5 Worst Investment Ideas Of 2017 Thus Far

Now that investors are at the halfway point of 2017, it’s time to take a look back at what has been an exceptionally strong year for U.S. stocks so far. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY is up 8.6 percent in the first half of the year, but not all stocks have been invited to the party.

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5 Worst-Performing S&P 500 Stocks

Here’s a look at the five worst-performing S&P 500 stocks so far this year.

5. Diamond Offshore Drilling: -38.8 percent

The weakest sector of the market in 2017 has been the energy sector, as the recovery in the global oil market has hit a brick wall. Offshore drillers require some of the highest break-even crude prices of the entire oil industry, so offshore stocks like Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc DO have been hit hard as WTI crude oil prices have dipped back below $45/bbl.

4. Southwestern Energy: -43.8 percent

Oil exposure will be the major theme of this list of worst investment ideas, but exploration and production stocks like Southwestern Energy Company SWN have been particularly volatile. Oil investors are hoping that OPEC will step up with more aggressive production cuts and/or U.S. producers will dial back their production growth in the second half of the year.

3. Transocean: -44.1 percent

Transocean LTD RIG’s struggles in 2017 are no mystery. Revenue has been cut in half in the past two years as the company struggles to survive the oil slump.

2. Fossil Group: -59.9 percent

Fossil Group Inc FOSL is still one of the top brands in traditional watches. Unfortunately, the traditional watch business is in the middle of what most investors see as a secular decline. Fossil has a lot of ground to make up to compete with the leading brands in the smart-watch and wearable devices business, including Apple Inc. AAPL and Fitbit Inc FIT.

1. Frontier Communications: -65.6 percent

The worst investment idea in the entire S&P 500 so far in 2017 has been Frontier Communications Corp FTR, which lost nearly two-thirds of its market cap in the first half of the year. Frontier’s purchase of Verizon Communications Inc. VZ’s wireline business in Florida, California and Texas has done nothing to stop Frontier’s outflow of customers, and the stock is now in danger of dipping below the Nasdaq’s $1 minimum listing requirement.