Amid fears of a looming global recession, media stocks had a mixed day of trading on Friday as major market indexes posted their longest streak of weekly losses in decades.
The S&P 500 closed flat thanks to a late session rally, but has been lower all week and is down 18.7% year-to-date, on the brink of the unofficial threshold of 20% indicating a bear market. The Nasdaq Composite, which is geared towards the technology sector, is down 0.3% on Friday and is down 28% since the start of 2020. For both indices, this is the longest streak of weekly losses since the dot-com crash of 2001.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also essentially flat on Friday, down 2.8% for the week. That represented its eighth consecutive weekly loss, and the longest since 1932, according to market analysts.
After rallying late in history, some media stocks ended the day in positive territory. Those companies included Warner Bros. Discovery (+1.4%), Paramount Global (+1.3%), Fox Corp. (+ 0.4%). Losers included Disney (-0.7%), Comcast (-0.02%), AMC Networks (-3%) and Lionsgate (-3.6%).
Netflix closed up 1.4% on Friday, but that came after a massive sell-off in the streaming device’s shares. So far this year, Netflix stock is down 69%.
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The persistently high rate of inflation in the United States and other countries is raising fears of slowing spending. The Fed earlier this month raised interest rates, in an effort to contain inflation, and is expected to do so again; This has also contributed to downward pressure on stocks, particularly among highly leveraged companies.
One of the only widely owned stocks that has been updated for a year now: AT&T, which split from WarnerMedia and sold it to Discovery in a deal that closed last month. This divestiture ended the operation of telecommunications companies in media and entertainment to focus on their core telecommunications business. AT&T shares are down 0.9% on Friday and are up 6.4% since the start of the year.
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