I don’t follow stocks day to day, but noticed odd things the past few days. There were huge spikes in volume last Friday on several of the stocks. I think stock options unwind on the 3rd Friday of the month, so that wasn’t it. Looked more like people wanting to get the stocks out of their portfolios for “window dressing” at the end of the quarter.
But the other thing I see is that Radio One (minority owned) and Beasley (located in Florida) were particularly hard hit. For the first part of this year, the US Census was pouring lots of money to try to locate “invisible” members of minority groups to be counted. My guess is the reality is hitting that a temporary infusion of Census Cash has not solved the systemic problems. You don’t cure cancer by eating a candy bar.
Cumulus is also showing a lot of weakness. They had a big splash a month or two ago about rounding up a pool of money to buy up radio stations, but no follow through.
But it isn’t affecting every company – Emmis has no volume or price irregularities.
The sudden announcement about the Mays family getting pushed out of Clear Channel might also be a factor fueling uncertainty about the stability of private equity ownership…. or maybe there is something hidden away in the 2000 page financial reform bill. I also saw a story speculating that the “lame duck” Congress after the November election (particularly if the Dems lose control of Congress) might pass the Performance Rights “tax” act on their way out.
There is an old saying that “the time to buy a stock is when everyone else thinks you’re crazy”. If BP gets below $.05 a share, buy :)
