• by Wayne Friedman , February 20, 2018

After a rough five-day period in the first week in February -- in which the U.S. stock market dropped around 8% for most indexes -- media stocks followed up with decent gains for the week ending February 16.

The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting & Entertainment Index is up 3.4% to 1,313 (down 3% for the month) and 2% higher year-to-date. The broader Dow Jones U.S. Media Index grew 3.6% to 882.05 (down 3% for the month) and 2% more year-to-date.

This compares to the Dow Jones Industrials, which dropped 8% in value from February 1 through February 9.

Big traditional media stocks tallied generally 3% to 5% hikes for the most recent week.

21st Century Fox was up 4.8% to close at $37.46, while Comcast Corp. grew 3% to $39.79 and Walt Disney was up 3.3% to $106.53. Similarly, CBS was up 5% to 55.39 -- although still down 6% overall year-to-date. Viacom, a potential merger partner, grew 2% for the week to $33.50.

Large digital media companies -- which took a major drop the week before -- made back some of its losses.

Amazon grew 8% to $1,448, while Netflix rocketed up 11.6% to $278.52 and Google (Alphabet) added 4.7% to $1,095. Of the big four FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) stocks, Facebook grew the least -- up 0.7% to $177.36, down 1% year-to-date.