All three US stock markets quickly reversed recent gains, with Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) tanking by more than 25% in a single session.
The result was a close to 90% of Nasdaq constituents falling, dragging the index down 3.7%.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones outperformed in comparison, falling 2.4% and 1.5%, respectively.
Facebook gets hammered
It was a difficult quarter for Facebook, a company that generates the majority of its revenue from advertising, after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) made a number of privacy changes that impacted sales.
That said, sales grew by 15% to US$33 billion for the quarter, but a reduced forecast alarmed traders. Earnings remains strong at US$10 billion, but lower than this time last year as the likes of Tik Tok and Snap (NYSE: SNAP) eat into Facebook’s 1.93 billion daily active users.
It is clear the pivot to the ‘metaverse’ was needed to refresh the company, but it will take some time to become profitable.
Spotify falls
Shares in podcast and music platform Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) were also down more than 15% after the company reduced its subscriber forecasts by 1 million less than expected. The company managed to reach US$10 billion in revenue for the first time.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks performed on Thursday.
- T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) up 10.2%
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) down 7.8%
- Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) down 8.6%
- Block (NYSE: SQ) down 11.0%
- Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP) down 23.6%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to follow US markets lower at the open this morning. For a round-up of the latest results, check out my ASX 200 morning report.
