2012 stocks: Winners and losers on Wall Street

Following is a list of the five biggest gainers and the five biggest losers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in 2012.
After that list, a look at the winning and losing sectors in the index in 2012.
(Text by The Associated Press)
The following is a list of the five biggest gainers and the five biggest losers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in 2012.

THE 5 WINNERS:

PulteGroup. Signs that a housing market rebound is under way boosted this home builder’s stock 182 percent.
Sprint Nextel. The wireless carrier sold a 70 percent stake to Japanese cellphone company Softbank Corp. for $20.1 billion. The stock jumped 139 percent.
Whirlpool. Surging profits at the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based appliance maker sent its stock surging 110 percent.
Expedia. Profits rose sharply at the online travel agency and the company paid a special dividend. Expedia gained 107 percent.
THE 5 LOSERS:

Apollo Group. The for-profit education company behind the University of Phoenix got a ‘D’ from investors. Slumping enrollments and tighter regulatory scrutiny pushed the stock down 62 percent.
Advanced Micro Devices. Sales of AMD’s chips declined along with falling PC sales as consumers moved to tablets and smartphones. Its stock fell 57 percent.
Best Buy. The consumer-electronics retailer struggled to hold onto market share in the face of tough competition from discounters and online retailers. Founder Richard Schulze wants to buy the company back. The stock dropped 52 percent.

Mark Humphrey | AP
Hewlett-Packard. Where to start? The fallout from a disastrous acquisition combined with a faltering PC and printer business hit the stock hard. H-P slumped 47 percent.

Paul Sakuma | Associated Press file, 2005
Zynga. The online games company behind “Farmville” and “CityVille” slumped. Waning demand for some of its titles and the departure of key managers helped push its stock down 75 percent.
Netflix. The video streaming and DVD rental company had a wild ride in 2012, closing as low as $53 in September as it struggled to attract new subscribers and its earnings slumped. It went as high as $129 in February. The stock was on track to end 2012 with a gain of 29 percent at about $90 after billionaire investor Carl Icahn built a 10 percent stake in the company.
Home Depot. The home improvement retailer was also a beneficiary of the nascent housing market recovery, rising 46 percent. That made it the second-best stock among the 30 in the Dow Jones industrial average, behind Bank of America.

Paul Sakuma | AP
Herbalife. The seller of supplements and weight loss products was pummeled after the CEO of a hedge fund said the company is a pyramid scheme. The stock fell 42 percent.

Matt Rourke | AP
WALL STREET SECTORS: UPS AND DOWNS

- Financials. The stocks of insurers and banks, led by Bank of America and Citigroup, gained 25 percent.
- Consumer discretionary. Home builder PulteGroup and appliance maker Whirlpool were among the biggest gainers, pushing this sector up 20 percent.
- Heath care. Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Merck (maker of the Fosamax osteoporosis drug pictured above) gained, pushing the industry up 14 percent.
- Telecommunications. Sprint surged after Japanese company Softbank said it was taking a big stake in the company. The industry advanced 12 percent. Picture: President Masayoshi Son of Softbank Corp., left, and Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse announce their $20.1 billion deal in Tokyo.
- Industrials. General Electric had a good year, as did toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker, pushing the sector 11 percent higher.
- Materials. Gains for Dow Chemical and agricultural products company Monsanto pushed the industry group up 11 percent.
- Consumer staples. Retailers such as Wal-Mart and CVS Caremark had good years. Brewer Molson Coors struggled. The sector rose 7 percent.

Paul Kitagaki Jr. | pkitagaki@sacbee.com
- Energy. Oil prices fell about 8 percent in 2012. Energy companies like, Chevron, BP and Exxon tracked mainly sideways. The sector rose 1 percent.

LYNNE SLADKY | Associated Press

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