What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after the latest U.S. consumer confidence report revealed underlying weakness despite a headline increase, raising concerns about future spending. While the Conference Board's headline Consumer Confidence Index rose to 97.2 in July, the details painted a more cautious picture for investors. The Present Situation Index, a measure of consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions, actually fell. More telling for the sector, the report showed a decline in buying intentions for major discretionary items such as homes, cars, and most appliances. This combination of factors signals potential weakness in future consumer spending, casting a shadow over companies that rely on non-essential purchases.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
Zooming In On Purple (PRPL)
Purple’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 61 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Purple and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
Purple is up 18% since the beginning of the year, but at $0.88 per share, it is still trading 37.3% below its 52-week high of $1.41 from July 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Purple’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $39.06.
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