Stocks Sink As Market Woes Hit Showbiz Shares; S&P Falls Most Since June 2020 & Dow Sheds 1,100 Points

Media shares felt the pain as markets swooned Wednesday with glum earnings and outlooks from major retailers reflecting broader economic woes.

Target and Walmart, usually considered safe stocks, reported a big hit from higher transportation costs as gas prices soar, without any relief in sight. It’s hard for them to pass higher costs on to consumers who already are spending less on anything beyond groceries.

The S&P fell 4% — it’s worst slide since June 2020. The Dow plunged more than 1,100 points, and the Nasdaq lost 4.7%.

Investors have been thoroughly spooked by soaring inflation that the Fed is trying to contain by raising interest rates and by the Russia-Ukraine war that’s slogging on. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell told the WSJ that there could be “some pain involved in restoring price stability.” This is part of it.

Among media shares, with companies in the midst of a week of upfront presentations in NYC, Disney was down 4.3%, and NBCU parent Comcast by 1.7%. Fox fell 3.4% and Paramount 2.4%. Shares of the latter had  soared 15% Tuesday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired a big stake, a show of confidence that wasn’t able to withstand today’s rout.

Netflix shares, which have flopped in recent months as it lost subscribers, saw its shares fall 7%.

The tech sector took a beating, with Apple down 5.6% and Amazon off by 7.1%. Facebook fell 5%.

Twitter, in the midst of its ongoing will-he-won’t-he takeover saga with Elon Musk, saw its stock fall by another 3.48%. Musk has said he can’t move forward with a deal until he’s got more clarity on how many bot, or fake, accounts Twitter has. Musk apparently didn’t do much due diligence before making his offer. The deal carries a $1 billion breakup fee.