Our story last night after Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) reported shares down more than -37% after the company screwed up in just about every possible way. It got even worse today, with shares plummeting even further, down nearly -49% with an hour or so of trading still to go.

Green Mountain’s partner in some products and competitor in others, Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), isn’t getting beaten up too badly because its deal with Green Mountain isn’t critical to the Seattle-based giant. One stock that is getting beaten up is Coffee Holding Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: JVA), down about -12%. Coffee Holding Co. is one of Green Mountain’s main suppliers, not a good thing to be today.

Among the many issues Green Mountain listed in its earnings report last night was higher coffee prices. That seems a little disingenuous. Coffee prices today are hovering around $1.75/pound for Arabica, down from more than $3/pound just a year ago. Green Mountain must have bought a mountain of the stuff and saved it until now in order to be blaming coffee prices, which have been falling almost non-stop since a September peak at around $2.90/pound.

Green Mountain’s trading volume today tops 73 million shares, more than 13x average daily volume. Shares are down -49.4% at $25.08 after posting a new 52-week low of $24.40. The prior range was $39.42-$115.98. Coffee Holding Co. shares are down about -12.6% at $7.67 in a 52-week range of $5.63-$30.98. Volume is only slightly higher than normal.

Paul Ausick

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