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The stock market fell on Thursday — its first day down in five sessions — as investors again dumped shares in tech stocks that were under pressure after Facebook parent Meta Platforms reported lackluster earnings and warned of challenges for its business this year.
Social media stocks like Snap and Twitter tumbled amid the tech industry’s recent comeback in the news … [+]
Important facts
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%, over 500 points, while the S&P 500 lost 2.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 3.7%.
Tech stocks led the market lower on Thursday: Despite a recent comeback after a big sell-off in January, renewed investor optimism about tech stocks took a sharp tumble after Meta’s massive earnings drop.
The company issued a weaker-than-expected revenue guidance, with management warning of increasing competition, slowing user growth and ongoing challenges from Apple’s iOS advertising changes over the past year.
Shares of Facebook parent Meta are on track for their biggest one-day loss ever, falling 26% and wiping out over $230 billion in market value alone, with the company’s market cap now hovering around $670 billion located.
Social media stocks were particularly hard-hit after Meta’s big profit slump: shares of Snap, formerly known as Snapchat, plunged 23%, while image-sharing platform Pinterest fell 10% and social media platform Twitter 6% lost.
Shares of other big tech companies also fell, including Amazon (down 7%), Alphabet (over 3%) and Microsoft (nearly 4%).