Only 19 Stocks in the S&P 500 Are in the Green for the Past Month
11 March 2020 - 7:15AM
Dow Jones News
By Karen Langley
Investors looking for places to hide in the stock-market rout
have few options.
Only 19 stocks in the S&P 500 are up over the past month,
and many of those have something in common: they have seen demand
jump as Americans brace for the quickly spreading coronavirus
epidemic.
The top five performers in the index over the past month through
Tuesday afternoon are Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., up 21%;
Kroger Co., up 13%; Cabot Oil & Gas Co., up 12%; AutoZone Inc.,
up 7.9%; and Newmont Corp., up 7.4%.
Farther down the list of winners: Dollar General Corp., Take-Two
Interactive Software Inc., Campbell Soup Co., Advance Auto Parts
Inc., Clorox Co. and Walmart Inc. Most are getting a bump as
consumers prepare to hunker down at home if the outbreak
accelerates.
The stock moves look like a reaction to "the pantry-loading
that's going on as people are preparing to hunker down, more than
anything on the long-term fundamentals of those businesses," said
Andy Braun, a portfolio manager at Pax World Funds.
The S&P 500 as a whole is down 16% over the past month, and
all 11 sectors are in the red. The breadth of the downturn is wide:
459 of the 505 constituents in the S&P 500 are down at least
10% from their 52-week high, while 311 are down at least 20%,
according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Eight of the 10 biggest decliners in the index are
energy-related stocks, which have tumbled sharply in conjunction
with a plunge in oil prices as the coronavirus zaps demand. The
biggest losers over the past month are Occidental Petroleum Corp.,
off 66%; Apache Corp., off 63%; and Marathon Oil Corp., off
63%.
The only names on that list outside the energy sector: Norwegian
Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., down 61%, and Royal Caribbean Cruises
Ltd., down 53%.
Many of the month's winners sit in the S&P 500's
consumer-staples group, which has posted the smallest losses of the
11 sectors over the past month. The segment is seen as relatively
insulated from economic downturns because consumers rarely put off
purchases of essentials like food and diapers.
Among the other gainers, Regeneron has been racing to develop an
antibody treatment for the virus. Chief Financial Officer Robert
Landry said at a conference last week that the company intends to
have the lead antibodies manufactured and ready for clinical trial
use this summer.
Meanwhile, gas producer Cabot has rallied as investors bet the
drop in crude will reduce the supply of natural gas, thereby
raising prices. Gold miner Newmont has risen alongside the price of
the precious metal as investors have rushed into safe-haven assets.
And Take-Two has gotten a boost from expectations for higher
videogaming demand when consumers are stuck at home.
Write to Karen Langley at karen.langley@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 10, 2020 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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