Verizon stock heads for worst day since 2002 as SpaceX U.S. network plans whack telcos

BREAKING: $VZ heads for its worst day since 2002 as SpaceX's push into the US telecom market through Starlink hammers carriers, with T-Mobile and AT&T also sliding.

Verizon just got hit for its worst day since 2002. Down roughly ten percent, and it's got company. T-Mobile dropped thirteen, its ugliest session since 2013, and AT&T fell ten, worst since the year 2000. Three giants bleeding at once, and you can see who's holding the knife.

SpaceX announced it's buying a nationwide spectrum portfolio from Grain Management, up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 band. That's the ingredient Starlink needed to go from satellite internet to an actual mobile network. Evercore put it plainly, SpaceX now has the outline of a real network.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who has to approve the deal, called it great news for consumers and said it's not his job to pick winners and losers. The market picked anyway. J. P. Morgan says the near-term risk to the big carriers is limited. Tell that to anyone holding Verizon this morning.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.