Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH
share
email
font size
options
 
Monday, September 29, 2008
Campbell Soup stirs as the S&P 500 melts down

Try not to read too much into this, but only one stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose on Monday.

That would be Camden's own Campbell Soup Co.

The S&P 500 fell 106.62 points to close at 1,106.39 - a drop of 8.8 percent. And in a rare occurence, 499 of those stocks fell.

Campbell Soup bucked one of the worst trading days in more than 20 years, closing at $37.75 per share, up 12 cents, or 0.3 percent.

Now before anyone suggests that's because we're expecting to see longer lines at the soup kitchens, let me remind you that the food processor did announce a 14 percent increase in its dividend on Thursday.

(Campbell also announced on Monday that it was teaming up with singer/songwriter Jewel on an effort to support what used to be called the Future Farmers of America. But somehow I don't see that as market-moving news.)

The prospect of getting a $1 per share annually in dividends, starting Nov. 3, may have kept investors from canning Campbell's yesterday.

Or maybe the comfort foods of chicken noodle and tomato soup were still warming the bellies of some money managers when the U.S. House of Representatives voted down the $700 billion bailout package for the financial sector, igniting the market sell-off.

Still Campbell could be in the soup on Tuesday along with the rest of the market. After all, most of us can barely remember what we had for dinner last night much less recall why we bought a stock in the first place.

 

 

Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 8:39 PM  Permalink | File Under: Investing, Markets | Post a comment
Comments   
0 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor.
Advertise Here
Philadelphia Business Today