Last week brought new meaning to the saying, "Sell in May and go away." Concerns about a mounting debt crisis in Europe and a technical trading glitch threw markets for a loop of historic proportions. The S&P 500 plummeted 75 points last week, or 6.4%, to 1,110.88.
Pops and drops
Here are last week's five biggest S&P 500 upticks and drops (measured Friday close to Friday close):
Winners on the week:
|
Company |
Percentage Gain |
|---|---|
|
Fidelity National Information Services |
9.4% |
|
Dr Pepper Snapple Group |
9.1% |
|
Hasbro |
1.6% |
|
Kraft Foods |
1.6% |
|
Teradata |
1.2% |
Source: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's).
Losers on the week:
|
Company |
Percentage Loss |
|---|---|
|
JDS Uniphase |
(19.7%) |
|
Dow Chemical |
(17.3%) |
|
Masco |
(15.8%) |
|
ProLogis |
(15.5%) |
|
First Solar |
(14.9%) |
Source: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's).
A closer look
While the broader market looked like a slow-motion crash last week, individual bright spots shone through. Shares of Fidelity National Information Services finished last week higher, after reports that a consortium of private equity firms, including Blackstone, TPG Capital and Thomas H. Lee, are in talks to acquire the financial-data processor. The potential deal shows signs of life in the sidelined private equity business, and it could mark the largest leveraged buyout since the credit crisis.
Shares of Kraft rose after the food titan posted a strong first quarter. Kraft's recent acquisition of Cadbury, favorable foreign exchange rates, and a gain from the divestiture of its pizza business all helped its numbers. Emerging markets also continue to offer the company's biggest sources of growth. But as my Foolish colleague Mike Pienciak points out, it's arguably more important that Kraft's base business saw volume/product mix overwhelmingly drive the majority of organic sales growth.
In other company news within the food and beverage space, Dr Pepper Snapple Group reported earnings (excluding a tax charge) that trumped analysts' expectations, and raised its outlook for the year. Although the maker of beverages such as Dr Pepper and 7UP reported lower-than-projected revenue because of weaker consumer spending, the company did state that it saw improvement in consumer trends toward the end of the first quarter and into the second quarter. Dr Pepper Snapple noted that it expects the second half of the year to be much stronger than the first half. The company said it also saw underlying strong demand for its beverages, as evidenced by an increase in bottler case sales.
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