and traveling abroad much more expensive.
Trade deficits are usually a good thing, because it shows that the global economy is working. It's just when a trade imbalance gets too high where economists and investors start to become concerned.
