A sharp selloff on Wall Street hit wireless companies on Monday morning. Verizon Communications, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile US all saw their stock prices take a hit, with T-Mobile US falling the most and AT&T the least.
T-Mobile US may be the biggest loser today, but among the carriers it remains the biggest winner for the year on Wall Street. While AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint are all trading lower than they were a year ago, shares of T-Mobile US are up 33% from year-ago levels, even after today’s loss.
Apple and Google both showed percentage losses in the high single digits when the market opened Monday, but quickly recovered and were each down about 2% by midmorning. Microsoft was also down less than 2%.
Among wireless equipment makers, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent were hit harder than Ericsson. CommScope was down more than 3% in morning trading, while TE Connectivity and Corning were down less.
Today’s selloff was led by China, where the Shanghai Composite wiped out all its year-to-date gains this morning. In China, stocks stop trading for the day if they fall 10% in one session, which happened to a number of companies today.
China’s economic slowdown has hit the wireless industry already, with device makers seeing a slowdown in sales to China, and Chinese carriers reporting losses during the most recent quarter. Chinese carriers have been major customers for the wireless equipment makers during recent years, so their financial health can have a significant impact on the wireless industry.
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