5 of Last Week's Biggest Losers

Updated

There's never a shortage of losers in the stock market.

Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest sinkers.

Company

Sep. 23

Weekly Loss

My Watchlist

SIGA Technologies (NAS: SIGA)

$2.94

(43%)

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Keegan Resources (ASE: KGN)

$5.34

(43%)

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Stillwater Mining (NYS: SWC)

$8.59

(35%)

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Pacific Biosciences of California (NAS: PACB)

$4.04

(33%)

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Cheniere Energy (ASE: LNG)

$5.07

(31%)

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Source: Barron's.

SIGA was Nasdaq's biggest loser after a court ruled that it must split the profits on a promising smallpox drug with PharmAthene (ASE: PIP) . Then again, it was such a bad week for the market in general that PharamAthene -- after initially spiking on the news -- also lost ground on the week.

Miners were major casualties during a week that saw investors lose interest in precious metals. Vancouver-based gold miner Keegan and platinum and palladium specialist Stillwater were among the commodity sector's biggest sinkers.

Pacific Biosciences was more DOA than DNA last week after announcing layoffs that would reduce its payroll by 28%. Pacific Biosciences has a shot at revolutionizing the industry with its cost-effective genetic testing, but it obviously isn't doing so well if it feels the need to dramatically shave its overhead.

Finally, we have Cheniere, feeling the pain after revealing a strategic equity offering sales agreement with Miller Tabak that could result in the sale of up to 10 million shares. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with raising capital, but it's the wrong time to hit existing shareholders with the prospects of dilution.

It was a rough week for these five stocks. Let's see if they bounce back.

At the time thisarticle was published Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Pacific Biosciences of California. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz calls them as he sees them. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story. Rick is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

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