It was a holiday-shortened week, but it didn't lack for fireworks. Greece and the leaders of the eurozone finally reached an agreement that will funnel new bailout funds to the heavily indebted nation and allow it to avoid a messy default -- at least for now. But if that should have given the market a nice shot in the arm, optimism was tempered as the continued drumbeat of weak economic performance throughout the rest of the eurozone continued. The major U.S. indexes finished in the black for the week, but the gains were very moderate.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
The 3 Worst-Performing Sectors
Russell 3000 Sector |
Weekly Price Change |
Month-to-Date Price Change |
---|---|---|
Financials | (0.6%) | 4.2% |
Consumer Staples | (0.3%) | 2.9% |
Consumer Discretionary | (0.2%) | 5% |
Source: S&P Capital IQ. Weekly price change is Feb. 17-Feb. 24. Monthly price change is Jan. 31-Feb. 24.
The week started poorly for airline operator US Airways
The good news for electronic-display system manufacturer Daktronics
The 3 Worst-Performing Russell 3000 Companies
Company |
Weekly Price Change |
---|---|
US Airways | (18.4%) |
Tessera Technologies | (18%) |
Daktronics | (17.9%) |
Source: S&P Capital IQ. Weekly price change is Feb. 17-Feb. 24. Includes only companies with market caps of $250 million or more.
Also among the week's worst performers were Deckers Outdoor
Meanwhile, Germany made the outlook for First Solar and other solar-energy stocks decidedly less sunny when the solar-supporting country cut its feed-in tariffs. As my fellow Fool Travis Hoium pointed out, there had been rumors for weeks that this was coming, and the rumors had pretty much nailed the size of the cut. Nonetheless, investors threw a tantrum after the announcement and clobbered solar stocks broadly. First Solar finished the week with a fresh 13% decline.
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