The stock market has had a strong correlation to the energy markets in recent months, and investors have generally taken good news in one arena to be good news for the other. That trend held true on Tuesday, with major market benchmarks climbing about 1% on the day following a better than 4% rise in the price of West Texas Intermediate crude to shoot above the $42 per barrel mark. As you'd expect, there were plenty of oil and gas-related companies on the top performers list, and Chesapeake Energy (CHK +0.00%) was among the top performers for the second straight day. But some non-energy stocks also did well, including Yandex (YNDX +4.08%) and Pier 1 Imports (PIR +0.00%).
Yandex rose 7% after getting favorable comments on the analyst front. Goldman Sachs set a price target on the Russian Internet search company of $19.90 per share, which would represent a better than 25% rise from where the shares closed Monday night. Even though the overall Russian economy has gone through major disruptions because of the plunge in the price of crude oil and other commodities, Goldman believes Yandex's business model should insulate it from some of the pressure on the emerging-market economy. Moreover, as investors get more comfortable with the various Internet properties Yandex controls, analysts believe the stock will earn a higher earnings multiple. Combine that with expectations for the U.S. dollar to give up ground against the Russian ruble, and you have a recipe for what could be further share-price gains.
Pier 1 Imports climbed 6%. Investors appear to be optimistic in advance of the retailer's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings release on Wednesday despite expectations for what could be a tough quarter. Current consensus forecasts project a 3% drop in revenue that cut could earnings per share nearly in half compared to the year-ago quarter, and investors following the stock expect Pier 1 to have trouble seeing sales grow in the coming year as well. However, a strong housing market should continue to support Pier 1's numbers, at least to some extent, and long-term shareholders are hopeful that earnings will start moving in the right direction in fiscal 2017. Pier 1 investors also hope that early projections for better comparable-store sales performance than initially feared will pan out and produce an earnings beat for the company as well.
Finally, Chesapeake Energy soared 34%, following up yesterday's 20% rise with another strong day. Climbing oil prices once again helped lift the struggling energy stock, but investors were also willing to do follow-through buying after yesterday's news about a favorable debt restructuring for the company. Analysts now believe the threat of an imminent bankruptcy has diminished substantially, and that has investors more optimistic about Chesapeake -- at least in the short run. Having bought itself about a year of breathing room, Chesapeake would benefit from more days like today in the oil market in order to give itself the fundamental strength to repay its debt and get itself moving forward once again.
