This week, which stocks lagged or dragged? Weekly Winners column keeps up with market trends, helping Tigers sort out the week's hottest sectors, stock winners and important news.
Below are top 10 S&P 500 stock gainers for the week ended March 27:
Brown-Forman soars 19% as Pernod Ricard in merger talks with the Jack Daniel's maker
France’s Pernod Ricard and Jack Daniel’s owner Brown-Forman are in discussions about a possible merger, the companies said on Thursday, a move that would unite the world’s second-largest spirits maker with the largest producer of American whiskey.
Spirits companies are battling a multi-year sales slump amid slowing demand and tariff pressures, which has triggered a slide in valuations, CEO exits and asset sales to cut costs.
Shares of Brown-Forman, which has a market capitalization of about $11 billion, up nearly 19% this week, while those of Pernod, the maker of Absolut vodka and Chivas Regal whisky, fell on the news.
Pernod Ricard has a market value of about 16 billion euros ($18.45 billion) and an extensive spirits portfolio that includes Irish whiskey, scotch and tequila, but relatively little exposure to American whiskey.
Oil Stocks Jump With SLB Rising 15%, Halliburton Up 11% as Fears of a Prolonged Oil Shock Grow
It’s been a chaotic month in markets since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, prompting a surge in oil prices.
Wall Street has been counting on a brief conflict that sees crude-oil prices quickly settle comfortably below $100 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent crude’s front-month May contract settled at $114.81 a barrel on Friday, the highest since July 2022 — up 57% in March so far. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery ended Friday at $101.18 a barrel, up 50% month to date.
SLB rose 14.73% for the week; Sable Offshore up over 13%; Halliburton, Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras up over 10%; Marathon Petroleum up over 8%; Occidental, Exxon Mobil up over 7%.
Albemarle Jumps 14%, Outperforming Other Basic Materials Stocks This Year
ALB has returned 27% so far this year as lithium market sentiment improved. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has returned an average of 10% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Albemarle is outperforming its peers so far this year.
On the capital structure front, Albemarle recently expanded a tender offer to $650 million, and the robust demand for that debt issuance was viewed favorably by equity market participants.
A debt offering of this magnitude executed successfully indicates that credit markets remain comfortable with Albemarle’s financial foundation, despite navigating through a challenging period for lithium commodity prices.
Management has been transparent about calibrating its 2026 performance outlook based on various lithium pricing scenarios. This inherent sensitivity to spot market pricing means that when futures contracts spike, the equity response tends to be magnified.
Corning Shares Surge 10% on Increased Confidence in the Optical Cycle
Shares of Corning were up more than 9% Tuesday. The glassmaker has had a strong start to 2026, rising more than 56% year to date. Its glass is used in laptop computers, monitors, and a variety of industrial and telecommunications applications.
A single-line mention of the stock from BofA Securities research analyst Wamsi Mohan appears to have driven the rise. Mohan raised his price outlook for the stock to $155 from $144 “to reflect increased confidence in the optical cycle playing out and even higher per GPU content in scale out.”
The optical cycle refers to general increases and decreases in demand for optical fiber, a core business for Corning. Optical communications accounted for around 40% of Corning’s net income in the last fiscal year, according to its latest earnings report in January.
