Wall Street got thrown for a loop on Tuesday morning, as investors finally started to heed warnings about the valuation levels in the broader stock market. Big pullbacks and heightened volatility came for many of the hottest areas of the stock market, leading to disparate results across major market benchmarks. Shortly after noon EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.11%) was down 177 points to 33,936. However, bigger downdrafts hit the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.02%), which lost 52 points to 4,141, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.10%), which plunged 363 points to 13,532.
Yet even as the rest of the stock market lost ground, some stocks managed to post strong gains. Arconic (ARNC) and Franklin Resources (BEN 0.08%) are in very different areas of the market, but they both managed to show investors that they can thrive in any kind of environment.
Arconic shines
Shares of Arconic jumped 16% at midday on Tuesday. The value-added aluminum company reported strong first-quarter results and had a promising outlook for the rest of the year.
Arconic produced steady gains from year-ago levels. Revenue was up 4%, while earnings of $0.46 per share were up almost 10% year over year. Arconic saw particular strength in the rolled products segment, where sales picked up almost 12% from where they were in the first quarter of 2020.
Image source: Arconic.
The company also reported that it has seen some big business wins in recent months. Arconic boasted more than $2 billion in long-term contracts with aerospace customers, as well as contracts worth another $1.5 billion from packaging companies in the North American market. Moves to address pension issues were also favorable for the company.
Arconic sees stronger conditions ahead for the aluminum market, and that caused the company to boost its forecasts for the full 2021 year. Add to that a $300 million stock repurchase program, and it's easy to understand why Arconic has shareholders excited on Tuesday even in a market downdraft.
Pennies saved turn into bigger earnings for Franklin
Elsewhere, Franklin Resources shares were up more than 6% near the midway mark of the Tuesday trading session. The financial services provider had some good things to say in its fiscal second-quarter financial report.
Franklin saw huge financial gains after its acquisition of fellow investment manager Legg Mason last summer. Revenue jumped 58% from year-ago levels, and that produced net income that soared almost fivefold year over year. Franklin ended the period with almost $1.5 trillion under management, up from just $580 billion 12 months ago. Investment management revenue climbed 76%.
Yet even taking out the positive impact of the merger, Franklin has seen new money pouring in due to the favorable market environment. CEO Jenny Johnson noted particular strength in inflows to alternative asset investments, as real estate, alternative credit, hedge fund, and infrastructure strategies attracted investors. Moreover, fixed-income strategies picked up steam, helping Franklin's bond funds.
Franklin's results are a reminder that as long as markets are healthy, asset managers tend to do well, and even a one-day drop won't hurt its prospects. Only if Tuesday's swoon turns into a longer-term downturn will it start to weigh on Franklin's business if it lasts too long.