Wall Street’s main indices ended in a bloodbath on Friday, as investors soured on a flurry of macroeconomic factors such as concerns over a slowing economy and a sticky inflation that tempered buying appetite.
Friday’s finish saw the Dow Jones decline by 1.69 percent, the S&P drop by 1.71 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq nosedive by 2.20 percent.
Ten companies, in particular, were heavily hit, registering mostly double-digit losses on a week-on-week basis.
In this article, we have listed 10 names that performed poorly last week and detailed the reasons behind their declines. Please note that shares performances were based on the companies’ closing prices last Friday, February 21, as against their prices on February 14, or a week earlier.
To come up with last week’s biggest losers, 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. SoundHound AI Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)
SoundHound AI dropped its share prices by 6 percent week-on-week to close Friday’s trading at $10.31 apiece versus the $10.97 registered a week earlier as Nvidia Corp.’s exit from the company still lingered among investors.
Last week marks SOUN’s second consecutive week in the red from a $15.6 price on February 7.
Earlier, NVDA submitted a regulatory filing showing its stake positions in various firms. The filing showed a 44-percent reduction in its holdings in British chipmaker Arm Holdings while fully exiting Serve Robotics and SOUN.
NVDA being one of the largest chipmakers supporting the development of AI, its stake positions in several companies became a vote of confidence among investors.
Meanwhile, NVDA’s divestment in SOUN raised investor concern over the future of its growth trajectory, particularly as it was once seen as a promising player in the AI industry.
9. Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN)
Coinbase dropped its share prices by 14 percent last week, finishing at $235.38 versus the $274.31 registered on February 14 as investors took profits following the company’s stellar earnings performance.
It can be recalled that COIN registered a 373-percent jump in its net income in the last three months of 2024 to $1.29 billion from $273 million in the same period a year earlier as revenues surged by 138 percent to $2.27 billion from $953.7 million.
Meanwhile, net income for the full year 2024 soared by 2,618 percent to $2.579 billion from $94.87 million in 2023, with revenues jumping by 111 percent to $6.564 billion from $3.108 billion.
In recent news, COIN announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission officially dropped a lawsuit that it filed against the company without any penalties. The dismissal came in line with the Trump administration’s plans to bolster cryptocurrency and make it a “national priority.”
8. Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT)
Shares of Reddit Inc. fell by 15.26 percent last week, finishing at $166.4 apiece on Friday from its $196.38 price registered on February 14, as investor sentiment was dampened by mixed earnings results, having been plunged to further losses last year.
In full-year 2024, RDDT said net losses expanded by 433 percent to $484.27 million from the $90.82 million registered in 2023, despite revenues growing by 62 percent to $1.3 billion from $804 million.
However, it recorded a 283.7-percent jump in its net income for the fourth quarter last year at $71 million versus $18.5 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenues for the quarter also surged by 71 percent to $427.7 million versus $249.8 million.
Following the figures, analysts at Piper Sandler increased RDDT’s price target by 4.7 percent to $220 from $210 previously while maintaining an overweight rating on the stock following a rebound in its Feed audience from a decline in December last year.
7. Coeur Mining Inc. (NYSE:CDE)
Shares of Coeur Mining fell by 17.4 percent week-on-week, finishing Friday’s trading at $5.46 versus the $6.61 registered on February 14 as investor sentiment was dampened by missed expectations on its earnings performance despite marking an improvement.
According to CDE, it was able to narrow its net loss by 43.4 percent to $58.9 million last year from the $103.6 million registered in 2023, as revenues rose 28 percent to $1.05 billion year-on-year.
Loss per share also stood at $0.15. Albeit better than the $0.30 loss in full-year 2023, it missed analyst expectations by 27 percent.
In recent news, CDE successfully acquired SilverCrest Metals, with the latter’s shareholders receiving 1.6022 CDE common shares for each SilverCrest common share. CDE issued more than 239 million shares in the transaction.
6. NuScale Power Corp. (NYSE:SMR)
NuScale Power dropped its share prices by 17.5 percent week-on-week—the second consecutive week of decline—ending Friday’s trading at $19.04 each versus the $23.08 registered on February 14, and the $25.84 price on February 7 amid the lack of fresh catalysts to spark buying appetite, while also digesting news of budget cuts in the Department of Energy.
Last week, DOE spokesperson Ben Dietderich told Fox News that they slashed the agency’s budget by over $124 million, “from millions of dollars of DEI contracts to ridiculously expensive multi-million-dollar Politico news subscriptions.”
He signaled that more budget cuts are expected to occur in the coming months.
The news was particularly relevant for energy companies as budget cuts in the agency could potentially derail the development of energy programs, particularly research and development and loan programs offered by the department.
5. Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)
Robinhood Markets dropped its share prices by 20.95 percent last week at $51.6 on Friday versus the $65.28 close on February 14 as investors appeared to have taken profits following the company’s all-time high, while also digesting news about a US court’s decision to seize worth $606 million of HOOD’s shares from a bankrupt company’s CEO.
Last week, HOOD’s share prices jumped to an all-time high of $63.8 following its stellar earnings performance last year, with its net income soaring by 2,953 percent to $916 million during the fourth quarter, and recording $1.4 billion in net income for the full year 2024, reversing a net loss of $541 million in 2023.
Sentiment, however, was quickly dampened by news that a US Court had seized worth $606 million of HOOD’s shares from Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of now-bankrupt bank FTX, following his fraud conviction.
HOOD’s shares were sold off for the entire trading week, as investors repositioned their portfolios to minimize risks from the news.
4. Celanese Corp. (NYSE:CE)
Shares of Celanese Corp. plunged by 22 percent last week, closing Friday’s trading at $52.76 apiece versus the $68.06 registered on February 14 as investor sentiment was dampened by a pessimistic outlook for the year coupled with dismal earnings performance in 2024.
Last year, CE swung to a net loss of $1.5 billion, reversing a net income of $1.96 billion in 2023, as operating loss ended at $697 million versus an operating income of $1.69 billion in the same comparable period.
For the fourth quarter alone net loss stood at $1.9 billion, a reversal of its $259-million net income in the same period last year. Net sales, however, declined by 7.7 percent to $2.37 billion from $2.57 billion year-on-year.
According to the company, it expects the sequential demand and pricing challenges experienced in the fourth quarter to be largely unchanged in the first quarter of the year.
3. Hudbay Minerals Inc. (NYSE:HBM)
Hudbay Minerals fell by 21.7 percent last week, after finishing Friday’s trading at $7.10 versus the $9.07 registered on February 14, as investors soured on the company’s weak outlook guidance for 2025.
Following the release of its earnings performance where attributable net income fell in both fourth quarter and full-year 2024, HBM said it expects consolidated gold production to be lower than in 2024, while consolidated copper production is projected to remain stable as with 2024.
The company said attributable net income declined by 30.9 percent to $21.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 from $30.7 million in the same period last year, as revenues dipped 2.87 percent to $584.9 million from $602.2 million.
However, attributable net income for full-year 2024 increased by 15.5 percent to $76.7 million from $66.4 million in 2023, as revenues grew by 19.6 percent to $2.02 billion from $1.69 billion.
2. Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO)
Daily sell-offs persisted throughout the shortened trading week for Oklo’s shares, which pushed a 26.28-percent slash in its prices week-on-week to end at $38.79 on Friday versus the $52.62 registered on February 14.
Last Friday’s finish marked the second consecutive week of the nuclear energy firm’s drop in stock performance, having settled at $55.49 on February 7, or two weeks earlier, as investor sentiment was dampened by concerns surrounding the Artificial Intelligence industry in the US with the emergence of China’s startup AI platform DeepSeek.
In particular, investors feared that China was beginning to dominate the AI industry at a time when the US government announced support for the advancement of the sector. Concerns were further fueled that it may not need a huge demand of energy to power its data centers.
Since DeepSeek’s surface, AI stocks have since struggled to regain ground.
1. Aurora Innovation Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR)
Aurora Innovation retreated in last week’s shortened trading, losing 27 percent of its value week-on-week, as investors appeared to have sold off positions following the 41.5 percent surge the week earlier.
On Friday, AUR’s share prices finished at $7.43 apiece, markedly lower than the $10.19 registered on February 14 as investors appeared to have taken profits, evident from the four consecutive days of sell-offs.
Two weeks earlier, AUR announced improved earnings performance and outlook guidance, which includes the upcoming launch of its first driverless trucks, as it ushers “in a future of safer, more efficient freight transportation and immense value creation.”
“We are on the cusp of our planned Commercial Launch, a pivotal step toward realizing our mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly,” said Aurora Innovation, Inc. CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson.
AUR said it narrowed its net loss last year by 6 percent to $748 million from the $796 million registered in 2023, as loss from operations decreased by 5.9 percent to $786 million from $835 million.
While we acknowledge the potential of AUR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as AUR 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.
