Did you heed the call “Sell in May and Go Away!” this year?  It turns out that as of mid-day we now have nearly half of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average components either trading down over 10% or which  are close to being down 10%.  The group that is already down 10% includes shares of Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).  Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) are all now within striking distance of being down 10% from recent highs as they are down 7.5% or more.

As far as how these compare to the DIA itself, the level of 12,277 is down 5.03% from its 52-week high of 12,928.50.  The DJIA is still up almost 28% from its year lows.  We have taken a look at each component, offered performance metrics, offered color if applicable, and even shown some expectations.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is now down over 12% from its highs, but it is still up 65% from the year-lows.  At $16.19, its 52-week range is $9.81 to $18.47. The sell-off in metals helped, but so did a fake rumor that it might be acquired. In fairness, Alcoa shares might not have gotten so high without the buyout rumors.  The slowing of growth in China and India have played a part as well.  Thomson Reuters still has a consensus price target of $20.26 and Alcoa yields only about 0.7% today.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is fresh off the heels of this Moody’s rating action but its shares are actually up so far today.  At $11.30, it is down over 29% and shares were down over 30% from the year-high as the range is $10.91 to $16.10.  Thomson Reuters has what feels like an unrealistic target  of over $17.00 and the yield here is too small to even consider.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is now down about 11.8% from its high.  At $102.54 it has a 52-week range of $54.89 to $116.55.  Amazingly, shares are still up over 80% from its yearly lows.  The global growth slowing is supposedly what is driving this now even if its orders are supposed to be in good shape.  Its dividend yield is roughly 1.7% today.

EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), or DuPont, has just crossed the -10% level today.  At $51.05, its 52-week range is $33.73 to $57.00 and it sits down 10.2% from the year high and up over 51% from its yearly low.  Chemicals are cyclical… At least this one pays a 3.1% yield to holders and Thomson Reuters has a consensus target of $63.10.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is actually up today and it just went to the -10% group this week.  At $19.17 it has a 52-week range of $13.75 to $21.65.  Shares are up over 39% from the year lows and down over 11% from the recent high.  The nuclear energy woes are going to be hard to make up in the immediate future even if other areas are meant to offset it.  GE offers a current yield of 3.1% and Thomson Reuters sees a consensus price target north of $24.00.

The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) is now back under the 10% correction.  At $35.06, its 52-week range is $26.62 to $39.38, and shares are down 10.9% from highs and up over 31% from lows.  If you read the housing data headlines it might seem that there is even worse to come.  Home Depot at least offers a 2.8% yield as of now while you wait for the housing market to recover.  Thomson Reuters still has a consensus price target north of $41.00.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) are both in such bad shape that we won’t even bother mentioning all of the negatives, the paltry yields, and the rest of the lot.  All that matters is that Cisco is down over 37% from its 52-week high of $26.82 against a sale of -26.25% for Hewlett-Packard.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is sort of surprising to see being down so much since it was the true survivor of the recession.  At $41.42, its 52-week trading range is $35.16 to $48.36.  Shares are up almost 18% from the lows and down over 14% from the year-high.  Its dividend yield of 2.3% is actually high considering it was among the bailout-banks.  Thomson Reuters still sees a price target north of $55.50, for now.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been down more than 10% from its year high for some time.  Despite a yield of 2.6% today, it has been dead money whether it overpaid for Skype or not.  One fund manager recently said that it needs to develop an aggressive dividend policy to return capital to shareholders if it wants to be come a real stock worth buying again  At $24.22, it is up over 6.5% from its 52-week low of $22.73 and is down almost 18% from its 52-week high of $29.46.  Analysts have a consensus price target of $almost $33.00.

Then there is the new group of “almost stocks” where shares have hit the -7.5% threshold from the 52-week highs.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) trades at $101.83 and is down 7.6% from the high of $109.94.  Shares are still up about 52%  from the 52-week low of $66.83.  Thomson Reuters sees a share price target of close to $119.50.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) trades at $81.56 and is down 7.7% from the high of $ 88.23 and it is still up 45% from the 52-week low of $55.94.  Analysts have a consensus price target above $92.00 and the stock yields 2.3% today.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) trades at $40.25 and is now down over 9% from the high of $44.34.  Still, shares are up 31% from its 52-week low of $30.72.  Thomson Reuters sees a share price target of over $49.00.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) was holding up very well despite all the tablet hype and despite a PC-slowdown.  At $22.14, shares are now down 7.6% from the $23.96 high and is still up over 25% from the $17.60 low.  Intel now yields well over 3% in its dividend.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is down because of weak retail data in general and because it just has not lived up to its potential.  So much for being “the winner of the recession.”  At $53.55, it is down just over 7.5% from the high of $57.90 and the stock is still up 12% from the 52-week low of $47.77.  Wal-Mart’s dividend yield is 2.6% today.

The news gets worse here as well when comes to the “almost” crowd.  If we get only a partial repeat of what we have seen so far this week, then shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX), and 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) will all be within that “striking distance” level of a 10% correction as these are nearing the 7.5% correction threshold we use for our own alerts for long-term investors and traders alike.

When you see performance like this at the start of June, it makes you wonder why you did not sell in May and go away.  As a reminder, the DJIA is a price-weighted index and that means that the higher price components mean more to the DJIA than a half-dozen of the low-priced components.

JON C. OGG

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