Why Did My Stock Just Die?

Your stock just took a nosedive -- but don't panic. First, let's see whether it had good reason to fall. Sometimes, panic-fueled drops can make excellent buying opportunities. Here's the latest crop of cratered stocks that could provide a possibility for profit:

The market made a quick reversal, bouncing back up 109 points, or 1%, after Friday's 115-point decline. So stocks that went down by even larger percentages are pretty big deals.

The devil's in the details
After a 42% drop on Friday, the market wasn't done inflicting pain on Pain Therapeutics over the failure of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to win Food and Drug Administration approval for Remoxy. Yesterday's decline was due to PT clarifying the reason why the regulatory agency issued a complete response letter: It was worried about the drug's chemistry, manufacturing, and controls. Pfizer had previously said manufacturing issues might hamper its ability to get approval, but this seems to have gone beyond that, and Pain Therapeutics says it may take a year or more to work through the concerns.

A third partner, Durect (Nasdaq: DRRX), wasn't as badly affected as it was after Friday's announcement. Its stock was down less than 10%.

Just before last week's bad news, CAPS member quinpeung had said the FDA had become too conservative to approve such drugs and correctly bet it would reject its approval. Yet it creates something of a conundrum for drugmakers, which are under pressure from the agency to produce drugs that resist an addict's ability to extract the active ingredients.

Remoxy was Pain Therapeutics' solution to abusers extracting the active compounds from oxycodone. The taffy-like capsule resisted efforts to snort, inject, or otherwise get a quick high from it. While the agency might not be able to approve drugs if it has issues with safety, it's almost like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown just as he goes to kick it. The FDA says it wants drugmakers to make these compounds, but it crushes them with a complete response letter at just the last second.

Tell us on the Pain Therapeutics CAPS page if it can recover from this latest fumble.

Good wood
It's difficult to see the forest for the trees in the quarterly earnings report of Universal Forest Products. Higher fuel costs and volatile lumber prices contributed to a 10% decline in year-over-year sales for the first five months of 2011, including a 15% decline to retail customers.

It wasn't all that long ago I recall going into a local big-box do-it-yourself warehouse and seeing the price of OSB plywood more than double what it had been just a month or two prior. Rather than pay the inflated price, I decided not to make the purchase.

Today, the OSB's price tag has normalized, but roller-coaster rides like that are going to play havoc with Universal Forest, as well as Trex (NYSE: TREX) and Louisiana-Pacific. The former suffered a similar 9% plunge in value yesterday while LP was down just 1%. However the latter's stock sits 35% below its 52-week high achieved just this past February.

CAPS member surabayajhonny had hoped a surprise housing rebound would boost Universal Forest as well, but that industry remains as moribund as it ever was. Chip in on the Universal Forest Products CAPS page and tell us whether you think the company has some life left in it.

No rising tide
You know that old saw that joining a market index is good for the stock because all the institutional investors have to pile in so they can track the index and end up bidding up the price? Well, meet Great Panther Resources, the exception to the rule.

It joined the Russell Global Index last Friday after the market closed, and with investors all anticipating the big run-up in price today, were disappointed to see a 9% decline instead. It just goes to show that rules of thumb are just that, maxims to consider but not investing rules to follow.

More important for Great Panther is the persistent decline in silver prices over the past week. After breaching $36 an ounce again, silver closed down sharply today, ending trading below $34 an ounce. Somehow, precious metal traders are thinking the worst of the Greek financial tragedy is over, and there's no longer a need to seek out safe havens like gold and silver. Great Panther might have fallen the hardest among silver plays, but it wasn't alone, and Coeur D'Alene Mines (NYSE: CDE) was about the only company that managed any gains.

Although it's a silver stock off the beaten path, CAPS member rexlove continues to see Great Panther as an inflation hedge. Add the big cat to the Fool's free portfolio tracker and see if it ends up playing the European financial crisis as a Greek comedy instead.

Ready for a resurrection
Just because your stock has taken a beating doesn't mean it's going to roll over and die. Markets are known for overreacting. A closer look on Motley Fool CAPS at what's happened to your stock can give you an edge over other investors who just react to the market's lead. You can decide for yourself whether it's ready to come back from the dead.