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Worries about the economy sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 512.76 points Thursday, or 4.31%, and media stocks were among those taking bigger than average hits.
CBS, which as primarily a broadcaster has historically been seen as heavily reliant on advertising revenue, was down more than 9%, with its stock at $24.21, a decline of $2.49. CBS announced very strong earnings on Tuesday. Shares of Comcast and Time Warner, which also reported higher profits this week, were down 4.26% and 4.62% respectively.
DirecTV fell 5.74% to $46.63 a share despite reporting higher-than-expected earnings. The satellite company also said it had the lowest level of new subscribers in its history.
Viacom was down more than 6% in advance of its earnings announcement tomorrow.
News Corp., which reports earnings next week, was down nearly 7%. Cablevision Systems and Scripps Networks Interactive, which also report next week, were down more than 5%.
All of the media companies are expected to report higher earnings, boosted by a strong ad market. But the market appears to be concerned that the economy may be headed for a double digit recession, which would cut into spending by marketers.
The U.S. stock market selloff was the biggest in more than a year and followed big drops in Europe and the Far East. The plunge continued a slide that has now left the Dow in negative territory for the year.
