Three Stocks That Got Crushed on a Very Bad Day for U.S. Markets

Markets Oil Stocks
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So much for that June rally. U.S. markets are getting crushed today on poor economic data out of Europe and China surfaced.

Business activity in the euro zone and manufacturing in China are contracting in June, spurring a global pullback for stocks. U.S. markets aren’t being spared. The Nasdaq was Thursday’s biggest offender, falling 2.1%. The S&P 500 dropped an even 2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.7% – a 220-point drop.

For all three indices, today marked the biggest one-day drop-off all month. 

Today’s losses were so great, in fact, that they erased much of the progress U.S. markets had made over the first three weeks of June. Entering the day, all three major U.S. indices had surged roughly 3.5% in June. Now those gains have been reduced to little more than one percentage point.

But the losses the U.S. markets suffered today pale in comparison to the 4% drop-off in oil. The cost of a barrel of oil fell more than $3 today to dip below the $80 mark for the first time since early October. That’s good news for anyone who drives a car, but bad news for oil investors.

Amid all of Thursday’s doom and gloom, some companies had it worse than others. Here are three high-profile stocks that got especially crushed today:

  • Bed Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY): Talk about falling off a cliff. Shares of the home goods seller nosedived 17% today after issuing an earnings outlook that fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations. The company reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings today, which actually beat analyst expectations 89 cents per share to 84 cents per share. But in its second quarter, BBBY said it expects to earn between 97 cents and $1.03 per share – below the $1.08 per share analysts were looking for.
  • Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR): The downward spiral continues for this once-prominent specialty coffee stock. GMCR shares fell another 8% today, bringing the stock’s 2012 losses to a mind-boggling 56%.
  • Freeport-McMoran (NYSE: FCX): The copper and gold miner fell 6.5% today as both commodities plummeted against a rising dollar. Copper retreated to a two-week low, while gold prices dipped back below $1,600 an ounce.
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