The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 600 points Monday in a broad selloff, sweeping tech stocks like Apple and Netflix into the cellar while more traditional TV stocks finished the day relatively unscathed.
The Dow closed at 25,387, down 602 points or 2.3%, as investors’ fears mounted on several fronts. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sell-off was attributable to overall worries that risky assets may be due for a decline, general unease in the markets as tensions flared in the U.K. and Italy, and skittishness about the future prospects of computer chip and device makers.
Apple fell more than 5% to $194.17 (down $10.30 each) after one of its top suppliers — Lumentum — cut its revenue forecasts, casting doubt on iPhone demand. Other tech stocks followed — Amazon shares closed at $1,636.85 each, down 4.4% and Netflix fell 3.1% to $294.07 per share. Google and Facebook fared better, down 2.6% and 2.4%, respectively.
On the more traditional cable side, Comcast closed at $38 each, down 34 cents each, or less than 1%, despite a call from lobbying group The American Cable Association (echoed by none other than the President of the United States) for the Justice Department to look into antitrust issues around its years-old purchase of NBCUniversal. Most other cable stocks fared even better in what was a volatile Monday for the market.
Charter Communications was up 1% ($2.24 each) to close at $323.35 each on Nov. 12, while Cable One was up 1.1% to $875.09, and Altice USA dipped just 2 cents (0.1%) to $18.45 per share. Liberty Global, the John Malone-controlled international cable operator, was hit hardest in the sector, falling 4.6% to $23.97 per share.
Dish Network, which said last week that it lost 367,000 satellite TV customers in the third quarter, was down just 8 cents for the day (0.25%) to close at $31.65 each. DirecTV and WarnerMedia parent AT&T rose 9 cents per share (0.29%) to $30.78 per share, while Verizon Communications ended the day at $58.72 per share, up 22 cents each or 0.44%.
On the programming side, Viacom was the lone gainer, up 1.5% (47 cents) to $32.57 each, but the other stocks in the sector had minimal losses. The Walt Disney Co. was down 1.1% to $116.70; CBS fell 0.76% to $57.13; Discovery was down 1.8% to $32.39; AMC Networks dipped 0.3% to $59.60 and 21st Century Fox finished down 0.2% to $48.07 per share.
