What happened Shares of Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) headed down the drain last month, after the appliance giant reported a disappointing third-quarter earnings report and said it would stop supplyingSears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) , ending a partnership that had lasted a century. As the chart below shows, the stock plunged on Oct. 24 as the company reported earnings and news broke about the divorce from Sears: WHR data by YCharts . CEO Marc Bitzer said that raw material inflation had eaten into operating margins, and the company was launching initiatives such as cost-based price increases and fixed-cost reductions.