• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Doug Kass
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Jim Cramer
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Stocks

Market's Late Summer Roller Coaster Ride Continues, and 2 Toymakers Stumble

Plus, value stocks have not fared as well as growth stocks looking back over the last year.
By JONATHAN HELLER
Aug 09, 2019 | 11:00 AM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: MAT, JAKK

Just like clockwork, the markets are back to mid-summer roller coaster ride territory. At this point it's not like Disney's Expedition Everest, Space Mountain or Rock n' Roller Coaster, but just enough to make you feel that you are definitely on some kind of ride, and it's not exactly unpleasant, at least at this point.

Since my Wednesday column ran the S&P 500 has experienced two more "volatile" days (with volatility defined as up or down at least 1%), and both have been of the positive variety. As I write this early Friday, futures are in negative territory, so it looks like it could be another interesting ride for the markets.

Despite recent volatility and uncertainty year-to-date returns have been strong for the S&P 500 (up 17%), and small-caps as represented by the Russell 2000 (up 14.5%), though microcaps as represented by the Russell Microcap Index (up 8.2%) have lagged considerably.  However, looking back one year paints an entirely different picture. Markets have all but treaded water, or worse, with the S&P 500 up less than 3% and the Russell 2000 and Russell Microcap both in negative territory, down 7.9% and 15.7%, respectively.

Value has not fared well, either, over the past year when compared to growth, at least in large and small caps. For large-caps, the Russell 1000 Growth Index (up 4.8%) has doubled the performance of the Russell 1000 Value Index (up 2.4%), while the Russell 2000 Growth (down 4.4%) has beaten the Russell 2000 Value (down 11.4%) by a whopping 700 basis points. In microcap land, however, the Russell Microcap Value (down 15%) has outdistanced, though barely, the Russell Microcap Growth (down 16.5%). No matter what, value investors, especially in more distressed names, have felt the pain. 

One of the more interesting stories for Friday is the plight of toymaker Mattel Inc. (MAT) , which has had its share of troubles in recent years but had put together a nice run year to date (up 34%) after terrible runs in 2017 (down 41%), and 2018 (down 35%). Late Thursday, Mattel scrapped a $250 million senior note sale due to an anonymous letter of undisclosed content from a whistle blower that the company became aware of on Aug. 6 and is now investigating.  This is a bizarre situation to say the least, and one that has MAT shares down about 7% in pre-market trading.

Toymakers have suffered a great deal in recent years, especially due to the Toys R Us bankruptcy; look no further than to JAKKS Pacific Inc. (JAKK) , which released second-quarter results pre-market Friday morning. While revenue was about in line with expectations, JAKKS missed on the bottom line (an 83- cent loss versus a 56-cent loss consensus). Perhaps the most interesting news here was that the company has entered into agreements with banks and a group of holders of the company's convertible debt that will recapitalize the balance sheet, thus extending the revolving credit facility and convertible debt three years. JAKK has a lot of work to do to right this ship, if that's even possible.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

At the time of publication, Heller was long JAKK.

TAGS: Indexes | Investing | Stocks | Value Investing | Consumer | Real Money

More from Stocks

The Pressure Finally Lifts, but Bumpy Ride Likely Awaits

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Apr 21, 2021 4:37 PM EDT

The sour mood suddenly lifted, and stocks enjoyed some very robust action, but that's no reason to let your guard down.

Alphabet Shares Should Continue to Live Higher

Bruce Kamich
Apr 21, 2021 3:11 PM EDT

Let's examine the charts of the 'G' in FAANG.

Will Clover Health Investments Turn Around?

Bruce Kamich
Apr 21, 2021 2:30 PM EDT

Let's take a look at 2 charts.

Novavax Is Poised for Renewal After Its Correction

Bruce Kamich
Apr 21, 2021 1:54 PM EDT

Here's our updated analysis and trading strategy.

Hewlett Packard Enterprises Has One of Those Charts That's So Tempting

Timothy Collins
Apr 21, 2021 1:46 PM EDT

I find this to be a half now, half on a confirmed breakout play.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 04:17 PM EDT REAL MONEY

    Wednesday on Real Money Pro

    Get-rich quick schemes offer little more than pipe...
  • 11:09 AM EDT GARY BERMAN

    S&P Futures

    FIBOCALL: The S&P futures was off 1.5 %... ...
  • 07:47 AM EDT CHRIS VERSACE

    Positive News for a Cannabis Play

    Good news for this name in the Stocks Under $10 po...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2021 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login