The stock market started the week on a higher note, gaining nearly 1,300 points as investors placed bets that the central banks will help protect economic growth from any pitfalls caused by the coronavirus, dragging cable stocks along for the ride.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday up 1,294 points (5.1%), its largest single day point gain on record, a reversal from the prior two weeks that saw record declines. While the index still hasn’t fully emerged from the hole it created between Feb. 14 and Feb. 28 when it fell nearly 4,000 points (12%), it was a good start. And cable stocks, which took a clobbering last week along with the rest of the market, started to climb back up.
Comcast led distribution stocks with a 5.2% gain on Monday ($2.09) per share to $42.52 each, followed by Cable One (up 3.3%), Altice USA (up 1.4%) and Charter Communications (up 1%).
Telco AT&T was up 5.6% ($1.96) to $close at $37.18 for the day, which also coincided with the launch of its AT&T TV streaming service. Verizon was up 5.8% to $57.32 and Dish Network was up 2.4% to $34.33 per share.
On the programming side, Fox Corp., which was hammered last week as investors worried about companies with strong ties to Asia (the source of the coronavirus) gained 4.4% ($1.37) to close at $32.11 each. The Walt Disney Co. rose 2% to $119.98 each and Discovery rose 2.7% (70 cents) to $26.40 per share. Viacom was down 1.2% (30 cents) to $24.31, and World Wrestling Entertainment fell 1% to $46.36 to close out the day.
