What Discovery’s Rally Says About the Market

You know something’s screwy on Wall Street when shares of Discovery, the TV company due to merge with WarnerMedia later this year, rise 17% in one day, as they did today. While the rally was ostensibly sparked by a bullish analyst report, a bigger factor is undoubtedly the general market environment. High-growth tech stocks are no longer the flavor of the month. Beaten-down, slow-growth stocks that no one wanted until recently are now appealing. Investors are even looking kindly at AT&T’s stock, which has been a dog for years!

If you need another example of how things have changed, check out GameStop, the meme stock of yesteryear (as in 2021), which in a craven attempt to appear hip is planning a marketplace for non-fungible tokens, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. At one time in the past 12 months, that news would have sparked a frothing-at-the-mouth rally. Instead, GameStop shares rose a leisurely 7% on Friday—but are still off about 43% from their highs in November.