A plunge in China’s market has jitters rippling through global markets Monday, with media stocks skittering lower as shares trade for the first time in 2016.
Shares in Netflix, which had the biggest gain of any stock in the S&P 500 index last year, sank 5.7 percent to $107.84 in early trade. Shares in Disney were down 2.7 percent $102.26 and AMC Networks stock was down 2.2 percent at $73.07. Other entertainment companies’ shares were falling in line with the wider market.
Overall, the S&P 500 was down 1.9 percent and the Dow Industrials Average off 2 percent early Monday, following a slide in European stocks as a plunge in Chinese trading caused global markets to weaken. Though far from Hollywood, China has grown more meaningful to studios and networks as they turn to the world’s second biggest economy as a front for new growth.
The trigger of the selloff was weaker-than-expected manufacturing data in China that resuscitated worries about about a slowdown in the country. Mainland Chinese stocks tumbled 7 percent before authorities halted trading.