Ten stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, defying an overall market optimism, as investors digested a flurry of corporate developments, including corporate earnings and outlooks. Of the 10 firms, two dropped to new record lows.
Meanwhile, all Wall Street indices finished in the green, led by Nasdaq, up 1.26 percent, followed by the S&P 500, increasing 0.81 percent, and the Dow Jones jumping 0.63 percent.
In this article, we focus on 10 of the worst-performing companies on Wednesday and detail the reasons behind their drop.
To come up with the list, we focused exclusively on the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.
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10. Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW)
Dow Inc. dropped its share prices by as much as 4.5 percent in intra-day trading on Wednesday before ending at $30.03 apiece amid the lack of fresh catalysts to boost buying appetite, while investors repositioned portfolios ahead of a dividend payment.
In a notice earlier this month, Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) said that it would distribute $0.35 per share to all shareholders on record as of this Friday, February 27, payable on March 13. This marks the 458th consecutive dividend paid by the company or its affiliates since 1912.
The dividends followed its earnings performance last year, which saw a net loss attributable to shareholders of $2.6 billion versus a $1.1 billion net income in 2024, primarily due to a decline in prices and operating rates.
Net sales were also down by 6.9 percent to $39.97 billion from $42.96 billion year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter alone, net loss attributable to shareholders widened by 2,811 percent to $1.5 billion from only $53 million year-on-year, while net sales were lower by 9 percent at $9.46 billion versus $10.4 billion.
9. Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN)
Lumen Technologies saw its share prices drop by as much as 6.8 percent in intra-day trading on Wednesday before finishing at $7.11 apiece, as an ongoing dispute between artificial intelligence firm Anthropic and the Pentagon spilled over to its stock.
Anthropic, one of Lumen Technologies Inc.’s (NYSE:LUMN) major customers, is currently facing a setback after the Pentagon ordered the company to loosen its rules about how it can use its AI tools, or risk losing its government contract. The AI firm has until Friday, February 27, to fulfill the requirement.
However, Anthropic is refusing to back down over safeguards that prevent technology from being used to conduct US domestic surveillance and to program autonomous weapons that can hit targets without human intervention.
Having recently sealed a multi-year contract with Anthropic to expand its fiber networks across North America, any delay in the development of infrastructure for the AI firm could dampen growth prospects for Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN), especially as it has just announced the start of its growth strategy after successfully completing its turnaround plan.
“We’ve done what many thought we couldn’t—stabilized the business, strengthened our financial foundation, and earned credibility in the market. Now we’re accelerating from turnaround to growth,” Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) CEO Kate Johnson said.
Lumen’s partnership with Anthropic forms part of a $13 billion private connectivity fabric contract sealed recently.
