Communications names log a down week, though Twitter rides Musk stake to gains (NYSE:TWTR)
hernan4429/iStock via Getty Images
Communications Services stocks came out on the short end of the stock stick this week, among the worst-performing sectors over that time period.
The market overall fell a little over 1% as marked by the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (down 1.2%), but a few outlier sectors pulled off solid gains, notably healthcare, energy and consumer staples.
Communications names, though, fell 2.7% on a back-and-forth trading week.
As would be expected in a poor week, some of the best performers were defensive telecom holdings, and they made up four of the top five large-cap advancers – including BCE (NYSE:BCE), SK Telecom (SKM), Telus (TU) and Verizon (VZ).
They were all topped by the movement of Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), however, its stock goosed this week by the arrival of a new top investor, in billionaire Elon Musk. Twitter rose 17.6% for the week, peeling off a bit of a 27% gain on Monday after the news of Musk’s stake.
The week’s decliners, meanwhile, were topped among large-cap names by Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), which dropped 13.6% with a particularly heavy fallback on Wednesday, when Piper Sandler cut its price target to $270 from $400. (Twilio wrapped up the week at $146.42.)
It was joined (unsurprisingly, again) on the decliners list by some 2021 tech darlings. Roku (ROKU) fell 8.6% for the week; it’s now 77% below its 52-week high from last summer. And Spotify slipped 8.1% during the trading week; it’s 54% under its 52-week high reached in early November.
The top five gainers over the past week among large-cap Communications Services stocks and larger ($10B market cap or more):
- Twitter (TWTR), +17.6%;
- BCE (BCE), +3.8%;
- SK Telecom (SKM), +3.3%;
- Telus (TU), +2.9%;
- Verizon (VZ), +2.7%.
The top five decliners over the past week among large-cap Communications Services stocks and larger ($10B market cap or more):
