10 Firms Crashing Harder Than Wall Street

Ten stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, mirroring Wall Street indices’ lackluster performance, as investors digested a flurry of industry developments, including the steep drop in prices of precious metals.

Meanwhile, Wall Street’s three major indices finished mixed, with the Dow Jones the only gainer, up 0.47 percent. The S&P 500 finished flat, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped by 0.16 percent.

In this article, we highlight the names of the 10 worst-performing stocks on Tuesday and detail the reasons behind their drop.

To come up with the list, we picked exclusively those with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.

Stock market data on a laptop screen. Photo by Alesia Kozik on Pexels

10. Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE:HMY)

Harmony Gold tumbled by 10.99 percent on Tuesday to close at $17.98 apiece as investors sold off positions amid gold and silver’s steepest drop in years.

In intra-day trading, gold and silver fell by 6.3 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively—their biggest single drop since 2013, as investors turned took profits from record highs.

Prices, however, pared losses toward the end of the session, but spilled over to mining stocks, including Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE:HMY), Anglogold Ashanti and Hecla Mining, among others.

In other developments, gold investors will be closely watching out for the US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday next week, highly anticipating an interest rate cut.

Lower rates typically buoy prices of precious metals as it weakens the US dollar, making it cheaper for foreign investors to acquire gold.

In recent developments, Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE:HMY), through its Australian subsidiary Harmony Gold (Australia) Pty Ltd.,  successfully acquired MAC Copper for AU$1.08 billion.

9. Anglogold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU)

Anglogold fell by 11.3 percent on Tuesday to close at $66.78 apiece as investors unloaded portfolios in gold mining stocks following the precious metal’s biggest single drop in years.

The stock declined alongside its counterparts, mirroring the steep drop in prices of gold and silver, which nosedived by 6.3 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively during the day, before trimming losses toward the end of the session.

Investors appeared to have taken profits following the precious metals’ soar to new highs over the past weeks.

In other developments, BNAmericas reported that Colombia’s National Mining Agency denied a request by Anglogold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) for the suspension of obligations related to the mining title of its $1.4 billion Quebradona copper project.

The agency was quoted as saying that the Anglogold Ashanti PLC’s (NYSE:AU) request was “legally contradictory to grant opposing requests simultaneously or consecutively” since the mining firm initially requested a suspension of contractual obligations, followed by an extension of the exploration phase.

It added that Anglogold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) did not present sufficient evidence to support exceptional circumstances of force majeure as cited in its application.

The Quebradona project is wholly owned and managed by the company and is considered an attractive long-life, high-grade, low-cost project with the potential to add copper production to its portfolio.