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Meta, formerly Facebook, faces historic fall as stocks tank
San Francisco: Meta is pouring a lot of virtual eggs and billions of dollars into the Metaverse basket, and Wall Street is terrified. Shares of the company, formerly known as Facebook, saw a historic drop on Thursday as a sharp rise in spending, volatile ad revenue growth and low daily US users on its flagship platform led to a rare profit decline. Also, it has acquired Meta Platforms Inc. invested more than $10 billion in its ambitious plan to turn the company into a metaverse company. Shares fell more than 26% as the company’s market capitalization fell by more than $230 billion.
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The fall in Facebook’s parent company has hit tech stocks
NEW YORK: A historic drop in the share price of Facebook’s parent company helped lower other tech stocks on Wall Street on Thursday, ending a four-day winning streak for the market. The 26.4% wipeout at Meta Platforms, as the owner of Facebook is now known, wiped out more than $230 billion in market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a US company. The weak revenue outlook for Meta also helped drag down shares of other social media companies, including Twitter and Snap. The tech-focused Nasdaq declined 3.7%, its biggest loss since September 2020. The S&P 500 fell 2.4%.
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Fed nominee pushes back against GOP claims of anti-oil bias
WASHINGTON: A key nominee on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has testified before a Senate panel that she will not make it difficult for any industry to get bank loans. President Joe Biden named Sarah Bloom Ruskin as the Fed’s vice president for supervision, the nation’s top bank regulator. He is a former Fed governor and deputy Treasury secretary. But Republicans accuse Bloom Ruskins of previous statements on climate change suggesting she will use her position at the Fed, if confirmed, to discourage banks from lending to oil and gas companies. .
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Amazon reports strong 4Q results despite supply chain glitches
NEW YORK: Amazon is reporting strong fourth-quarter sales and profits, even as the online behemoth continues to struggle with rising costs associated with a snarled supply chain and labor shortages. The company also increased its annual Prime membership fee from $119 to $139 per year. The Seattle-based company reported a profit of $14.32 billion, or $27.75 per share, for the three-month period ended December 31, 2021. This compares to a profit of $7.22 billion, or $14.09 per share, a share. years ago period. Revenue rose 9% to $137.41 billion, the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of revenue topping $100 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected an average of $137.68 billion in quarterly revenue and earnings per share of $3.61.
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Ford rides out big 2021 gains from accounting gains, higher prices
DETROIT: Ford Motor Co. reversed losses last year to post a net profit of $17.94 billion and imposed some sizable accounting fees. This came even as the company was grappling with computer chip shortages, which led to a factory slowdown and low inventory on dealer lots. US sales fell 7% for the year in gloomy 2020 numbers for the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker, but customers paid record prices of nearly $51,000 per vehicle in Ford’s most lucrative market. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.59 per share, well short of analyst estimates of $1.86. Revenue rose 7.2% to $136.34 billion. This was lower than analyst estimates of $137.6 billion.
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Potentially bad jobs figures for January may prove tentative
WASHINGTON: Last month, US employers may have laid off jobs for the first time in nearly a year, potentially raising alarm about the economy’s trajectory. Still, even if January’s employment report out on Friday showed a profound loss of jobs, there will be little mystery about the likely culprit: a wave of Omicron infections that left millions of workers home sick, leaving consumers with no money to spend. Discouraged from exiting for jobs and potentially barred from hiring in many companies, even those looking to fill jobs. Reported Omicron infections topped 800,000 a day during the second week of January, exactly the same period that the government measured employment for the month.
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Bank of England hikes interest rates again due to rise in prices
London: The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the second time in three months. The decision on Thursday puts the United Kingdom well ahead of the rest of Europe and the US in overcoming rising inflation that is squeezing consumers and businesses. The bank raised its key rate by 0.25% to 0.5%. It also said it would begin reducing its holdings of UK government bonds and corporate debt, which the bank has built up since the global financial crisis more than 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve says it may raise interest rates in March, while the European Central Bank has given no indication that it will raise rates this year.
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Cheers: Whiskey sales begin at bars, restaurants
Louisville, Q.: When COVID-19 shut down much of the economy in 2020, Bill Thomas sold his inventory of whiskey to keep his Washington, D.C., whiskey bar afloat. By the following year, he was supplying goods. Thomas Restocked Supplies marks the beginning of a comeback for on-premises spirit sales at American restaurants and bars. This is an important segment for spirits makers. Following the pandemic-related restaurant and bar closures and restrictions in 2020, on-premises sales volume grew 53% in 2021. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States released the report on Thursday. Industrywide, it says sales and volumes for US distilled spirits suppliers increased in 2021.
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The S&P 500 fell 111.94 points, or 2.4%, to 4,477,44. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 518.17 points, or 1.5%, to end at 35,111.16. The Nasdaq closed 538.73 points, or 3.7%, down at 13,878.82. The Russell 2000 Index of Small Companies was down 38.48 points, or 1.9%, at 1,991.03. closed on
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