The same nervousness about the fiscal cliff that has pervaded trading for weeks reared its ugly head today, and unlike yesterday, there was no late-day recovery to moderate the losses. The Dow Jones Industrials (^DJI 0.41%) closed down 158 points, with most of that loss coming in the last half-hour of trading as few traders felt comfortable holding stocks into the weekend. All 30 Dow stocks fell, although American Express came closest with just a 0.05% loss.
But outside the Dow, a number of stocks managed to post some significant gains. Herbalife (HLF 1.01%) gained almost 4%, extending its three-day recovery after short-seller Bill Ackman sent the stock plunging last week with a presentation that accused the company of being a pyramid scheme. Even with today's gains, Herbalife shares remain down by more than a third in just the past two weeks.
LeapFrog Entertainment (LF.DL) jumped more than 4%. The maker of educational toys has been riding high on the back of its LeapPad 2 tablet, and even though the company has seen some competition from Toys R Us, its strong reputation and first-mover status give it fundamental strength that more than justifies its quite reasonable earnings multiple.
Yongye International (NASDAQ: YONG) soared more than 15% on news that it received a loan to fund a planned deal to go private. With the Chinese fertilizer maker under consistent scrutiny from skeptics, an investor group including the company's chairman and CEO as well as Morgan Stanley (MS 0.49%) offered to buy out shareholders for $6.60 per share back in October. With this financing, the buyout is one step closer to happening, although shares are still trading more than 13% below the offer price.
