By the end of a long week of tech earnings (see this week’s Tech Trader), it became clear that Meta’s problems are unique, and not part of a broader industry downturn. Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) posted strong results driven by demand for advertising space on Google Search and YouTube. And on Thursday afternoon—one day after Meta’s nightmarish report—smaller rivals Snap (SNAP) and Pinterest (PINS) surprised investors with better-than-expected numbers, including Snap’s first-ever profit.
Amazon.com (AMZN) rounded out the big week of earnings with its own impressive results—including 32% growth in its advertising business. Those reports helped tech stocks snap back on Friday: The Nasdaq Composite rallied 2%, but Meta shares were flat.
The lack of buying on the dip reflects the serious issues Meta raised with its earnings. For the first quarter, the company sees revenue of $27 billion to $29 billion, up between 3% and 11% from a year ago. That would be a sharp deceleration from 48% growth a year ago. Meta said results would be affected by “headwinds” to both the number of ad impressions generated by its platforms and by pressures on ad pricing.