The 52-Week Low Club for Friday

January 15, 2016: Here are four stocks trading with heavy volume among 1,111 equities making new 52-week lows today.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) dropped about 5.7% on Friday to post a new 52-week low of $14.13 against a 52-week high of $18.48. The stock closed at $14.99 on Thursday night. Volume topped 110 million shares, about 35% higher than the stock’s daily average volume of around 82 million. The bank reports fourth-quarter results Tuesday morning, and investors did not like what they heard from either Wells Fargo or Citi this morning.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) dropped about 7.8% on Friday to post a new 52-week low at $41.85 after closing at $45.38 on Thursday. The stock’s 52-week high is $60.95. Share volume totaled around 42 million shares compared with the daily average of around 18 million shares traded. A big bank reported solid earnings this morning, but most of the gain was due to cost savings, not much higher revenues, and given the way 2016 has started out for equities, investors can be forgiven for being cautious.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) fell about 6.5% on Friday to post a new 52-week low of $6.77 against a high of $17.10. The stock closed at $7.24 on Thursday night. Volume rose to around 42 million, about 20% above the daily average of around 31 million shares traded. Lasting weakness in aluminum prices have sucked all the air out of the stock.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) posted a new low on Friday. Shares dropped nearly 10% to a low of $3.28 from Thursday’s closing price of $3.64. The stock’s 52-week high is $21.49. Volume was about equal to the daily average of around 23 million shares. The company had no specific news today, but natural gas prices have fallen about 2% today, oil is down nearly 6%, and neither is good news for Chesapeake.