Wall Street’s main indices all finished in the green territory on Wednesday, as investors cheered an unexpectedly slower inflation rate in December.
The Dow Jones jumped by 1.65 percent, while the S&P 500 surged by 1.83 percent. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite index soared 2.45 percent.
Ten companies under mixed sectors bucked an overall positive market sentiment amid a series of negative factors weighing on investor sentiment.
In this article, let’s take a look at the reasons that dragged their shares performance.
To come up with the top 10 losers, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.
A stock market chart. Photo by Arturo A on Pexels
10. Las Vegas Sand Corp. (NYSE:LVS)
Las Vegas Sand Corp (LVS) saw its shares drop by 1.78 percent on Wednesday at $44.20 over the lack of fresh catalysts to perk up investing appetite.
On Wednesday, Las Vegas Sand (LVS) declined in line with the broader gambling sector on Wall Street, losing 1.16 percent.
It did not help that a number of investment banking companies downgraded the company’s rating from overweight to equal-weight, saying that all its upsides have already been priced in and that its five-year volatile trading has not really broken away in either direction.
Stephen Grambling, an analyst at JP Morgan, also believed that Las Vegas Sand (LVS)’s Macau operations are being overestimated and has projected its growth below what other analysts on Wall Street are predicting.
He also cited the deflation and housing crisis in China as the main reasons for such pessimism, aggravated by the ongoing tensions between the US and China.
9. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN)
Shares of Algonquin Power (AQN) dropped by 1.84 percent on Wednesday to close at $4.27 apiece following announcements that its chief finance officer (CFO), Darren Myers, is stepping down from his position.
Without citing the reason, Algonquin Chief Executive Officer Chris Huskilson said that Myers will remain as CFO through the reporting of the company’s fourth quarter 2024 results.
“[Myers] joined in August 2022 and has been an important part of the team that steered the company through its strategic review and the sale of its renewables business. I want to thank [him] for his tremendous contributions to our transformation from a hybrid business to a pure-play regulated utility. We wish him well and will commence a search immediately,” he noted.
Algonquin Power (AQN) is a diversified international generation, transmission, and distribution utility with more than one million customers across the United States and Canada.
8. Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA)
Mass media and entertainment giant Paramount Global (PARA) saw its shares decline by 2.16 percent on Wednesday at $10.44 apiece after receiving public scrutiny for its planned merger with Skydance Media due to the participation of China-based Tencent Holdings Ltd., which was recently added to the US military blacklist.
John Moolenaar, chairman of the House China Select Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that the merger should be reviewed by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the US.
“We’ve heard from multiple Hollywood executives about rampant self-censorship designed to curry favor with the Chinese Communist Party,” the Michigan Republican said. “Given that just this month, the Department of Defense designated Tencent as a Chinese military company, CFIUS should closely scrutinize the proposed merger to ensure the Chinese Communist Party is not further solidifying its hold on the American entertainment industry.”
Tencent, a technology and entertainment company, owns a minority stake in Skydance.
7. PENN Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN)
PENN Entertainment Inc (PENN) dropped its share prices by 2.32 percent on Wednesday to finish at $20.17 each along with an overall gaming sector decline.
Investor sentiment may have been dampened by news of lower December revenues from the gaming industry in some US states, including Kansas and Missouri, fueling concerns about the state of the sector in the country.
On Wednesday, Missouri said it registered a 3-percent dip in revenues for December to $164.8 million, while Kansas revealed a sharp decline in both sports betting and casino revenues, plummeting by more than 50 percent year-on-year.
In other news, PENN Entertainment (PENN) recently rebranded some of its retail sportsbooks with the ESPN brand.
According to PENN Entertainment Inc. (PENN), it would launch the ESPN Bet sportsbook at various locations across Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, and West Virginia and will serve customers under PENN’s Hollywood and Ameristar casino brands.
6. Fluence Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC)
Shares of Fluence Energy Inc (FLNC) dropped by 2.72 percent on Wednesday, a second consecutive day, to end at $15.71 each after the company continued to post declines in its revenues amid an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged improper accounting practices.
The investigation stemmed from Blue Orca Capital’s claims in February 2024 alleging that the company was artificially inflating revenues and profits through aggressive accounting tactics, including revenue recognition schemes and selective earnings adjustments.
In its report, Blue Orca said: “In our opinion, Fluence’s purported improvement over recent quarters is the product of accounting games that have materially inflated revenue growth and Adj. Gross Margins, which we think helps to explain why Fluence is on its third CFO in just over two years.”
Law firm Hagens Berman is currently probing into Fluence Energy (FLNC)’s potential violations of the US securities laws and has urged investors who have suffered substantial losses to come forward.
5. B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG)
B2Gold Corp (BTG) dropped its share prices on Wednesday by 2.79 percent to finish at $2.44 apiece after analysts downgraded their rating for the company.
On Tuesday, B2Gold (BTG) earned a downgraded outlook from BMO Capital Markets, slashing its price target for the company to $7 from $8.5 apiece, after its production report for the fourth quarter of the year stood at only 186,000 ounces of gold, falling short of the 204,600 ounces estimated.
For the full year, B2Gold (BTG)’s production reached 804,800 ounces, hitting the lower spectrum of its revised annual guidance, which ranged from 800,000 to 870,000 ounces.
Banking firm Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) also issued a pessimistic outlook for B2Gold (BTG), cutting its price forecast to $3.3 from $3.7 previously and providing it a “neutral” rating.
4. Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ:VTRS)
Viatris Inc. (VTRS), an American global pharmaceutical and healthcare company, registered a 2.82-percent drop in its share prices on Wednesday to end at $11.39 per share as investors sold off positions following analyst remarks that the company already entered the oversold territory. The news further dampened investor sentiment.
Viatris’ (VTRS) shares dropped by 4.92 percent in the past week alone, by 9.10 percent during the past month, by 3.06 percent over the past year, and by a whopping 47.41 percent in the past five years alone.
In other news, Viatris (VTRS) recently announced that it was set to shutter its pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Little Island, County Cork by 2028. The plant, which currently employs around 200 people, manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines.
3. DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG)
Shares of DraftsKing Inc (DKNG) fell by 3.2 percent on Wednesday to end at $38.72 apiece following news that the state of Maryland, in a budget report on Wednesday, suggested it would begin implementing significant tax increases on sports betting and gambling revenues.
The budget, presented for the year 2025, included plans to hike sports betting taxes to 30 percent from 15 percent previously, while table game taxes are set to increase to 25 percent from 20 percent at present.
The proposed tax hikes are part of a broader tax reform that aims to make Maryland’s tax system “simple, fair, and pro-growth” while also investing in economic growth initiatives.
Maryland’s tax plan also outlines changes such as doubling the standard deduction, consolidating income tax brackets, and introducing new tax rates for higher income levels, in addition to a temporary surcharge on capital gains for households earning above a certain threshold.
2. IAMGOLD Corp. (NYSE:IAG)
IAMGOLD Corp. (IAG) dropped by 3.96 percent at $5.34 on Wednesday after earning downgraded ratings from investment research firms, discounting news of higher mining production in 2024.
On Wednesday, StockNews lowered its rating for the company to “hold” from “buy” previously, while research analysts at Raymond James slashed their price projection for the company to $6 from $6.5 apiece and gave the company an “underperform” rating.
Investors on Wednesday discounted news from the company that it achieved a 43-percent growth in mining production at 667,000 in 2024, thanks to strong production at its Essakane mine in Burkina Faso and the Westwood and Côté Gold mine in Canada.
Essakane was the top producer, contributing 409,000 attributable ounces. While head grades decreased slightly in the latter half of the year, planned waste stripping positioned the mine for stable 2025 production of 360,000–400,000 ounces.
1. FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI)
FTAI Aviation Ltd. (FTAI) saw its share prices decline by 24.27 percent on Wednesday to close at $116.08 apiece following reports that a law firm was investigating the company for allegedly manipulating its financials.
The investigation stemmed from a report by Muddy Waters Research, alleging that FTAI by “materially manipulates its financials” by “exaggerating the size of its aftermarket aerospace business”, “misleading investors by presenting whole engine sales as individual module sales”, “inflating Aerospace Products’ EBITDA margins by means of over-depreciation in the leasing segment”, and “engaging in channel stuffing.”
FTAI Aviation (FTAI) is a company engaged in aftermarket power and maintenance for the most widely used commercial jet engines.
FTAI Aviation (FTAI) focuses on aviation leasing assets and aerospace products that generate strong and stable cash flows with the potential for earnings growth and asset appreciation.
While we acknowledge the potential of FTAI as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FTAI but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
