Stocks Plunge As Interest Rates Rise, Tech, Showbiz Shares Pummeled

Most stocks and sectors closed down Thursday in a massive and broad market selloff that thrashed media and tech shares from big showbiz conglomerates to Amazon, Apple and Meta to Roku, Endeavor, Cinemark and the New York Times.

With the trading day done, the Dow 30 is down more than 3% having shed over 1,100 points (and more than 1,200 at its day low). The Nasdaq was the hardest hit, off 5%, with the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 lower by, respectively, 3.6% and 4.87%. Stocks and bonds were both lower.

Markets have been highly volatile. Yesterday, major indexes rallied strongly as the Federal Reserve announced a half percentage point hike in interest rates — the biggest in two decades — to curb runaway inflation that had hit highs not seen since been 1981. Inflation, along with the Russia-Ukraine War, supply-chain issues and lingering Covid have whipsawed investor sentiment this year in recent weeks.

Today the market’s euphoria was replaced by fear. Fed chief Jerome Powell must be extremely deft to juggle interest rate hikes, which cool the economy off, with the risk of recession. Earnings season is also under way with mixed numbers coming from across sectors, including media.

In a day of more than ten to one declining to advancing stocks, tech was routed. Snap plunged nearly 10%. Netflix and Amazon fell 8%, Roku and Meta 7%, Apple was off 6%, Google 5%.

In media Endeavor fell 8%. AMC Networks, which reported earnings this morning, dropped 6%, as did Dish. AMC and Cinemark dropped by more than 6%.

Bigger cap names help up the best. Warner Bros. Discovery closed down 4%; Disney and Comcast were both off 3%, Fox and Paramount by less than 2%.

Etsy plunged 17%, eBay 12%. The New York Times fell 9%.

Outliers included Charter, which shrugged off the dip to close up 1.75%. Twitter too, finally getting some traction out of Elon Musk’s imminent takeover, closed up 2.75%.