* U.S. stocks fell sharply, the NASDAQ fell 3.7%, the meta plunged 26.39%, and the market value shrank to a U.S. stock record
* Zuckerberg: with the rise of tiktok, meta is facing unprecedented competition
* initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States continued to decline
On Thursday, the three major US stock indexes fell across the board, with the NASDAQ down 3.7% and the meta down 26.39%. As of the close, the Dow fell 518.73 points, or 1.46%, to 35110.60; The S & P 500 index fell 112.03 points, or 2.44%, to 4477.39; The NASDAQ fell 538.73 points, or 3.74%, to 13878.82.
Technology stocks were sold off. Netflix and twitter closed down 5.56%, Microsoft fell 3.9%, Google parent company alphabet fell 3.32% and Tesla fell 1.6%.
Also dragged down by poor financial results, PayPal closed down 6.24% and spotify fell 16.76%. The meta universe concept stock roblox also fell 8.31%.
The 11 sectors of the S & P 500 index were nearly wiped out. The communication sector closed down 6.8%, the information technology sector fell 3.1%, the finance, real estate and energy sectors fell more than 1%, and the only consumer goods sector that closed up slightly rose less than 0.1%.
Due to the fact that the Fed's valuation of the US stock index is getting closer and closer to the historical high point of 2018 for the first time since March, it is pointed out that the US stock index is about to raise interest rates.
Given the rising interest rate often reduces the willingness of investors to buy high growth stocks, this trend fears the collapse of the valuation bubble for technology stocks who are accustomed to trading at a high valuation.
Among other focus stocks, Amazon closed down 7.81%. The financial report released after hours showed that its net sales in the fourth quarter were $137.4 billion, slightly lower than analysts' expectations, but its net profit doubled year-on-year. Amazon said it would raise the subscription price of its prime members, which soared by more than 18% after hours.
Social platform snap closed down 23.6%, but the after hours increase expanded to 56.45%. Its financial report released after hours showed that the company achieved quarterly net profit for the first time in its history.
International oil prices rose. WTI March crude oil futures closed up $2.01, or 2.28%, at $90.27/barrel. Brent April crude oil futures closed up $1.64, or 1.83%, at $91.11/barrel.
Zuckerberg: tiktok brings unprecedented competition to Facebook
Meta's share price plummeted by 26.44% and its market value shrank by $234 billion, setting the largest one-day decline record for individual stocks in U.S. stock history, surpassing Apple's one-day decline of $182 billion in September 2020.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of meta, convened all employees for an online meeting within the day, saying that the historic decline in share price was caused by the company's miscalculation of revenue in the quarter, calling on employees to focus on video products.
According to US media, citing participants, Zuckerberg told employees that with the rise of short video platform tiktok, the social networking giant is facing "unprecedented competition".
Meta has been discussing how to retain employees in the event of stock price diving. In response to a question about job burnout, Zuckerberg said the social media giant was considering offering long weekends. He also encourages exhausted employees to use their holidays. He also said that according to his life experience, the transition to a four-day workweek will not be effective.
In addition to the pressure from competitors, the challenges facing the company include Apple's new advertising privacy policy, which meta expects to cost it more than $10 billion in sales in 2022. The new policy requires application providers to ask users if they want to be tracked, which limits the ability of the platform to collect data.
initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States continued to decline
The number of initial jobless claims fell for the second consecutive week, according to data released by the U.S. Department of labor. This means that the labor market is rebounding from the impact of the Omicron variant.
In the week ending January 29, the number of initial jobless claims decreased from 261000 in the previous week to 238000 in a seasonally adjusted manner. In the week ending January 15, the number of cases caused by the Omicron strain surged, millions of people took sick leave, and the number of jobless claims rose to 290000.
Gus Faucher, chief economist of PNC Financial Services Group, said that the latest unemployment application data showed that Omicron's blow to the labor market was short-lived and was expected to see a further recovery of jobs in February.
