Media Stocks Slip As Investor Fears About China And Ukraine Grow

The industry couldn’t withstand the downdraft across the financial markets today as reports in China showed weaker-than-expected industrial growth and as Russian troops began military exercises near the border with Ukraine. The Dow Jones U.S. Media Index fell 1.4%, nearly matching the drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and ahead of the 1.2% fall in the Standard & Poor’s 500. All of the Big Media companies we track lost ground. News Corp shares fell 2.8% followed by Fox (-1.8%), Disney (-1.8%), CBS (-1.4%), Viacom (-1.3%), Sony (-1.2%), Comcast (-1%) Discovery (-0.9%), and Time Warner (-0.9%). Biggest losers across media and entertainment included Sinclair (-4.9%), Scripps (-4.7%), Crown Media (-4.6%), DreamWorks Animation (-4.2%), and Lionsgate (-3.2%). Only a handful gained ground including exhibition companies AMC Entertainment (+2.5%) and Carmike (+0.8%); programmers Starz (+1.0%) and World Wrestling Entertainment (+0.3%); and Amazon (+0.2%), which announced today that it has raised the price of its Amazon Prime program for the first time in nine years.