What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after President Trump declared the Iran ceasefire "over" and threatened more strikes.
Staples usually cushion portfolios in risk-off sessions, but two forces worked against them. First, energy is a major input across the sector, powering manufacturing, packaging, and distribution, so a crude spike of more than 7% raises freight and production costs that squeeze margins, and companies cannot always pass those increases to already-stretched shoppers without losing volume.
Second, staples trade partly as bond proxies thanks to their steady dividends; when global government bond yields jump on inflation fears, as they did today, higher yields compete with those payouts and pressure the shares. So while investors often hide in staples during turmoil, an inflationary oil shock is precisely the kind of disturbance that erodes both their margins and their relative yield appeal.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Personal Care company Inter Parfums (NASDAQ: IPAR) fell 3.4%. Is now the time to buy Inter Parfums? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Personal Care company Estée Lauder (NYSE: EL) fell 3.6%. Is now the time to buy Estée Lauder? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Personal Care company Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) fell 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Herbalife? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Estée Lauder (EL)
Estée Lauder’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 13 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 5 months ago when the stock dropped 21.5% on the news that the company reported fourth-quarter results and provided a disappointing full-year profit forecast.
While revenue grew 5.6% year on year to meet expectations and adjusted earnings per share of $0.89 beat estimates by 6.6%, investors focused on the future. Management's updated guidance for full-year adjusted earnings per share fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
This disappointing outlook overshadowed positive signs in the quarter, including a well-appreciated return to organic sales growth, which rose 4% after several quarters of decline. The weaker-than-expected profit forecast signaled potential challenges ahead, causing investors to sell off the stock despite the solid quarterly performance.
Estée Lauder is down 23.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $81.54 per share, it is trading 31.8% below its 52-week high of $119.61 from February 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Estée Lauder’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $260.02.
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