Tech giants plunge in value after weak earnings
US tech giants have had more than $250bn wiped off their value in the past week as investors fled in the wake of a weak set of quarterly earnings and warnings of an advertising slowdown.
Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, was rocked by a mass sell-off after it said that profits had halved in the past quarter as advertisers shunned its platforms.
Founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg warned that the company faced “near term challenges” to its revenue as shares plunged 22 per cent in the week.
Google parent Alphabet was similarly hit by a revenue slowdown with growth of six per cent, sending its shares down five per cent in the week, having fallen nearly ten per cent.
Amazon meanwhile warned that its fourth quarter profits could be wiped out after they fell nine per cent to $2.87bn in the three months to the end of September. Shares fell nearly 14 per cent across the week.
The downturn was pounced on by some investors late in the week however, as equity funds notched $22.9bn of inflows, their highest weekly flows since March.
Apple bucked the trend for tech as it reported revenue and profit ahead of expectations. Shares in the firm rose 7.5 per cent in the week.