S&P 500: These 10 Stocks Sell Off Hard As The World Braces For War

Investors aren’t waiting around for Russia’s next move in Ukraine. They’re finding S&P 500 stocks they don’t want to own — and selling them.




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Ten S&P 500 stocks, including communications services Paramount Global (PARA), materials firm Albemarle (ALB) and financial Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), are selling off the most — more than 8% — just this week, says an Investor’s Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith.

Rising tensions in Russia this week, muddled by conflicting news reports about what’s going on there, are forcing S&P 500 investors to bail out. And that’s prompting big sell-offs in markets. Broad stocks fell in five in the past six trading days, says Wilshire Associates. That includes a 1.8% drop in the S&P 500 on Thursday.

“It’s no wonder investors don’t know which way to turn,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

Where The S&P 500 Is Hurting Most

It’s ugly out there. More than 60% of the stocks in the S&P 500 are down this week.

Energy, utilities and financial stocks are suffering the most this week among the 11 S&P 500 sectors. This is part of investors backing away from some of the sectors that had held up best this year so far.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) is down more than 2.8% this week. That’s the worst showing of any of the S&P 500 sectors. And that’s partly a deflation of a runaway gain this year so far. Even following this week’s sell-off, the sector is still up more than 23% this year.

Interestingly, though, not a single S&P 500 stock is down more than 8% in a week. Bigger individual stock losses are pounding companies in other sector.

Meanwhile, the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) is off more than 2.2% this week. That pulls its year-to-date gain down to 0.5%. And Morgan Stanley (MS) is the hardest hit financial stock in the S&P 500, dropping 8.1% just this week (including a 4.9% hit just Thursday). It’s now down this year by 2%.

Hardest Hit S&P 500 Stocks This Week

CompanySymbol% ch. this weekOne-day % ch.Sector
Paramount GlobalPARA-18.6%-0.9%Communication Services
AlbemarleALB-14.7%-19.9%Materials
Fidelity National InformationFIS-12.8%-2.8%Information Technology
Charles River LaboratoriesCRL-11.9%-4.5%Health Care
ModernaMRNA-9.5%-3.8%Health Care
Bath & Body WorksBBWI-9.0%-5.9%Consumer Discretionary
Tyler TechnologiesTYL-8.3%-8.8%Information Technology
Morgan StanleyMS-8.1%-4.9%Financials
GarminGRMN-8.0%-5.2%Consumer Discretionary
Bank of New York MellonBK-8.0%-8.2%Financials
 Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

What S&P 500 Investors Might Expect From Invasion

It’s important to note, though, that the S&P 500 tends to be highly resilient amid global conflicts. That’s once the initial shock wears off.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, on average, on the first day following 22 major geopolitical events since Pearl Harbor in 1941, says data compiled by Sam Stovall at CFRA and Ryan Detrick at LPL Financial. And the S&P 500 suffered an average 4.6% drop until the market bottomed following the events. It usually took 20 days for the S&P 500 to finally bottom.

Some events are worse than others. The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks took the S&P 500 down nearly 12% until finally bottoming in 11 days. It took 31 days for the market to recover from the event that shook the world.

Recovery, though, comes in time. In the 22 past events, it took an average 43 days for the S&P 500 to come back. It’s still unclear what Russia has planned in the Ukraine, and what the U.S. might do to respond. But S&P 500 investors at least know how the market tends to respond.

How S&P 500 Responded To Previous Conflicts

ShockDateOne day returnTotal sell-offDays to bottomDays to recover
U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan8/30/2021 0.4%-0.1%13
Iranian general killed in airstrike1/3/2020-0.7%-0.7%15
Saudi Aramco drone strike9/14/2019-0.3%-4.0%1941
North Korea missile crisis7/28/2017-0.1%-1.5%1436
Bombing of Syria4/7/2017-0.1%-1.2%718
Boston Marathon bombing4/15/2013-2.3%-3.0%415
London subways bombing7/5/2005 0.9% 0%14
Madrid bombing3/11/2004-1.5%-2.9%1420
U.S. terrorist attacks9/11/2011-4.9%-11.6%1131
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait8/2/1990-1.1%-16.9%71189
Reagan shooting3/30/1981-0.3%-0.3%12
Yom Kippur war10/6/1973 0.3%-0.6%56
Munich Olympics9/5/1972-0.3%-4.3%4257
Tet Offensive1/30/1968-0.5%-6.0%3665
Six-Day War6/5/1967-1.5%-1.5%12
Gulf of Tonkin Incident8/2/1964-0.2%-2.2%2541
Kennedy Assassination11/22/1963-2.8%-2.8%11
Cuban Missile Crisis10/16/1962-0.3%-6.6%818
Suez Crisis10/29/1956 0.3%-1.5%34
Hungarian Uprising10/23/1956-0.2%-0.8%34
N. Korea Invades S. Korea6/25/1950-5.4%-12.9%2382
Pearl Harbor attack12/7/1941-3.8%-19.8%143307
Average-1.1%-4.6%2043
 Sources: CFRA, LPL Financial, S&P Global Market Intelligence
Follow Matt Krantz on Twitter @mattkrantz

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Market Sells Off On ‘Very High’ Risk Of Russia Invasion

Source: https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/sectors/sp500-these-stocks-sell-off-hard-as-the-world-braces-for-war/?src=A00220&yptr=yahoo