After Market: Stocks Tumble on Earnings, Ukraine Worries

DailyFinance Staff
Updated

Stocks tumbled Friday, giving back all of their gains for the week. Some disappointing earnings reports and mounting tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border sent stocks sharply lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) slid 140 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) lost 15 and the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) plunged 72 points.

The biggest loser on the Dow was Visa (V), tumbling 4.5 percent. Visa is the highest priced stock on the Dow 30, which is a weighted index, meaning its drop had a huge impact. The company's revenue was below expectations.

%VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks%Going online, Amazon.com (AMZN) tumbled 10 percent even though earnings were in line with expectations. But investors focused on rising expenses, and are less forgiving about the company's slim profit margins. So far this year, Amazon has lost 23 percent of its value.

Facebook (FB) lost 5 percent, Google (GOOG) declined 1.5 percent, Netflix (NFLX) all fell 6 percent, while Twitter (TWTR) dropped 7 percent. And travel sites -- Priceline Group (PCLN) and TripAdvisor (TRIP) -- were booked on a trip south; they both fell by more than 5 percent. HomeAway (AWAY), the online vacation rental firm, fell 10 percent.

Pandora Media (P) tumbled 16.5 percent after reporting another quarterly loss.

Transports were weak, with airlines, rail and package delivery stocks all stalling out. United Continental Holdings (UAL) lost 5 percent.

We've now passed the halfway point in the earning season.

  • Microsoft (MSFT) posted lower net, but it wasn't as bad as expected. The stock edged higher, which has to be considered a victory on a day like this.

  • Ford Motor (F) fell 3 percent. Earnings fell short of expectations as the company increased its warranty reserves for older models.

  • Chubb (CB) fell 2 percent. Its net was hurt by high weather-related insurance claims.

On the upside, for-profit education firm DeVry Education Group (DV) jumped 14 percent on stronger than expected earnings. And health care providers bucked the downtrend: Universal Health Services (UHS), Tenet Healthcare (THC) and Community Health Systems (CYH) all jumped by at least 6 percent.

Finally, the biotech firm Cytokinetics (CYTK) tumbled 65 percent after reporting disappointing results on a drug to treat Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS.

What to Watch Monday:

  • The National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales for March at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

  • The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas releases its April survey of manufacturing conditions in Texas.

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.

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