Posted on May - 07 - 2010
Rattled: Week ends on a down note for most Memphis public companies
Most Memphis companies ended Friday trading lower than they did Thursday, one of the most volatile days ever on Wall Street.
Friday trading got off to a choppy start on the Dow Jones that led to a gradual decline that landed at 10,379 at the bell, down 1.43 percent from Thursday’s close.
Standard and Poor’s closed down 1.49 percent from Thursday. The Nasdaq lost 54 points, or 2.33 percent.
While rumors and theories — from a typo to the fear of European financial instability — about Thursday’s drastic fall abounded Friday, things were getting back to normal.
Jay Suskind works in the New York area as a senior vice president for the Memphis-based financial services firm Duncan-Williams Inc. He said there was still some nervousness on Friday, “but not a panic like a big sell-off.”
Still, the government’s unemployment figures, which the market normally focuses on each first Friday, were merely an afterthought this day, Suskind said. Traders were more concerned with how Europe traded, how Asia traded overnight and what on earth happened Thursday.
“I’ve been in the business 25 years and never seen anything like that 20-minute drop-off,” he said of the stock market.
He believes the rules structuring the market may need to be tweaked so that automated, speedy selling is tempered with the human touch.
Overall, the market fell 4 to 5 percent Thursday and Friday. “But we’ve had such a strong market over three or four months, the normal correction inside a bull market is 5 to 10 percent,” Suskind said.
Most Memphis public companies lost ground Friday:
Verso Paper lost the most of all publicly traded Memphis companies on Friday. Company shares were down 6.95 percent at the close due in part to a disappointing earnings report earlier in the week.
Wright Medical Group shares were down 5.21 percent at the close. Shares were trading at $17.65 by day’s end, 97 cents off of Thursday’s price.
Shares of Pinnacle Airlines had a bumpy ride in Friday, trading to close down 2.87 percent to $6.77 per share.
While Fred’s Inc. was one of the only Memphis companies to conclude Thursday’s trading above Wednesday’s close, the retailer’s stock was down 5.55 percent when the bell rang Friday.
FedEx closed at $83.14, down $2.85.
AutoZone shares slid 1.15 percent to end the day at $176.08, which was $2.05 less than Thursday’s trading.
Mid-America Apartment Communities closed down 2.74 percent Friday even after beating Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Shares stopped trading at $52.52.
Despite a positive earnings report earlier in the week, London-based Smith & Nephew’s stock closed 3.94 percent lower in Friday trading. The company’s orthopedics division employs about 2,000 in Memphis.
– Toby Sells: 529-2742
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