Sphere Entertainment Co. shares jumped 11.2% to $76.04 in the week ended Nov. 28. Despite frequent news reports that tourism in down in Las Vegas, the Sphere venue’s growth has propelled shares of its parent, Sphere Entertainment Co., to a 99.2% gain in 2025.
While no market-moving news was released this week, a steady stream of news has painted a positive picture for the venue. The company announced in October that its remake of The Wizard of Oz surpassed $130 million in sales and more than 1 million tickets. Earlier this month, Sphere announced additional shows in The Eagles residency, bringing the band’s run to a venue record of 56 shows. Earlier this week, Sphere Entertainment Co. announced that Christopher Winters was appointed senior vice president, controller and principal accounting officer.
Music stocks had a rare positive week as the 19-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) gained 1.0% to 2,597.30. With 14 of the index’s companies in positive territory, the slight improvement marked the BGMI’s first gain in 11 weeks. Year-to-date, the index is up 20.5% but is 16.7% below its all-time high of 3,117.20 set during the week ended June 30.
Markets around the globe outpaced music stocks this week. In the U.S., the Nasdaq composite gained 4.9% to 23,365.69 and the S&P 500 rose 3.7% to 6,849.09. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.9% to 9,720.51. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index improved 1.9%, bringing its year-to-date gain to 60.8%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.4% to 3,888.60.
The biggest gain of the week came from French music streamer Deezer, which rose 13.5% to 1.09 euros ($1.26). The hefty gain narrowed Deezer’s year-to-date loss to 16.8%. On Tuesday (Nov. 25), Deezer unveiled a new personalization feature that allows users to change to look and layout of the mobile app.
K-pop company SM Entertainment rose 6.0% to 102,000 KRW ($69.50). Reservoir Media increased 4.4% to $7.30. SiriusXM and MSG Entertainment each climbed 3.6%. Spotify, the BGMI’s largest component, gained 2.6% to $583.62.
Three of the BGMI’s largest companies — Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group (UMG) and CTS Eventim — lost ground this week. CTS Eventim fell 0.4% to 84.65 euros ($98.18). On Monday (Nov. 24), Bernstein lowered its CTS Eventim price target to 99.00 euros ($114.83) from 100.00 euros ($115.98) and maintained its “outperform” rating. Universal Music Group fell 2.3% to 22.61 euros ($26.22), increasing its year-to-date loss to 7.7%.
Warner Music Group (WMG) shares fell 8.0% to $30.69. The decline didn’t come from news that WMG settled its lawsuit with generative AI music platform Suno — WMG shares had already fallen 7.6% by the time news of the settlement and corresponding licensing agreement was announced on Tuesday afternoon. Rather, the drop is part of a larger trend in recent months amongst multi-sector companies. In the last nine weeks, WMG has fallen 16.6% and UMG is down 11.6%.
Some K-pop companies have fared even worse. Over nine weeks, SM Entertainment has dropped 14.9%, JYP Entertainment has plummeted 33.6% and YG Entertainment has plummeted 7.5%. HYBE, on the other hand, has gained 12% over nine weeks due to a Korean court ruling that NewJeans must honor its exclusive contract with HYBE imprint ADOR.
