U.S. stock markets suffered their most volatile quarter since the 2008 financial crisis as evidence of a global slowdown mounted.
And despite fighting hard to hold onto gains, most Colorado stocks ended the third quarter pummeled.
The Bloomberg Colorado Index, a basket of 88 companies based in the state, declined 16.3 percent in the quarter and is down 14.4 percent for the year.
That decline was worse than the 12.1 percent drop in the Dow Jones industrial average and the 14.3 percent drop in the S&P 500 from July through September.
Only seven Colorado stocks managed gains in the quarter, and four were gold companies. Another six Colorado firms saw their share prices cut by half or more.
“The volatility of the last two months has been unreal,” said Brian Cunningham, chief investment officer at 361 Capital in Denver.
Cunningham’s firm manages the Absolute Alpha Fund, which can profit from both gains and declines in stocks. The fund lost about 2.8 percent in the quarter, a small enough decline to make it a top performer among Colorado mutual funds.
Vista Gold Corp. gained 18 percent in the third quarter, making it Colorado’s top-performing stock.
Colorado’s largest public company, Newmont Mining, came in second with a 16.6 percent gain that pushed its market cap close to $31 billion.
“Now the market is starting to recognize the value of owning gold equities, whereas before, the conventional wisdom was to own physical gold or gold exchange-traded funds,” said Omar Jabara, a spokesman for the Greenwood Village-based firm.
Newmont accelerated a one-of-a- kind program in September that links the dividend paid out to the price of gold, Jabara said.
Spectranetics, a Colorado Springs medical device maker, rose 14.8 percent, making it the third-best performer in the state. Mesa Labs, a Lakewood medical device maker, rose 11.9 percent.
The hardest hit Colorado stock was Gevo Inc., a biofuels firm that went public in February. It shed 64.6 percent of its value in the quarter.
Despite being a precious metals firm, Golden Minerals Co., got crushed with a 58.2 percent decline. Delta Petroleum lost 57.1 percent.
The U.S. debt debate and rating downgrade, Europe’s intractable debt crisis and fears of recession successively drained the life out of the bull market.
But it hasn’t gone down easily, with huge declines followed by massive rallies during the quarter.
“It was completely unpredictable,” Cunningham said. “A lot of traders and money managers were pulling their hair out.”
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or
