A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week
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Caterpillar
Oct. 25 close: $84.77 (U.S.),
down $2.57 or 2.9% over weekLadies, looking for the perfect holiday gift for the special man on your list? Consider a backhoe loader – perfect for weekend landscaping jobs around the house. Or surprise him with an asphalt paver – and say goodbye to those potholes on your street. With Caterpillar slashing its full-year forecast following weak third-quarter results, now’s the time to negotiate a deal on the machine of his dreams.
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Whirlpool
Oct. 25 close: $146.18 (U.S.),
up $12.75 or 9.6% over weekYour appliances say a lot about you – especially if you leave them on your front lawn. But Whirlpool investors don’t have to live in the seedy parts of town now that the stock has nearly tripled in the past two years. With the U.S. housing market improving and Whirlpool’s third-quarter earnings rising 51 per cent on higher sales and margins, the appliance maker is cleaning up.
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NQ Mobile
Oct. 25 close: $10.63 (U.S.),
down $14.29 or 57.3% over weekThe two words most feared by Chinese companies? Muddy Waters. The research and short selling firm that brought down Sino-Forest has turned its sights on NQ Mobile, alleging that the Chinese mobile Internet services company is a “massive fraud” and the stock is a “zero.” The company swiftly rejected the charges, but judging by the collapse in the shares, investors are fearing the worst.
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Canadian Pacific Railway
Oct. 25 close: $150.04,
up $14.67 or 10.8% over weekTrains are a great way to transport all sorts of goods, from grains and automobiles to steel and, um, crude oil. As any CP investor will tell you, trains are also a great way to transport large sums of cash into your wallet: Shares of the railway operator surged to a record after third-quarter earnings jumped 45 per cent, lifted by booming volumes of petroleum products. At least the stock hasn’t derailed.
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Wi-LAN
Oct. 25 close: $3.25,
down 91 cents or 21.9% over weekShareholders of Wi-LAN, a well-known patent troll, er, intellectual property licensing company, might have to start living under a bridge after its latest court defeat. The Ottawa-based company lost nearly one-quarter of its market value after a Texas jury found that Apple did not infringe on a patent related to wireless technology. You might say the stock came in for a hard Wi-LANding.
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