It's been a year of bumpy roads for banking giant Bank of America (NYSE: BAC
), and Monday saw BofA stumble over another pothole. BofA shares sunk below $5
per share $4.92 at one point their lowest value in more than two years, since
the depths of the financial crisis. Stocks that fall below $5 run certain
dangers: Some mutual funds won't hold them, and some brokers won't allow
investors to buy or short sub-$5 stocks on margin. However, the low point is
merely a continuation of a yearlong trend that has seen BAC shares shed more
than 60% of their value. Less than two months ago, shares were selling at less
than $7 and some were calling that a floor, believing BofA to be a bargain.
However, numerous business and financial problems as well as the constant
seesawing on Europe's daily headlines meant the stock still was an enormous
risk in the short term . Since that point, BAC shares have shed more than 25%,
and BofA ended Monday down 4% at $4.99. Bank of America had plenty of friends to
commiserate with Monday. Citigroup (NYSE: C , -4.65%), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM ,
-3.73%), Goldman Sach s (NYSE: GS , -2.66%) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC , -2.58%)
all sold off in kind. Also later Monday, AT&T (NYSE: T ) announced it would end
its nine-month-long bid for the No. 4 U.S. telecom, T-Mobile USA. The deal had
run into opposition from the Federal Communications Commission and the
Department of Justice in the past few months. AT&T will suffer a $4 billion
pretax accounting charge for the fourth quarter because of the breakup, and T
shares were sliding slightly in after-hours trading, down 0.5%. Social gaming
company Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA ) continued to slide for the second trading day
since its initial public offering . After ending Friday down 5% from its
offering price of $10, it shed close to another 5%, ending Monday at $9.05. The
company faces numerous doubts, among them the ability to recreate blockbuster
games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars , which have seen monthly user numbers
rapidly decline of late. Looking further and further away from going public is
Twitter. On Monday, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced he bought a $300
million stake in the social networking company, adding Twitter to an investment
portfolio that includes large holdings in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Citigroup and
News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA ). Three Up VirnetX Holding (AMEX: VHC ): Up 17.7%
($3.76) to $25. LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK ): Up 11.24% (50 cents) to $4.95. Elan
(NYSE: ELN ): Up 6.35% (75 cents) to $12.57. Three Down Eldorado Gold (AMEX: EGO
): Down 13.62% ($2.04) to $12.94. ( Read more about Eldorado here. ) Delta Air
Lines (NYSE: DAL ): Down 5.65% (51 cents) to $8.51. General Motors (NYSE: GM ):
Down 5.46% ($1.10) to $19.05. As of this writing, Kyle Woodley did not hold a
position in any of the aforementioned stocks. Check out our list of previous IP
Market Recaps .
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