The seemingly never-ending concern about the eurozone made itself known again today, causing a broad sell-off across the market. Today's version centers on Greece rejecting further austerity measures and the frailty of the Spanish banking system as 10-year government bond rates rose for Spain and Italy. This is not to be confused with yesterday's version, where a similar Europe-induced sell-off fueled by election upheaval tanked all three major indexes.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at how the indexes are faring and drill down on a few stocks staying dry in today's tsunami.
|
Index |
Gain/Loss |
Gain/Loss % |
Intraday Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) | (68.08) | (0.53%) | 12,864.01 |
| Nasdaq (INDEX: ^IXIC) | (3.19) | (0.11%) | 2,943.08 |
| S&P 500 | (4.42) | (0.32%) | 1,359.30 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
The Dow is performing significantly worse than the other two major indexes, as all but four components are in negative territory. This marks the sixth straight decline for the index as it continues retreating beneath 13,000. Of those, only Disney (NYSE: DIS) is showing meaningful gains, climbing more than 2%.
Not even John Carter's epic dethroning of Waterworld as Hollywood's biggest flop could derail a tremendous quarter for Walt Disney. Profit rose 21%, a sequel to the blockbuster Avengers film was announced, and shares hit an all-time high this morning. The Avengers obviously will not show up until the Q3, but its $702 million worldwide gross after just two weeks has investors buzzing. Generally, it isn't wise to buy at a lifetime high price, but Disney is on a roll: Theme parks are humming, Pixar has a movie queued up for late June, and ESPN and the Disney channel continue to dominate. Investors could do a lot worse than taking a long look at this blue chip stock.
On the Nasdaq, SodaStream (Nasdaq: SODA) is making investors fizz after reporting a blowout quarter that sent shares soaring 24%. Thanks to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters' (Nasdaq: GMCR) horrific quarter that saw shares slashed in half, SodaStream -- pigeonholed as a similar lifestyle product -- felt the aftershocks as shares fell 16% during the past five days. But as fellow Fool Rick Munarriz surmised, it turns out the warm winter that Green Mountain claims hurt its business may have boosted SodaStream. Sales grew 50%, but thanks to higher-margin CO2 refills and price increases, adjusted income jumped 67%. The company also substantially raised guidance as not even European turmoil could derail demand for its product.
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