A day after Hurricane Irene barreled up the Eastern Seaboard, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 250 points, taking cable stocks along for the ride.
The Dow finished at 11,539.25 points on Monday, up nearly 255 points, driven mainly by gains in insurance stocks as damage inflicted by the storm, while in the billions of dollars, was still short of what the Street was expecting. Monday's surge helped bring the index closer to the breakeven point for the full year.
Cable stocks benefited from the rise, with Charter Communications up 4.4% ($2.07 each) to $49.71; Cablevision Systems up 3.8% (66 cents) to $18.01 each; Comcast up 3.3% (67 cents) to $21.24 each and Time Warner Cable up 2.4% ($1.52 each) to $65.03.
Satellite stocks also posted gains, with Dish Network up 4.8% ($1.08) to $23.32 and DirecTV up 2.5% ($1.06) to $43.57 per share.
Programming stocks also had a good day, with Scripps Networks up 5% ($1.97) to $41.57; Time Warner increased 3.7% ($1.10) to $31.02; and Viacom rose 3.2% ($1.74) to $56.99. Rounding out the sector, Liberty Capital increased 3.7% ($2.48) to $69.02; Liberty Starz gained 3% ($1.97) to $68.29; Liberty Interactive advanced 2.8% (43 cents) to $15.62; Discovery Communications grew 2.8% ($1.10) to $40.62; News Corp. was up 2.5% (43 cents) to $17.44; and Disney rose 2.4% (76 cents) to $33.16.
