Volume, Not Price, Drove the Surprise at Procter & Gamble (PG) Maham Fatima Sun, November 8, 2026 at 12:33 PM EST 4 min read PG ^DJI ^GSPC ^IXIC Trade PG on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Our latest list of the 10 Worst Dow Stocks To Buy is live, and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) comes in at 8th on this list.
Yahoo Finance reported on November 5 that the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 3.4%, or more than 1,800 points, while the S&P 500 fell 4.4% and the Nasdaq Composite sank 5.5% into correction territory. Chip stocks took the brunt of the damage, as the leading AI chipmaker fell 9% to pace Dow decliners and another chip designer plunged 17%, the outlet reported.
The slide erased the gains from a day earlier, when the Dow had jumped nearly 1,600 points after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, Yahoo Finance wrote on November 4. Even so, the blue-chip index finished Thursday just 1.9% below its record closing high of 54,349 from early August, according to Yahoo Finance.
For most of the week the Dow had looked like the sheltered corner of the market. Yahoo Finance reported on November 2 that the Dow edged up 0.4% while the Nasdaq dropped roughly 1% as investors rotated out of technology names and into consumer cyclical and financial services shares. One household consumer brand has divided opinion lately, and we covered why a well-known TV host is staying away from the sneaker maker after losing money on it.
On Thursday that cushion gave way, as the focus turned to what a Democratic Congress could mean for the AI buildout, and for the data centers driving it in particular, according to Yahoo Finance. Data center power and infrastructure stocks fell by double digits, and the Nasdaq 100 was recently more than 10% below its October closing high.
The reversal was fast. Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at an equity research firm, pointed out that the VIX volatility index posted its biggest one-day jump in more than two years, Yahoo Finance reported on November 5. It took the Nasdaq just six minutes to erase its entire post-election rally.
Friday brought a partial rebound. Yahoo Finance reported on November 6 that the U.S. added 165,000 jobs in October, and the Nasdaq gained 1.9% while the S&P 500 rose 1% and the Dow added 0.1%. You might also be interested in reading our piece on why a billionaire money manager and a TV host both still like the iPhone maker.
The stronger jobs data lifted Treasury yields and kept Federal Reserve policy at the center of market attention, Reuters reported on November 6, as the price-weighted index of 30 major U.S. companies held roughly flat.
Procter & Gamble's average upside potential, based on analysts' average price target, is 5%. It has a short interest of 0.95% and had 83 hedge fund holders as of Q2 2026.
Volume, not price, drove the surprise at Procter & Gamble. Organic sales rose 4% in the fiscal first quarter, and organic volume alone added 2.4 points, so shoppers were buying more product rather than simply paying more for it. Pricing contributed very little to the gain, and management said the quarter reflected sharper execution across the business.
Cost savings helped cushion higher commodity costs. Core operating margin included gross productivity savings of 250 basis points, and core earnings per share came in at $2.00, ahead of the year-earlier figure. Management kept its full-year organic sales, earnings and cash return guidance in place, and the company still expects to turn most of its adjusted profit into free cash flow.
Chief Executive Shailesh Jejurikar said the results reflect sharper execution of the company's strategy of delighting consumers with superior products at a superior value. The company has also completed its purchase of Thorne, a premium wellness brand, and widened its full-year sales growth forecast to reflect the deal, which adds a health and supplements business to a portfolio built around everyday household and beauty brands.
Here is our analysis on Procter & Gamble (PG): Procter & Gamble (PG) Expects 1% to 3% Organic Growth, Is That Enough?
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of PG as an investment, we believe certain AI infrastructure stocks offer far stronger long-term potential at a much more attractive entry point. If you are looking for an AI stock more promising than PG that operates as a critical AI tollbooth and stands as the most important company in the world, check out our report about this must-own AI stock.
READ NEXT: BofA Turns Bearish on Nike: What's Behind the Downgrade? and Apple Has Outperformed the S&P 500, but is AAPL's 35x Valuation Getting Ahead of its Growth?
This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
