Market Insights

First-quarter earnings season is pretty much over, so it’s a good time to review some big movers in the S&P 500.

First, the losers between the first big report on April 12 and yesterday:

• Mylan (MYL) fell the most during the period, down 34 percent. Market Insights laid out the road map for in early March, and the generic-drug maker has followed it closely. Pricing and volumes are going in the wrong direction, resulting in less earnings to pay interest. A toxic mix. Will it get any better as politicians on both sides of the aisle turn against Big Pharma?
• Foot Locker (FL) dropped 32 percent. It looked like a breakout story after the holidays, but then store traffic headed south. Costs are on the rise and management warned about tariffs.
• Fluor (FLR) plunged 30 percent. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Results missed estimates and the CEO jumped ship.
• Kohl’s (KSS) crashed 27 percent as the department-store operator continued to struggle in the digital age.

Stocks That Rallied After Earnings

Here are the winners:

• Coty (COTY) rose 16 percent. The parent of CoverGirl borrowed to fund acquisitions, and is finally reaping the benefit of that expansion. Did you know COTY is the best performing member of the S&P 500 this year? Call it a cosmetics comeback story.
• Monster Beverage (MNST) rose 15 percent. Charging more for products is a great business strategy when it works, and it worked for MNST last quarter. Naysayers worried about increased competition were silenced.
• Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) rose 15 percent. The video-game maker initially dropped on weak backward-looking results. However, investors were more optimistic on the future prospect for titles including NBA 2K.
• American International Group (AIG) rose 14 percent. A member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average before the financial crisis, the insurance giant beat estimates as its core business improved. Other companies in its industry, with little China or tariff exposure, have also outperformed recently.
  

We like recapping the moves around quarterly results because few other events give a better indication of how a business is doing. Investors and analysts focus on the numbers and hear directly from management. The market gives a clear sense of who’s gaining or losing traction.

One more detail: This post only looked at stocks that moved because of results. Other names, like Total Systems (TSS), moved on merger news.

Market Insights breaks down results every Thursday during earnings season. We’ll resume in mid-July when the major financials like JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) issue their numbers.