Stocks & ETFs Likely To Soar On First Presidential Debate

As presidential candidates gear up for the first face-off, all eyes are glued to television sets and fingers are busy on mobile handsets, voicing opinion on social media. There will be three debates before the election and quite expectedly these events will take full charge of television, radio and other media as well.

Below we highlight a few stocks and ETFs that should benefit big time from the first presidential debate.

Media & Telecom

As followers of the event will stay updated through television and newspaper, media stocks should shoot up. Investors should definitely take a look at the media ETF PowerShares Dynamic Media Portfolio (V:PBS) .

As per sources,“the three presidential debates will be simulcast across the major networks and cable channels. Pick one: ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Univision, or C-SPAN.”

With NBC (The National Broadcasting Company) being the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:CMCSA) , Comcast-heavy ETFs like Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) will be in focus (read: Best Sector ETFs for a Rising Rate Scenario).

Telecom ETFs like Fidelity MSCI Telecommunication Services ETF (FCOM) and Vanguard Telecommunication Services ETF (MU:VOX) are also likely to gain as Verizon FiOS (VZ) will offer coverage of the entire event.

Internet & Social Media

Television and newspaper are no longer the only sources of information. Today, people all over the world are virtual participants of any event thanks to social media. And if the event is as major as the first presidential debate, then social media stocks like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) (FB) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) should be psyched up. As per CNN Money, four years ago, the first presidential debate turned out "the most tweeted event in political history" at that time (read: 4 ETFs to Ride on Facebook's Spectacular Results).

Investors should note that social media company Twitter has already announced that it has joined forces with media company Bloomberg to live stream the imminent presidential debates. The association is part of its deal with Bloomberg Television, and no other network will be allowed to stream the debates live on Twitter (read: In Bloomberg Deal, Twitter Will Live Stream Presidential Debates).

Facebook is also not behind as it has formed an alliance with ABC News to offer a live stream of the debates. Notably, The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is owned by the Disney–ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) . With Disney having considerable exposure in ETFs like XLY and Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (HN:VCR) , investors might expect solid trading in these ETFs as well.

Goes without saying, pure play social media ETFs like Global X Social Media Index ETF (SOCL) and Sprott BUZZ Social Media Insights ETF BUZ will have every reason to surge ahead. Also, excessive usage of search engines will draw investors’ attention to internet ETFs like First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund FDN and PowerShares NASDAQ Internet Portfolio ETF PNQI (read: ETFs to Gain as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Crushes Q2 Estimates).

Other Stocks and ETFs

PBS NewsHour and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have an interactive site to follow presidential debates since 1960. This puts Microsoft-heavy ETFs like iShares U.S. Technology ETF IYW and Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK in focus. Search will be high on Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and other leading search engines like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) . A positive impact of this should fall on these stocks and their related ETFs.

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