Image: GoPro.
Stocks overall suffered from another case of the Monday blues this week, and major market benchmarks fell between 1% and 2% after recovering from what had been much steeper losses earlier in the day. The usual suspects of unstable energy prices and concerns about the global economy caused international stock markets to fall before Wall Street opened Monday morning, and further downward pressure after the open pushed many stocks down hard. Yet a few bright spots still shined through, and GoPro (GPRO 5.62%), Goldcorp (GG), and Outerwall (OUTR) managed to climb significantly on Monday.
GoPro rose more than 10% in the wake of an announcement late Friday of a licensing deal with Microsoft (MSFT 1.58%). The arrangement has to do with file storage intellectual property, and Microsoft said that its agreement with GoPro "shows the incredible breadth of technology sharing enabled through patent transactions."
Neither company released specific terms of the deal, but GoPro clearly has an interest in making sure that its wearable technology offerings have state-of-the-art capabilities, and Microsoft hopes to "partner with companies from all industries to optimize solutions for their customers around the globe." Given how far GoPro shares have fallen, the agreement at least represents a vote of confidence from Microsoft that the camera maker is worth taking on as a partner.
Goldcorp jumped 7% on a good day for gold miners, generally. Gold prices jumped more than $16 per ounce, briefly climbing over the $1,200 mark for the first time since the middle of 2015. Uncertainty in the financial markets has pushed investors back toward precious metals as a safe haven, and weakness in the U.S. dollar against key currencies such as the euro and the Japanese yen has finally reversed the prevailing trends in the foreign exchange markets for the first time in more than a year. If the dollar keeps weakening, then gold could continue its climb, and that would be good news not just for Goldcorp, but also for the mining industry, generally.
Finally, Outerwall gained 11%, climbing back partially from its 17% plunge on Friday. The company behind Redbox video kiosks and Coinstar coin-exchange machines reported fourth-quarter results late last week that disappointed investors. But reports this morning indicated that Outerwall was the target of activist investor activity from Glenn Welling's Engaged Capital, which wants the Redbox and Coinstar operator to make its business more attractive to potential private equity investors.
Possible measures could include boosting its dividend, cutting various costs, and making efforts to expand existing initiatives to grow more extensively. Outerwall has had activist investors take interest in the company before, but shareholders might be ready to be more cooperative after the losses that Outerwall shares have suffered during the past six months.
