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Meta, formerly Facebook, faces historic drop as stock tanks
SAN FRANCISCO: Meta is putting a lot of virtual eggs and billions of dollars into the metaverse basket, and Wall Street is spooked. Shares of the company formerly known as Facebook saw a historic plunge Thursday 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. Shares fell more than 26%, lopping off more than $230 billion of the companys market capitalization.
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A plunge in Facebooks parent company weighs on tech stocks
NEW YORK: A historic plunge in the stock price of Facebooks 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 Facebooks owner is now known, erased more than $230 billion in market value, easily the biggest one-day loss in history for a U.S. company. 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%, its biggest loss since September 2020. The S&P 500 fell 2.4%.
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Fed nominee pushes back against GOP claims of anti-oil bias
WASHINGTON: A key nominee to the Federal Reserves Board of Governors has said in testimony before a Senate panel that she would not make it harder for any industry to obtain bank loans. President Joe Biden nominated Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Feds vice chair for supervision, the nations top bank regulator. Shes a former Fed governor and deputy Treasury Secretary. But Republicans have charged that Bloom Raskins previous statements on climate change suggest she would use her position at the Fed, if confirmed, to discourage banks from lending to oil and gas companies.
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Amazon reports strong 4Q results despite supply chain snags
NEW YORK: Amazon is reporting strong fourth-quarter sales and profits even as the online behemoth continues to contend with surging costs tied to a snarled supply chain and labor shortages. The company also raised its annual prime membership fee to $139 per year from $119. The company, based in Seattle, reported a profit of $14.32 billion, or $27.75 per share, for the three-month period ended Dec. 31, 2021. That compares with a profit of $7.22 billion, or $14.09 per share, a share, during the year-ago period. Revenue rose 9% to $137.41 billion, the companys fifth consecutive quarter of revenue topping $100 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet, on average expected $137.68 billion in quarterly revenue and per-share earnings of $3.61 per share.
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Ford rides accounting gains, high prices to big 2021 profit
DETROIT: Ford Motor Co. reversed a loss and rode some big accounting charges to post a $17.94 billion net profit last year. That came even as the company battled computer chip shortages that caused factory slowdowns and low inventories on dealer lots. U.S. sales for the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker fell 7% for the year over depressed 2020 numbers, but customers paid record prices of nearly $51,000 per vehicle in Fords most lucrative market. Excluding the one-time items, the company made $1.59 per share, falling short of analyst estimates of $1.86. Revenue rose 7.2% to $136.34 billion. That was short of analyst estimates of $137.6 billion.
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A likely poor jobs figure for January could prove temporary
WASHINGTON: Last month, U.S. employers might have shed jobs for the first time in about a year, potentially raising alarms about the economys trajectory. Yet even if the January employment report coming Friday were to show a deep loss of jobs, there would be little mystery about the likely culprit: A wave of omicron infections that led millions of workers to stay home sick, discouraged consumers from venturing out to spend and likely froze hiring at many companies even those that want to fill jobs. Reported omicron infections peaked at above 800,000 a day during the second week of January precisely the period when the government measured employment for the month.
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Bank of England hikes interest rates again as prices surge
LONDON: The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the second time in three months. That decision Thursday puts the United Kingdom far ahead of the rest of Europe and the U.S. in moving to tame surging inflation thats squeezing consumers and businesses. The bank boosted its key rate 0.5% from 0.25%. It also said it would begin reducing holdings of U.K. government bonds and corporate debt, which the bank has built up since the global financial crisis more than 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve says its likely to raise interest rates in March, while the European Central Bank gave no indication it would hike rates this year.
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Cheers: Whiskey sales start comeback in bars, restaurants
LOUISVILLE, Ky.: When COVID-19 shuttered much of the economy in 2020, Bill Thomas sold off his whiskey inventories to keep his Washington, D.C., whiskey bar afloat. By the next year, he was replenishing inventories. Thomas restocked supplies reflect the start of a comeback for on-premise spirits sales at U.S. restaurants and bars. Its an important segment for spirits makers. On-premise sales volumes rose 53% in 2021, following pandemic-related restaurant and bar closures and restrictions in 2020. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States issued the report Thursday. Industrywide, it says sales and volumes grew for U.S. distilled spirits suppliers in 2021.
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The S&P 500 fell 111.94 points, or 2.4%, to 4,477,44. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 518.17 points, or 1.5%, to 35,111.16. The Nasdaq lost 538.73 points, or 3.7%, to 13,878.82. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies shed 38.48 points, or 1.9%, to 1,991.03
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