Cable Weathers Dow Storm
Index Plummets 297 Points, Flirts With 5-Year Low
Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 2/17/2009 5:32:12 PM
The Dow Jones plunged nearly 300 points Tuesday, narrowly missing a five-year closing low as increasing concerns about the banking industry sent the index downward. Cable stocks, while battered on Tuesday, fared better than some other sectors of the economy.
The Dow finished the day at 7,552.60 points, down 297.8 points. That was less than one point off its five-year closing low of 7,552.29 reached on Nov. 20.
Market jitters surrounding the possible need for further government intervention in the banking industry, coupled with federal securities fraud charges against another financial institution -- Stanford Financial Group -- sent the index downward.
Cable operator stocks fell by about 5.6% collectively on Tuesday, a sharp drop but less than half the 12% decline of some of the biggest players in the banking sector such as Bank of America, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Declines for MSOs were biggest at Charter Communications, which dropped a half-penny (14.1%) to 3 cents per share on Tuesday in the wake of its announcement last week that it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by April 1.
Mediacom Communications was next, dropping 13.2% (65 cents each) to $4.27, followed by Cablevision Systems, down 90 cents each (6.5%) to $13.00; Comcast, down 77 cents (5.6%) to $12.89; and Time Warner Cable, down 52 cents (2.9%) to $17.62.
Satellite TV stocks fared no better - Dish Network was down $1.3 per share (7.6%) to $12.55 each and DirecTV Group shed $1.20 each (5.2%) to $22.04 per share.
On the programming side, Crown Media, parent of the Hallmark Channel, dipped 12.9% (26 cents each) to $1.76 per share, followed by Time Warner Inc., down 70 cents (8.1%) to $7.97; News Corp., down 41 cents (5.7%) to $6.82; Viacom, down 97 cents (5.4%) to $17.00; Scripps Networks Interactive, down 82 cents (3.8%) to $20.66; The Walt Disney Co. ,down 68 cents (3.7%) to $17.84; and Liberty Capital, down 19 cents (3.5%) to $5.30.
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