Finally, the first quarter of 2008 is over. Many investors, myself included, believed it was never going to end. It has been one of the most turbulent quarters ever marred by constant negative economic news and worries about the future. Just how badly did stocks do? Which stocks were hit the hardest? Which did the best? I'll cover all that in a quick review of the quarter that was.
Overall the Dow Jones finished down 7.5% for the first quarter. Things were far worse for the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which finished down a little over 14% for the first quarter alone. The small-cap Russell 2000 also saw significant losses, falling by about 10.5%.
The financials have obviously been hit very hard in the first quarter with mortgage messes and liquidity trouble all around. Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) was down 42.5% in the quarter, while Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) lost 34%. A big name financial that showed some impressive relative strength is JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) which lost less than 2%.
Although the financial stocks were the poster child for the mess that was the first quarter some big name tech stocks saw huge losses. Google (NYSE:GOOG) lost about 36% in the quarter, while Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) lost 28%.
Agriculture names pop up when looking for top performing big name stocks from the quarter. Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) gained 8.75% while Potash (NYSE:POT) shares rose 7.8%. Biotech stocks have also bounced very nicely after seeing significant pressure last year. Celgene (Nasdaq:CELG) has shot higher by almost 33% in the quarter and Genentech (NYSE:DNA), which had been left for dead by many, has gained 21%.
No matter how you slice it, this was a very negative quarter for the stock market. Uncertainty is terrible for stocks and the first quarter had about as much of it as you will ever see. Will the picture become clearer in the second quarter? If it does, will market participants like what it shows or not? These are questions we will find the answers to over the next 3 months.
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