24/7 Wall St.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit yet another all-time high on Thursday, August 11, 2016. What is amazing is that the rising tide did not actually lift all ships. There were over 20 companies which hit 52-week lows, and there were 4 big disappointments of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks that severely lagged the market. If these would have done better, perhaps the new DJIA high of 18,638.34 could have been even closer to 18,700.

As a reminder, the markets have risen and risen in 2016 and the bull market is now well over 7 years old. August is generally a weaker period for stocks. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is so low at 11.68 that what is normally the ‘fear index’ is now the ‘complacency index.’ Expecting a correction would not be out of the realm of possibilities, but the Dow could hit 20,000 now just with 7 expected stock gains alone.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18,613.31, up 117.65 or 0.64%.
• The S&P 500 closed at 2,185.79, up 10.29 or 0.47%.
• NASDAQ closed unofficially at 5,234.47, up 23.81 or 0.57%.

24/7 Wall St. wanted to identify the 5 Dow stocks which did not really act to drive the Dow to new highs. Some of these had miniscule gains and some were just in the red. Color and trading history has been added on each.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) managed to close down 9-cents at $97.77. Sadly, the Mouse House just could not hold on to its post-earnings gains from the prior trading day’s 1-percent-plus gain to $97.86. Walt Disney’s 52-week range is $86.25 to $120.65. Disney’s performance year-to-date is -6.2%.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) closed at $31.29, up a mere $0.02 on the day. While this is technically a gain, the reality is that GE shares were in the red column for much of the trading day. Valuations and concerns about how GE will really get to that mystical $2.00 in earnings per share in 2018 remain. GE was last seen trading up just 2% so far in 2016, but that is up over 25% from a year ago.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) also remains stuck in the mud, posting a mere $0.02 gain to $35.15 on Thursday. Meanwhile, rival Merck was up 1.6%, which just indicates less enthusiasm here for Pfizer. The drug giant’s stock is up almost 12% so far in 2016 (versus over 20% gains for Merck).

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) managed to tack on a mere $0.05 gain to $53.86, but that hardly looks impressive for such a high yield telecom stock. Rival and former DJIA stock AT&T closed up over 0.4% on the day, so this is just a tale of fewer buyers than some investors might have expected. Verizon shares are up 20% so far in 2016.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) shares closed at $73.80, down $0.15 or -0.2%. Wal-Mart has recovered handily from its lows, but now shares are close to the high of the 52-week range of $56.30 to $74.80. What was interesting about this move is that some of the retail segment was significantly higher on Thursday. Wal-Mart just wasn’t in that group, but its bounce of a sharp 23% so far in 2016 is still impressive.