Media Stocks Tumble As Dow Plunges

The long-running global stock rally turned into a rout Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its largest-ever point decline and major indexes in the U.S., Europe and Asia gave up their gains for the year.

The Wall Street Journal reports traders described a growing sense of anxiety as the Dow briefly dropped nearly 1,600 points, a break in the tranquility that has characterized financial markets for much of the past two years. The change in sentiment comes just six trading sessions after the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite surged to all-time highs.

The Dow declined 1,175 points, or 4.6%, to 24346, while the S&P 500 fell 4.1% and the Nasdaq Composite 3.8%.

Stocks jerked around in a turbulent session, with U.S. stock indexes beginning the day close to the flatline before spiraling lower. The selling was broad and affected various industries, including energy, banking and technology.

The stock market’s pullback began in earnest last week, as rising bond yields and a stronger-than-expected pickup in wage growth led some investors to express concerns that a long streak of tepid inflation could be drawing to a close.

According to Variety, Monday’s volatility follows a more than 450-point drop on Friday — which marked the biggest one-day drop since June 2016. Even high fliers such as Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon could not avoid the downturn Monday when the major stock indices were in the red from the start of trading.

Netflix, which enjoyed an 8% spike after reporting strong Q4 2017 earnings on Jan. 22, fell nearly 5% to close at $254.26. Amazon eased 2.8% to close at $1,390. Facebook fell 4.7% to $181.26. Apple gave up 2.5% to close at $156.49.

Disney ($1047.78), Comcast ($39.20), AMC Networks ($48.91), AT&T ($36.63), and Viacom ($31.14) were among the media giants taking a hit of 3%-5% or more. CBS on Friday lost 6% in the selloff but was more resilient on Monday with a 2.4% drop to close at $54.08. Time Warner ($95.35), 21st Century Fox ($35.56) and Lionsgate ($33.15) held the line at losses of 2% or less.