The stock market fell on Tuesday, with losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average weighing down a broader market that was a lot closer to the unchanged level. A rise early in the day gave way to greater uncertainty later when President Trump signaled that an expected meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might not actually happen, but some on Wall Street also noted the need to consolidate recent sharp gains with a quieter day of trading. Bad news from some corners of the market also affected sentiment. Toll Brothers (TOL 1.44%), AutoZone (AZO 2.69%), and Cameco (CCJ 3.99%) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.
Toll Brothers gets the earnings blues
Shares of Toll Brothers fell nearly 10% following the release of the company's fiscal second-quarter financial report. The luxury homebuilder pointed to solid sales fundamentals, including a 17% rise in revenue and a 15% jump in homebuilding deliveries. Toll Brothers also said it had the highest net signed contract value in its history. Strong backlogs of more than 7,000 units worth $6.36 billion were also among the homebuilder's best performances ever, but investors seemed to focus on Toll Brothers' 10% decline in net income. The company pointed to rising raw materials costs as weighing on its bottom line, and that combined with rising interest rates could put pressure on Toll Brothers and the housing market more broadly.
Image source: Toll Brothers.
AutoZone hits the brakes
AutoZone stock also dropped 9.5% in the wake of its fiscal third-quarter financial results. The auto-parts retailer's shares initially responded positively to its business performance, which included an 11% rise in net income and a 17% jump in earnings per share compared to the year-earlier quarter. Yet investors didn't seem entirely satisfied by AutoZone's tepid 1.6% rise in net sales, which stemmed largely from sluggish same-store sales growth of just 0.6%. Yet the company also told analysts on its quarterly conference call that it was facing some pressure on the expense front, with wage increases potentially eating into profitability gains. With AutoZone having faced tough conditions in the recent past, investors want a clearer turnaround before they'll have full confidence going forward.
Cameco could see competition
Finally, shares of Cameco finished down almost 7%. The uranium specialist got bad news from a couple of sources. Analysts at RBC Capital downgraded Cameco from outperform to sector perform. Additionally, a commentary in The Wall Street Journal highlighted a potential competitive threat to the uranium producer's shares, as a potential rival could get a hearing from the U.S. Supreme Court. State regulators in Virginia had blocked development of the uranium mine, which could have 120 million pounds of reserves, but the prospects for a federal court overruling those limitations had investors in Cameco worried about new potential oversupply problems. Cameco has already had to deal with low prices in the uranium market, and the new threat only makes the future cloudier for the company.
