The stock market stood its ground on Wednesday, with all major indices eking out gains as President Donald Trump softened trade restrictions for three large automakers, reviving hopes that the trade war may not be as bad as it seemed.
The Dow Jones grew 1.14 percent, the S&P 500 rose by 1.12 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.46 percent.
On Wednesday, the White House granted three large automakers a one-month exemption from tariffs after a call with the president, sending their share prices higher during the session.
Ten firms, however, bucked an overall optimism, recording modest declines during the past trading session. In this article, we have listed the 10 names and detailed the reasons behind their performance.
To come up with Wednesday’s worst performers, we considered only the stocks with $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.
Stock market reports printed on a sheet of paper. Photo by RDNE Stock Project on Pexels
10. Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:PTEN)
Patterson-UTI dropped to a new all-time low on Wednesday, touching the $7.07 share price before gaining momentum towards the close to end the day just down by 2.8 percent at $7.30 apiece.
Despite posting net losses last year, PTEN, an oil and gas drilling services company, still received an optimistic outlook from Zacks Research late last month.
According to the investment firm, the oil and gas company is expected to earn up to $0.04 per share for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, higher than the $0.02 estimate.
For the full year, however, Zacks expects earnings per share to settle at -$0.10.
In its latest earnings release, PTEN swung to a $51.58 million net loss attributable to shareholders in the last quarter of 2024, a reversal from the $61.95 million net income in the same period a year earlier.
It also dived to a net loss of $968 million last year from a $246.3-million net income in 2023.
9. AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ:APP)
AppLovin decreased by 2.82 percent on Wednesday to finish at $318 apiece as investor sentiment was dampened by a potential class action lawsuit over allegations that APP created the false impression that its digital ad platform would more efficiently match advertisements to mobile games in addition to expanding into web-based marketing and e-commerce.
According to shareholder law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dow LLP in a statement on Wednesday, in truth, APP was exploiting advertising data from Meta Platforms and using manipulative practices that forced unwanted apps on customers via a “backdoor installation scheme” that inaccurately inflated installation numbers, and, in turn, its profit figures.
The law firm furthered that APP was utilizing manipulative practices to artificially inflate their own ad click-through and app download rates, such as by having ads click on themselves or utilizing design gimmicks to trigger forced shadow downloads, erroneously inflating installation numbers and, in turn, its profit figures, the complaint alleges.
Robbins Geller invited shareholders who lost money from their investment in APP to lead as plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit.