Meta Shares Plummeted 22 Percent Premarket on Weak Earnings Caused by Dwindling Ad Revenues

U.S. stock futures are struggling to dispel negativity after Meta became the latest tech giant to disappoint and traders nervously awaited earnings from Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN).

The 3-day rally in U.S. equities halted as weaker-than-expected quarterly results from some popular tech stocks prevailed over the similar names’ positive stories. The Nasdaq Composite sank 2%, and the S&P 500 also lost ground. The Dow Jones ended with a gain of just two points.

Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) closed down more than 9% on Wednesday, a day after the company released third-quarter earnings that missed on the top and bottom lines. Revenue growth slowed to 6% from 41% a year earlier as the company contends with a continued downdraft in online ad spending. The company reported overall advertising revenue of $54.48 billion during the quarter, up slightly from the prior year. Analysts were expecting an increase of about 3% in YouTube ad revenue, but it slid around 2% to $7.07 billion from $7.21 billion a year ago.

U.S. economic updates set for release later tonight include the first estimate of Q3 GDP, weekly initial jobless claims, durable goods and capital equipment orders for September, all due at the U.S. market open.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s (MCD) just reported traffic to its U.S. restaurants is growing, helping the fast-food giant top analysts’ expectations for its quarterly earnings and revenue. Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting: earnings per share appeared at $2.68 vs. $2.58 expected; Revenue came in at $5.87 billion vs. $5.69 billion expected; The company reported Q3 net income of $1.98 billion, or $2.68 per share, down from $2.15 billion, or $2.86 per share, a year earlier. Net sales fell 5% to $5.87 billion. Excluding the impact of foreign currency, McDonald’s revenue rose 2% for the quarter.

However, Meta (FB) slumped more than 20% in premarket after the social media giant reported worse-than-expected bottom-line results and issued weak Q4 guidance. Also, Ford Motor Company (F) shares fell after it reported an earnings miss, and adjusted its FY adjusted EBIT guidance to the low end of its previously provided range.

Twitter (TWTR) is set to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange effective tomorrow, according to a delisting notice from the exchange. The delisting notice comes amid a WSJ report that banks have begun funding their $13B portion of Elon Musk's $44B deal to take over Twitter (TWTR) as a Friday deadline to complete the transaction nears. Twitter rose 1% in today’s premarket trading.

European markets pulled back today as investors digested a slew of corporate earnings and in anticipation of the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest decision on monetary policy. The Pan-European financial regulator is expected to announce another hike in interest rates. Previously, Germany saw a possible slight decline in consumer confidence in October. At the time of writing, the German DAX traded 0.91% lower. The British FTSE 100 decreased by 0.04%, while the French CAC 40 fell by 1.09%.

On Fx front, the euro is losing 0.38% to the dollar at 2:15 p.m. CET to flirt with parity again and sell for $1.00416. At the same time, the pound sterling declined by 0.43% to $1.15760.

Asian markets also traded mostly lower earlier today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.32%, China’s Composite Index eased by 0.55%, while India’s BSE Sensex slipped 0.1%. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 0.72% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5%. Profits earned by Chinese industrial companies declined by 2.3% YoY to CNY 62.44 trillion since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Australia's export prices fell by 3.6% QoQ in Q3, while import prices climbed by 3.0% QoQ.