AT&T shares dip as third quarter reports show 90 000 decline in cable subscribers

ASX 200

The shares of the No.2 US wireless carrier, AT &T, finished in the negative zone on Thursday trading as investors worried about the declining number of users of the popular cable provider.

Based on the reports, the firm has lost a whopping 90 000 video subscribers for three months ending September as the competition in pay TV markets heated up while the recent hurricanes resulted to a big chunk of consumers cancelling their subscriptions.

These two big blows on AT&T have caused the company to underperform on Thursday session, with its shares in the stock market faltering almost 4% to end at $36.74 per share.

This broad decline weighed in on the broader index S&P 500, which immediately fell more than 6% while its counterparts such as Comcast followed the same path, slipping 3.9%.

According to analysts, AT&T and its peers were feeling the effect of massive cord-cutting and a weaker quarter for the whole industry.

Adding more wounds to the firm was its 300 000 users have switched to its cheaper product DirectTV Now, which means that the same number of subscribers were slashed from its satellite services. AT&T fears that the figures might have negative effect to its quarterly earnings report due on October 24.

The earnings season have formally kicked off yesterday, with major banks JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup starting on a high note as both reported better-than-forecast earnings.

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