WSU leads stock-picking contest

One month into the three-month S-R Stock Stars stock-picking contest, the student team from Washington State University is leading by a nose.

The value of the WSU team’s portfolio of five regional stocks fell by 4 percent through Jan. 31. The University of Idaho team’s portfolio declined by 6 percent.

By comparison, the Dow was down 3 percent in January, the S&P off about 2.5 percent, and the Nasdaq fell by about 5 percent.

Each team was given the opportunity to trade one of their five stock holdings for the next leg of the contest, and WSU opted to dump Amazon.com in favor of Goodrich Corp. Its other stocks are: Starbucks, Sterling Financial, Nordstrom and Labor Ready.

The UI team stuck with its original choices: Alcoa, US Bancorp., Coldwater Creek, Ambassadors Group and Safeco.

Stay tuned for another update at the end of this month.