The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its rollercoaster ride Thursday, gaining more than 400 points as overall sentiment began to show signs of improvement amid a passel of favorable economic reports and cable stocks took advantage of the uptick in momentum.
The Dow finished up 423 points to close at 11,143, not quite erasing Wednesday's 520-point loss. Since Aug. 1, the market has fallen 1,146 points from 12,289 on Aug. 1, as investors have shifted money out of stocks and into bonds.
Media stocks continued to hold their own Thursday, with all posting strong gains. Two programmers even managed to climb past their July 29 closing prices, regaining the ground lost in what has been nearly two weeks of wild market fluctuations. News Corp, which gained 16.6% ($2.38) on Thursday to close at $16.59 each, managed to squeak past its July 29 close of $16.50 per share. And Viacom, which was up 6.4% ($3.35 each) to $55.41 per share Thursday, surpassed its July 29 close of $54.39 handily.
The rest of the stocks continued to be down for the month, but had strong showings on Thursday: AMC Networks, building on strong second quarter earnings, increased 13.3% ($4.03 per share) to $34.31 each on Thursday, followed by Disney, up 1.8% (58 cents per share) to $32.12; Time Warner Inc., up 2.2% (64 cents per share) to $29.71); Scripps Networks, up 5.2% ($2.08 each) to $42.09; Discovery Communications, up 5.6% ($2.02.each) to $38.18; and Liberty Starz, up 3.5% ($2.44 each) to $71.53.
Among MSOs, Cablevision led gainers with a 9.63% increase ($1.61 per share) to $18.47 each; followed by Liberty Global, up 7% ($2.57 each) to $39.10; Charter Communications, up 5.9% ($2.61) to $46.96; Comcast, up 4.1% (81 cents each) to $20.59; and Time Warner Cable, up 3.9% ($2.43 each) to $64.74.
Satellite stocks also experienced upward momentum, with Dish Network gaining 4.9% ($1.06 per share) to $22.72 each and DirecTV up 3.5% ($1.44 each) to $43.07 per share.
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