A plunge in Facebook’s parent company weighs on tech stocks

A historic plunge in the stock price of Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., helped yank other tech stocks lower on Wall Street on February 3, abruptly ending a four-day winning streak for the market.

The 26.4 percent wipe-out in Meta, erased more than $230 billion in market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a United States company.

Also Read | How Facebook slipped — in key points

A weak revenue outlook for Meta helped drag the stocks of other social media companies including Twitter and Snap lower too.

The tech-focused NASDAQ gave up 3.7 percent, its biggest loss since September 2020. The S&P 500 fell 2.4 percent.

Also Read | Facebook slump reignites debate over attracting younger audiences

Wall Street is spooked as Meta puts a lot of virtual eggs and billions of dollars into the metaverse basket.

While shares of the company reported a rare profit decline due to a sharp rise in expenses, shaky ad revenue growth and fewer daily United States users on its flagship platform, it, at the same time, invested more than $10 billion in its ambitious plan to transform Meta Platforms Inc. into a metaverse company.