Facebook parent company sees largest one-day market loss in history

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

The 26.4% wipeout in Meta Platforms, as Facebook’s parent company is now known, erased more than $230 billion in market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a U.S. company.

Meta’s plunge came after it reported a rare profit decline due to a sharp rise in expenses, shaky ad revenue growth and fewer daily U.S. users on its flagship platform. At the same time, it invested more than $10 billion in its ambitious plan to transform Meta Platforms Inc. into a “metaverse company.”

Meta’s weak revenue outlook helped drag the stocks of other social media companies including Twitter and Snap lower as well.

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