Entertainment Stocks Pop Amid Stronger U.S. Economic Growth

7:12 AM PDT 10/27/2011 by Georg Szalai

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A stock specialist on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

UPDATED: U.S. stock markets rose following a European debt deal and news that the U.S. economy grew at its strongest pace in a year, with many Hollywood conglomerates outperforming the market on Thursday.  

NEW YORK - Big entertainment stocks saw a nice pop Thursday as U.S. stock markets rose following a European debt deal for Greece and news that the U.S. economy grew at its strongest pace in a year during the third quarter.  

Gross domestic product in the U.S. expanded at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 2.5 percent, up from 1.3 percent in the second and 0.4 percent in the first quarter. Investors seemed to take the growth trajectory as good news amid recent concerns that the U.S. economy could fall back into recession.  

With a stronger economy potentially allowing companies to continue spending on advertising, entertainment industry conglomerate share rose in Thursday trading, in many cases outperforming the broad-based S&P 500 stock index.  

The index closed the trading session up 3.4 percent. News Corp. shares jumped 5.8 percent, Viacom was up 3.6 percent, and Walt Disney gained 3.5 percent, while Time Warner shares rose 3.4 percent. After higher gains earlier in the day, CBS Corp.'s stock finished 3.2 percent higher.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai