Two tech giants set records on Wall Street this week, but only one is cheering.
Amazon’s market capitalization rose $190 billion on Friday, setting a record for the biggest one-day gain for a company on a U.S. exchange, topping Apple’s $179 billion single-day gain last week.
The online retail giant’s shares rose 14% a day after it reported fourth quarter earnings that included details about its booming online ad business and a $20 price hike for its popular Prime subscription, which includes free two-day shipping nationwide. Although Amazon’s quarterly guidance missed analysts’ expectations, investors were optimistic about its fast-growing business units like cloud computing.
Facebook parent Meta, on the other hand, set a record on Thursday for biggest single-day trading loss on a U.S. exchange when its market cap plummeted over $230 billion. The social media giant’s wipe-out beat the previous record set in September 2020 by Apple, whose market cap tumbled $182 billion.
Meta’s market cap decimation came a day after it reported poor earnings that spooked investors who were concerned about its stagnant user growth and increased competition from companies like TikTok.
Indeed, while Meta said that Apple’s privacy changes to iOS had hurt its core online ad business, competitor Snap, the parent of Snapchat, revealed during its quarterly earnings this week that its business is rebounding more quickly than it expected from the same issue.
Apple’s iOS changes made it more difficult for companies like Meta and Snap to target online ads to users.
In response to its good news, Snap shares surged nearly 60% on Friday, underscoring investor optimism.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s continues to have a hard time, with its shares dropping nearly 20% in a single day in January after it reported slowing subscriber growth during its most quarter.
And Peloton’s shares rose 34% in after-hours trading on Friday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was interested in acquiring the struggling exercise equipment maker.
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