4 Underwhelming Earners to Trade (or Not?)

Western Union

Nearest Resistance: $17.80
Nearest Support: N/A
Catalyst: Earnings Drop Digestion

Things are looking worse at Western Union (WU). I'm not talking just in relation to Pfizer -- things don't get much worse in the market than what we're seeing at Western Union today. The big selling came yesterday, when poor earnings and a series of downgrades sent shares tumbling 29% by the closing bell. Today, shares attempted to bounce a bit, but are failing, dropping another 3% and change as I write. From a technical standpoint, the setup in WU should be sending a big caveat emptor signal to bargain-hunters in this stock. Western Union may look a whole lot cheaper today than it did last week -- but it's headed even cheaper still.

Shares are making new 52-week lows today, a scenario that has big psychological implications for investors. The simplest way to think about 52-week lows is this: everyone who's bought the stock in the last year is sitting on losses right now. That means that "back to even" mentality is going to rule WU for a while. I'd recommend staying as far away from this stock as possible until that gets resolved.

Barrick Gold

Nearest Resistance: $39
Nearest Support: $32
Catalyst: Q3 Earnings Miss

The same can't be said about Barrick Gold (ABX) today. The Toronto-based gold miner is off more than 8% this afternoon following an earnings miss of more than a dime per share short of analysts expectations. More significantly, it's shoving Barrick's price down below the stock's most recent swing low, a move that indicates weakening technicals. On a technical basis, Barrick has been the ugliest of the gold miners, trending lower even as peers showed signs of a bottom. For now, investors looking for exposure to the yellow metal should avoid this name.

Cirrus Logic

Nearest Resistance: $37
Nearest Support: $30
Catalyst: Q2 Numbers, Downgrade

Finally, Cirrus Logic (CRUS) is another name that's down big today -- the semiconductor firm is down around 9% as I write following earnings numbers. But the big difference is that CRUS' quarter was actually stellar. The selloff is more the result of investors' anxiety of a slowing growth trajectory (highlighted by an analyst downgrade today) than of any sort of earnings miss. While the decline is pretty large in CRUS, buyers aren't throwing in the towel just yet.

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