Markets mixed in first half of the year
Despite gains in the stock market Friday, most of the stock-traded companies headquartered in the
The overall stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, rose nearly 1.7 percent in the first half of the year to close Friday at 2,718.37, up 44.76 since the end of 2017.
The Dow Jones Industrials is the only major index still lower for the year, though only down 0.6 percent.
But most of
Rising oil prices and Chinese competition have hurt the growth and margins for
Unum shares, which dropped by 32.6 percent this year, plunged in May after the company said it was experiencing higher-than-expected claims in its long-term care business. The insurance giant still reported a 23 percent gain in per-share profits in the first quarter, but the warning about long-term claims caused a nearly 20 percent one-time drop in the company's share price and Unum has ye to recover from that decline.
An investor who purchased shares of Unum has sued the company, claiming Unum failed to disclose that the company was experiencing a higher claims incidence for its long-term care business.
The biggest decline in market value among local companies was suffered this year by
The biggest gainer this year in the
The first half of the year was full of surprises on
Even experts and investors who expected more volatility after a historically calm 2017 were caught off guard by many of the developments inside and outside the markets this year, including the rapid gains stocks made in January, their abrupt descent into a "correction," and the ongoing trade tensions that threatened to undo the benefits of the
Still, consumer-focused companies like retailers had a strong start to the year and technology companies continued to rally, while high-dividend stocks, especially phone companies and household goods makers, lagged behind.
The
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