The Dow hit the 20,000 mark Wednesday, and other Street benchmarks are at record levels as well as the post-election “Trump bump” continues. Several Triangle tech stocks have joined the surge, but management changes at Quintiles and Red Hat show not even Donald Trump means every stock rises.

As The Skinny reported back on Nov. 22, the election of Trump triggered an immediate surge on Wall Street despite the fact in the early hours after the results became clear future plunged 500 points.

We thought we would check back Thursday before the markets opened to see how several Triangle benchmark stocks have done since Nov. 9 as the Dow and other indexes rose steadily, paused in the New Year, then erupted Wednesday in the wake of Trump’s continuing pledges for regulatory and tax reforms.

Here are some highlights:

  • IBM has surged to $178.29 from $155.17 with last week’s earnings report coming in better than expected.
  • Cree investors got good news from a better-than-average earnings report Tuesday, so that combined with the “Trump bump” as the stock surge is being called helped lift Cree to $28.83.
  • Its close on Nov. 8: $21.82.
  • INC Research has surged to $51.70 from $46.95.
  • ChannelAdvisor has climbed to $14.70 from $12.60.
  • NetApp is surging, too, at $37.95 compared to $32.49.
  • AT&T closed at $41.39 Wednesday ahead of its earnings report, up from a Nov. 8 close of $36.99.

The exceptions

There are two notable exceptions to the surge, however: Red Hat and Quintiles.

Red Hat stock plummeted in December with the news that highly regarded (and extremely well paid) CFO Frank Calderoni was leaving.

Red Hat closed at $76.67 on Nov. 8 and climbed a bit to $77.79 on Dec. 31. The Calderoni news sent stock down like a stone to $68.71, but a recovery has taken place, lifting shares to $76.43 on Wednesday.

And Wall Street still has a negative view of the recently merged QuintilesIMS in the wake of former CEO Tom Pike’s departure.

Quintiles closed at $75.94 on Nov. 8, surged to $80.93 on Nov. 29 then fell to $73 Dec. 1. Its stock has rebounded slightly to $75.53.

Flat-line

Cisco has flat-lined, closing at $30.70 Wednesday. Its Nov. 8 close was $31. That $3.7 billion buy of AppDynamics (twice its pre-IPO valuation) may be causing some investor heartburn.

PRA Health, meanwhile, closed Wednesday at $55.14, down 32 cents from pre-election day.

Bottom line?

So what’s all this mean?

Not even Trump can lift all stock boats. Investors still want results. Not hype. And as demonstrated by Red Hat-Quintiles: Losing top-draw talent hurts.

Big time.