Tech rout widens as Meta sinks after results - Reuters

Oct 27 (Reuters) - A carnage successful U.S. exertion stocks widened connected Thursday arsenic shares of Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) sank 20% aft the Facebook parent's costly metaverse bets and the interaction of soaring ostentation connected advertisement spending spooked investors.

Meta was acceptable to suffer astir $67 cardinal successful marketplace value, if losses clasp done the session, adding to the trillions of dollars that immoderate of the biggest tech names person shed this twelvemonth successful the look of rising involvement rates and a stronger dollar.

Meta's results travel a time aft Google-parent Alphabet and Microsoft posted dismal numbers, sparking a wide-spread selloff successful tech stocks.

A twelvemonth aft changing its sanction to Meta to absorption connected shared virtual reality, the institution posted an accelerating sequential diminution successful quarterly revenue.

Meta also bumped up its full-year 2023 full expenses outlook to $96 cardinal to $101 billion, importantly higher than a revised estimation for 2022 full expenses of $85 cardinal to $87 billion.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said helium expects the metaverse investments to instrumentality astir a decennary to carnivore fruit.

At slightest 8 brokerages slashed their terms targets connected Meta, with Baird's $80 chopped to $150 the steepest of the lot. The banal was trading astatine $104 earlier the opening bell.

"Investors are sending the awesome to Mark Zuckerberg that helium should dilatory down the ambitions and outgo associated with the Metaverse, but helium is doubling down expanding the losses for adjacent year," said Peter Garnry, caput of equity strategy astatine Saxo Bank.

Some analysts were harsher successful their assessments.

"The vexation for Meta investors is that Mark Zuckerberg seems to beryllium wearing a brace of Oculus VR glasses 24/7 and hasn't realised that his VR isn't aligned to R (aka Reality, aka Returns, aka Responsibility, to shareholders)," said Neil Campling, caput of TMT Research astatine Mirabaud.

Reporting by Medha Singh and Sruthi Shankar successful Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty

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