Report: Media Stocks Suffer in Trump Era

Stocks have thus far thrived in the era of President Trump, but one sector is lagging: entertainment media, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the first half of 2017, the S&P 500 is up 8.2 percent, but five of the seven media conglomerates are underperforming that benchmark. In fact, of the 50 media companies tracked by THR, 30 have either fallen or have advanced less than the broader markets.

Even though he acknowledges that the election of Trump “has not been a catalyst for media stocks,” Amobi says it is “counter-intuitive,” because the president is rolling back regulations and is friendly toward mergers and acquisitions, thus there’s potential for the sector.

Some of the carnage in the first half of the year can be attributed to television, with several cable and broadcast networks struggling with poorly rated shows amid competition from Netflix and Amazon.com and soon from Facebook and others. Hence, some of the more pure-play TV companies are suffering, like Discovery Communications (down 6 percent) and AMC Entertainment (up just 2 percent).

As for the conglomerates, here’s how they have fared: 21st Century Fox (up 2 percent); CBS (down 1 percent); Viacom (down 3 percent); Walt Disney (up 2 percent); Time Warner (up 5 percent); Comcast (up 13 percent); Sony (up 36 percent).