Those who lost less won
If you’re nursing a market-average 40%-or-so loss in your stock portfolio in 2008, just remember: It could have been worse -- much worse.
The destruction in the stock market this year was notable not just for its breadth but for the number of huge companies whose shares were reduced to so much rubble.
The banking, brokerage and mortgage sectors led the Fall of the Titans, of course. Some of the biggest names in the financial industry wound up either in bankruptcy (Lehman Bros., Washington Mutual Inc., IndyMac Bancorp) or as wards of the government (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, American International Group).
For companies in either of those two clubs, shareholders have suffered a near-total loss of value -- between 97% and 99.9% -- erasing tens of billions of dollars of investor wealth.
The average stock in the Standard & Poor’s index of 84 major financial names is down 59.8% for the year, compared with a 40.8% drop in the broad-based S&P; 500.
But the financial sector didn’t have a monopoly on stockholder wipeouts. Shares of telecom giant Sprint Nextel Corp., for example, are down nearly 87% this year, to $1.75 on Monday, hammered by mounting customer defections that have slashed revenue.
General Motors Corp. shareholders have lost 85% this year, with the stock now at $3.60. The company averted bankruptcy with a last-minute loan from the U.S. Treasury, but its long-term survival remains a question mark.
The crash in consumer spending this year also devastated Riverside recreational-vehicle maker Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. Its stock has dropped 98%, to just 11 cents. On Monday the New York Stock Exchange said it would delist the shares.
Finally, the retail sector is loaded with casualties among well-known names. Shares of Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear Inc. are down 89% for the year, to $1.60. Liz Claiborne Inc. also has fallen 89%, to $2.20.
Investors aren’t done bailing on some retail names: Shares of L.A.-based American Apparel Inc. slumped 15% on Monday to a new low of $1.55, bringing its year-to-date decline to nearly 90%.
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