Today's 3 Worst Stocks
While Wall Street's main focus yesterday and today has centered on the somewhat vague sentiments of Federal Reserve officials not named Ben Bernanke, tomorrow's market will almost certainly be driven by the chairman's address to the Senate. The big issue at hand is how long quantitative easing will continue; on Tuesday, investors seemed optimistic it would continue for some time, as the S&P 500 Index rose 2 points, or 0.2%, to close at 1,669, an all-time high. Unfortunately, there were no highs, much less all-time highs, for the following three S&P stocks today.
Oftentimes, stocks can sell off for no tangible reason. GameStop's 5.1% haircut today, on the other hand, made complete sense. Microsoft's newest console, the Xbox One, was unveiled today, and its new features deal a hard blow to GameStop's lucrative business model of reselling used games. On the new Xbox, the user will install games to the hard drive from the disk, which probably means registering a game to an account, and paying through Microsoft -- not GameStop -- to register the same game to a different account.
Best Buy was hit by a double-whammy on Tuesday, slipping 4.4%. The struggling consumer-electronics retailer reported $81 million in losses in the most recent quarter, a far cry from the nearly $160 million profit it racked up just a year ago. The second negative stems from the same issue affecting GameStop: Best Buy, too, is in the business of reselling used video games. In other words, it's a business staring down impending obsolescence.
Lastly, shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold lost 2.7% today. The mineral exploration company is dealing with fallout from a tragic and deadly collapse of a tunnel at a mine in Indonesia, in which 28 laborers have been confirmed dead. The location is the second-largest copper mine in the world; Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson has expressed his sympathies and has been visiting with survivors since the accident.
The electronics market is rapidly changing, and as the battle between bricks-and-mortar stores and e-commerce rages on, Best Buy is caught in the middle. After what might have been its most tumultuous year in history, there are now even more unanswered questions about the future for the big-box electronics retailer. How will new leadership perform? Will a smaller store format work out for both the company and its brave investors? Should you be one such brave investor? To help answer all these questions, The Motley Fool has released a premium research report detailing the opportunities -- and the risks -- in store for Best Buy. Simply click here now to claim your comprehensive report today.
The article Today's 3 Worst Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor John Divine has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter, @divinebizkid, and on Motley Fool CAPS, @TMFDivine.The Motley Fool owns shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, GameStop, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't 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.
Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
