TAKING STOCK IN MUSIC COMPANIES

As the accountants pore over the spreadsheets to prepare quarterly and full-year reports, the share prices of several music-related stocks are enjoying healthy spikes in the new year, with Spotify and Sony leading the way.

Spotify sits at an all-time high of $353 as the market opens today, a $41 rise from a week ago. Sony Corp. starts the day at a 52-week high of $104.

And they’re not alone.

Warner Music Group, which bounced around the mid- to high-20s from early summer to Thanksgiving, saw a price jump in the first half of December and is opening today over $36. In early trading in France, Universal Music Group owner Vivendi is trading near its 52-week high of $26.68, up from $22.45 in late July.

All of those companies have had income during the pandemic. One that did not, Live Nation, is still flying high, opening at $73.46 this morning, three bucks shy of its 52-week high. It enjoyed a nice ride the first week of the year from a price of $70 a share.

Major stock indexes hit record highs last week as investors placed their bets on the new Democratic-controlled Congress' pumping cash into government spending to speed up the economic recovery. This morning, however, the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down as investors react to an increase in COVID-19 cases, a sagging labor-market report and the unpredictability of President Trump.

Are investors jumping in for a quick dividend or are these bullish, long-term investments? Stay tuned.