Investors also welcomed a $40 billion increase to its share repurchase program. Meta benefited in the three months ended March 31 by reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and presenting a rosier outlook for first-quarter revenue. Meta’s changes are already showing up in results. “After that we should be able to profitably grow Reels while keeping up with the demand that we see,” chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said. Measured by revenue generated by minute watched, Reels is currently unprofitable but the company expects it to break even by the end of this year or early next year. Reels plays on Facebook and Instagram have more than doubled in the past year, and the number of people resharing Reels has more than doubled in the past six months, according to the company. Meta is especially focused on incorporating ads into its fast-growing short-form video content known as Reels, using artificial intelligence to target customers with more-personalized ads based on their behavior and the context of the sites they visit. Material from Bloomberg News was used in this report.In addition, Apple has tinkered with its privacy feature to allow advertisers more access to data after certain thresholds are met, which has somewhat softened the impact from its original version. Separately, the Bank of England raised interest rates Thursday, in efforts to cool down persistent inflation, after the bank raised interest rates in December for the first time in 3 1/2 years. The annual inflation rate rose to 5.4 percent in December, and many traders believe rate increases are necessary to cool down rising prices. The European Central Bank bank said Thursday that it would keep interest rates unchanged, as inflation rises at its fastest pace in three decades. “But we expect the interruption in the labor market recovery to be short-lived.” The forecasting and research group expects a loss of 45,000 jobs in January.Įuropean stock indexes also fell Thursday, with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 1.8 percent. “The surge in COVID cases is expected to result in a decline in payroll employment in January,” Nancy Vanden Houten, an economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note. Highlighting the uncertainty around this month’s report, forecasts range from a gain of 250,000 jobs during the month to a loss of 400,000. The data signals the Omicron wave is receding.īut the major economic news for the week will be the jobs report Friday, which, will offer a more detailed look at hiring in January - when the latest coronavirus wave was at its most disruptive. On the economic front, the Labor Department reported another dip in initial jobless claims Thursday, falling 23,000 to 238,000 last week. That drop had more to do with concerns about the economy, and what higher interest rates mean for businesses, consumers and stock investors - as the Federal Reserve gears up to start increasing borrowing costs to cool down inflation. The sell-off Thursday ended a four-day rebound for stocks, which had been bouncing back from a plunge in January. The S&P 500 is down about 6.1 percent this year.Īlso lower Thursday was Spotify, which tumbled 16.8 percent after the company said it expected subscriber growth to slow in 2022 and said it would “no longer plan to issue annual guidance.” The audio streaming platform said it did not expect the number of premium users to be affected by the controversy over accusations that its most popular personality, Joe Rogan, had used his podcast to spread misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines. Traders are feeling discouraged to invest in riskier assets, like stocks, because higher interest rates impede the potential for larger returns in the future. Technology stocks - which have proved sensitive to changing views on interest rates - have already been contending with a sell-off since the start of the year. The five biggest tech companies, including Facebook, account for about 20 percent of the S&P 500′s value, meaning their declines have a stronger effect on the index. Shares of Apple, Microsoft, and Google were all lower Thursday.Īmazon fell 7.8 percent before its earnings report. The sentiment over Meta’s discouraging earnings went beyond social media companies.
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