52-Week Low Club (ELY, GHS, GE, GM, GFI, MRK, Q, SHLD, JAVA, TSCM, VIA.B, CBS, AMR, AAI, DAL, UAUA)

Today’s 52-week low list was full of some of the usual suspects, and you can count airlines as the top group of 52-week lows after that breather in oil prices did not hold.  There were also many other stocks that hit 52-week lows today, and we didn’t even bother including any of the usual suspects in financials.  Here is a sample of the 200+ we saw today:

• Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) is seeing the same old same old, fewer golf club and accessories being bought as consumers are strapped and have to actually work rather than play golf.
• Gatehouse Media (NYSE: GHS) keeps sliding… is Chapter 11 near?
• General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is getting farther and farther away from that $33.75 fair value we assigned for the end of 2008.
• General Motors (NYSE: GM) is still appearing here, poorer consumers can’t qualify for new cars.
• Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE: GFI) is a surprise with high gold prices.
• Merck Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK)
• Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q), wasn’t too long ago they juiced a huge dividend.
• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) hit a 52-week low but that didn’t hold.
• Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) is learning that the reverse stock split game isn’t a winning formula.
• TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) as financial subscribers may be less willing to shell out hundreds of dollars if their bullish investments have a hard time being that bullish.
• Viacom (NYSE: VIA.B) and CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) as Sumner Redstone can’t save a crummy environment.

This list was far longer looking than you would guess by this short review.  Here are some of the airlines that hit new 52-week lows:

• Airtran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI), AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), and UAL Corp. (NASDAQ: UAUA).

Jon C. Ogg
June 12, 2008