“Tech companies lead another steep sell-off in U.S. stocks,” a Associated Press headline read just before Wednesday’s Closing Bell on Wall Street.
Media companies were hardly immune to the big nosedive of the Dow and Nasdaq, with Viacom‘s Class B shares sinking 8.5%, Sinclair Broadcast Group falling 8.3%, and Nexstar sliding downward by 6.5%.
The carnage was stunning, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 608.01 points, to 24,583.42 for a 2.4% loss on the day. Nasdaq declined by 329.14 points, to 7,108.40.
This left Viacom’s Class B shares below $30 for the first time since Sept. 10, closing at $29.92.
Sinclair stock ended Wednesday at $26.60. That puts the broadcast TV company fueling the transition to ATSC 3.0 — the next-gen broadcast TV standard — at its lowest stock price since early August.
Nexstar’s nosedive to $72.84 is particularly disconcerting, as the company wiped out gains seen since early June.
Other big dippers among TV companies are The E.W. Scripps Co. ($16.07, -6.9%) and Discovery Communications ($29.82, -9%).
On the radio side, Townsquare Media was off 5.6%. But, by comparison, that wasn’t so bad compared to what Nexstar suffered. TSQ shares are now at $7.15, off 42 cents, and although that is off $2.16 from its recent high is on the lower end of its 52-week average price.
Townsquare Media will release third quarter 2018 financial results before the market opens on Tuesday, November 6. A conference call to discuss the results is set for 8am Eastern that day.
Beasley Media Group and Entercom — two companies that have struggled on Wall Street of late — were also negatively impacted on Wednesday.
In fact, Beasley shares are now valued at a higher price that the company that bought CBS Radio.
BBGI is at $6.40, off 41 cents; ETM is at $6.24, off 59 cents.
The day’s biggest decliner among media shares is tech giant Netflix. The company’s stock tumbled 9.4% to $301.83. Still, Netflix started 2018 with its stock at $209.99.
