White House Announces New Sanctions on Russia

hank

Don’t have time to track all this down. Bloomberg is reporting the new sanctions are particularly hurting the materials sector. One (industrial materials) miner I’ve followed closely over the past year, RIO, is down about 3.65% today, having been back-sliding lately from its top reached approximately a month ago. Precious metals have been bleeding all week.

Actually, a good day to ”look out for falling objects.”

Story

Crash

"metals and mining sector."

Yes, and there's been talk, but just TALK--- about slapping a tariff on Russian aluminum. Were that to happen, ostensibly it would help other companies who are engaged in that business, and who do not live in Russia, eh????? But my darling, the Aluminum company, Norsk Hydro, fell like a stone today. Giant stinky doggy poopies. Anyone have any IDEA of an explanation for this??? Thanks. @hank ?

hank

@Crash - Absolutely no knowledge of this company. Umm … all materials sectors were weak today. Generally rising fears of a Fed-induced recession will hit these types of companies particularly hard. Since this one is in Norway, currency exchange issues (Dollar’s strengthening on higher interest rates vs Norway’s currency) likely contributed as well to today’s 5% decline. Currency can make a huge difference day-to-day when dealing with international holdings.

I’ll note that many materials producers soared during the second half of 2022, some gaining around 30% over that 6-month period. So a “fall back to earth” is to be expected. However that does not appear to be the case with Norsk, which as far as I can tell has been pretty much “flat-lining” over the past year,

Of course this is not intended as any type of investments advice, which I’m not qualified to offer. Did dig up a brief blurb on the company (Wikipedia) more for the benefit of others who might be following this conversation:

”Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents.”

Crash

@hank
I can always count on you to make sense of it. Thank you. So... currency exchange. I'd not thought of that. Yes, NHYDY was up over 30% last year at one point for me. Back down to more like 14% now. I'm sticking with it. I've looked at everything and anything I can find about that company. As much as one can have faith in any of this investment stuff, I think they know how to steer the ship. Sadly, there have been recent layoffs. Expecting reduced demand. Lovely dividend, though, too. Fwd. Div. yield = 7.63%. Trailing div. yield = 9.47%. Payout ratio = 44.23%.

hank

@Crash. Thanks for the reply. The data I pulled up on Google didn’t reveal dividends, just share price moves. After posting … it occurred to me you mention dividends quite often and that this one certainly sounds like a high dividend payer. As you no doubt know, producing aluminum is very energy intensive. So this one is drinking out of both sides of the cup - generating & selling energy and also using it to produce aluminum.

There’s one issue with Norway that doesn’t receive a lot of attention. It borders Russia. So developments in the Ukraine may is some ways affect investors’ appetite for holdings there. Possibly the new sanctions signal heightened or more prolonged hostilities between Russia and the West.

Crash

+1.

Yes, I've come to a decision: I'll invest in companies that offer a 3% div. or better. Then hold on for the long haul. My single stocks are all in different industries, too. I did that deliberately.

orage

Looks like the Krone only dropped about 1% (vs. US$) over the course of Feb 24th.

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=NOK&view=1W

[Note: must click away from, then back to, the 1W button for proper x-axis labeling]

Crash

Thanks for the note, @orage.