While 24 U.S. giants drove the Dow Jones industrial average to its new milestone at the market’s open Wednesday, six others proved to be dead weights.
After flirting with the threshold since 2016, the Dow, a collection of 30 major U.S. companies, finally hit the elusive 20,000 in the first month for 2017 for the first time ever. The Dow hit its last major threshold of 19,000 in late November. The surge since then was led by Goldman Sachs (GS) , Walt Disney (DIS), and IBM (IBM), which rose 10.7%, 10.4%, and 8.1%, respectively.
The stock market rally has been propelled by Trump’s proposed economic policies, which are expected to boost spending. Since then, most of the Dow’s other member companies have shown investors positive returns—except for the sextuple that seemed to have missed the final leg up to 20,000.
6. Pfizer
Investors of this pharmaceutical giant breathed a sigh of relief when once Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton missed the podium on election night. Clinton had pledged to crack down on drug prices. With Trump in the White House, however, investors decided a major threat to the pharmaceutical industry had receded. That hasn’t exactly worked out. Shortly before the inauguration, Trump announced that drug companies are “getting away with murder,” dampening some of the excitement surrounding the sector.
Pfizer (PFE) is down 0.57% since Nov. 22.
5. Merck
Like Pfizer, shares of Merck (MRK) started higher when the Dow was at 19,000, as investors hoped Trump would be more lenient toward drug pricing. But the excitement soon waned. Merck’s stock lost some of its momentum in December, falling 0.79% between the Dow’s 19,000 mark and now.
4. Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) also caught the “Trump bump” in early November—but then quickly underwent a correction, The shares of the drug giant slumped even further when the company revealed an annual guidance below Wall Street expectations during its fourth quarter earnings.
3. Exxon Mobil
Trump naming former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State certainly didn’t help the oil titan. Shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM) have been sliding since Tillerson left the energy giant in mid-December. The stock slid even further when Exxon announced that Tillerson would give up over 2 million Exxon shares—but would still get a $180 million retirement package from the oil company, as Exxon said it would make cash payments of an equivalent value into a trust.
2. General Electric
Like many other stocks, General Electric (GE) got a boost from Trump’s election—giving it a higher Nov. 22 threshold to surpass. But unlike other stocks, GE shares have been quickly gripped by the Trump Dump—the worry that some of Trump’s policies, notably a proposed border tax, could be bad for American manufactures. GE could also be hurt by the fact that CEO Jeff Immelt is not all that close with Trump. Immelt was on Obama’s CEO taskforce, but Immelt is not in Trump’s business advisory forum. Although Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, is. What’s more, GE’s rival United Technologies has already done a deal with Trump to keep jobs in America. That may give that company, and not GE, most-favorite-manufacturer status with the new president.
Also not helping GE: Posting weak fourth quarter earnings in January.
1. Walmart Stores
Retailers and their investors have become increasingly worried that Trump’s plan to increase tariffs on imports, through a so-called border tax, could pressure retail earnings. Retailers are stepping up their lobbying efforts on the issue. And Walmart told Fortune earlier this week that it is was watching the situation. Walmart has announced that it plans to add 10,000 jobs, perhaps to curry favor with the new president. Nonetheless, shares of Walmart (WMT) have fallen nearly 4% since the Dow hit 19,000 in November.
