Image credit: T-Mobile US Annual Report 2018.
Economic downturns have historically had a predictable impact on telecom stocks. Telecom shares tend to be seen as defensive because of the utilitarian nature of their revenue streams.
The approval (or perhaps the disapproval) of the proposed merger between T-Mobile US (TMUS) and Sprint (S) is considered as one of the major stock price catalysts across the US telecommunication sector. It is challenging to gain investor confidence around regulatory approval of the transactions, given the opposition of various institutions to cut down the number of telco players from