Media Stocks Caught In Market Downturn, Dow Drops 623 Points

Another big stock market downturn on Friday — over trade issues with China — hit media stocks as well, with some broad-based technology and advertising technology enduring big declines.

Comscore, Apple and The Trade Desk had big declines. Comscore was down 5.8% to $1.80, while Apple was 4.6% lower to $202.64 and The Trade Desk gave up 5.2% to $246.43.

Traditional media companies were right behind these decliners: CBS was down 4.7% to $41.41, while Fox lost 4.2% to $31.44 and Discovery fell 3.6% to $27.01. Walt Disney and Comcast did a bit better in this category, with Disney losing 3.2% to $131.67 and Comcast down 3.1% to $42.43.

All these companies did worse than broader industry estimates: The Dow Jones U.S. Media Index lost 2.9% to 964.58, and the Dow Jones Industrials lost 2.4% — giving up 623 points — to close at 25,628.

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A week ago, the Dow Jones Industrials gave up 800 points — igniting fears among many that a possible recession of the U.S. economy could be near.

On Friday, with the possibility of more looming tariffs, President Trump “ordered” some companies to stop doing business with China. Earlier in the day, China said it was putting tariffs on some $75 billion in U.S. goods being imported into the country.

Among big broad-base technology service companies, Amazon was 3.1% lower to $1,749 and Google was off 3.2% to $1,151. But Netflix only sank 1.8% to $291.44 and Facebook lost 2.4% to $177.75.

Nielsen Holdings gave up 3.2% to $20.02. The Rubicon Project, slipped 3.5% to $10.11.

Companies with somewhat lesser stock market prices were also hit. Viacom lost 2.2% to $26.95, AMC Networks fell 2.3% to $49.09, and Charter Communications went 1.5% lower to $385.51.

TV stations groups saw slightly worse drops: Nexstar Media Group lost 3.1% to $93.89, Sinclair Broadcast Group went 2.9% lower to $43.10, and Tegna was down 3.6% to $14.23.

The best of top media companies — digital or traditional —was Roku. It was down just 1% to $137.74.

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