Showbiz shares and the broad market rose sharply in the wake of what looks increasingly like a Democratic sweep in the Georgia Senate runoffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 hit intraday highs.
Only the tech-heavy Nasdaq (which fell sharply early the session before creeping out of the red) wavered. Apple remains off 1.5%, Facebook down 1.6% and Amazon lower by 0.8% in late morning trade. Netflix was pulled down too with shares off 2%. Market watchers cited jitter that the Dems may boost scrutiny of the sector, but also noted that these big growth stocks are high priced, having surged in a 2020 dominated by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Wednesday was a chance for others to shine with the DJIA (up more than 500 points or 1.7%), the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 all higher with media stocks rising across the board from entertainment to broadcasters to cinema chains. They joined a rally in shares that could benefit from increased stimulus and spending under a Democratic Senate. Raphael Warnock, who ousted Kelly Loeffler, and Jon Ossoff, who is leading John Perdue although that race hasn’t been called yet, made the $2,000 stimulus check blocked by a Mitch McConnell-led senate a centerpiece of their campaign.
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Showbiz Stocks In 2020: Tech Tops, Cinema Flops Amid Covid Crash & Streaming Dash
The DJIA is made of 30 stocks meant to serve as a bellwether for the general U.S. stock market – including Walt Disney and Apple. The S&P 500 is an index of the 500 largest companies in the U.S. The Russell 2000 is a small-cap index.
Discovery, which launched a new DTC streaming platform Monday, surged more than 5%. ViacomCBS, Lionsgate and AMC Networks were up more than 4%. Disney continued to rise, up 1%.
Broadcasters also rallied led by Tenga, which provided an upbeat preview of fourth-quarter financials Wednesday morning showing record political advertising. Its shares were up nearly 6%, followed by gains at Sinclair and Nexstar.
Movie theater stocks, laggards last year with moviegoing crippled, were all trading higher from Imax to Cinemark to challenged AMC Entertainment. CEO Adam Aron told CNBC yesterday that the company is trying to power its way through the pandemic and had raised $200 million in late December towards the $750 million it needs to get to the other side.
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