The 4 Stocks That Crushed the Market
thinkstockApril 4, 2014: Markets opened higher on Friday but turned indisputably south by mid-morning. Momentum stocks soured late in the morning, and added to woes in biotech and tech stocks. In the final minutes of trading the DJIA was down…
April 4, 2014: Markets opened higher on Friday but turned indisputably south by mid-morning. Momentum stocks soured late in the morning, and added to woes in biotech and tech stocks. In the final minutes of trading the DJIA was down 0.85%, the S&P 500 was down 1.13%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 2.43%.
Today’s market mover among the DJIA stocks was Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) which dropped 3.22% and traded at $208.08 in a 52-week range of $161.27 to to $235.50. Volume was on track to be roughly 30% higher than the daily average of around 3.3 million shares traded. Visa lost out to MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) in a contest to replace Discover as the branded Walmart credit cards. And don’t forget Walmart sued Visa for $5 billion earlier this week.
Another non-performer today was Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) which traded down 2.5% at $40.00 in a 52-week range of $28.11 to $41.66. Today’s dip in the momentum tech stocks is likely carrying over to the big tech companies as well. Volume was about 15% higher than the daily average of around 39 million shares traded.
On of the momentum stocks losing ground today was Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) which dropped 4.39%, to trade around $56.88 in a 52-week range of $22.67 to $72.59. Share volume was almost double the daily average of around 61 million shares traded.
Even Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was caught up in the tech downturn. The company reported good earnings last night and put up a positive outlook. Shares opened higher but nothing could slow down the tech dive. Shares traded at $22.52, down 6.17% ahead of the closing bell, in a 52-week range of $9.04 to $25.68. Volume was more than double the daily average of 32 million shares traded.
Of the Dow 30 stocks only 4 are set to close higher today and 26 are on their way to a lower close.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.