Tech’s Month From Hell: Facebook, Amazon Look to Rebound From October Swoon

Major tech companies have been unable to escape Wall Street’s worst downturn since 2008

Tech investors have to be happy October is in the past — although there aren’t many signs November will offer safe harbor, either.

Wall Street is enjoying a minor rally on Thursday after the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 9 percent last month — marking its worst monthly performance since a 10 percent decline during the 2008 financial crisis.

Pick any major company: Amazon — despite posting blowout earnings — has dropped 17 percent in the last month, with the company missing analyst sales estimates when it reported its Q3 financials last week. Amazon joined Apple as the only $1 trillion companies in September but has since had nearly $200 billion erased from its market cap. Apple, heading into earnings on Thursday, has dropped 3.5 percent since Oct. 1. Facebook’s year-long swoon continued, even after posting more than $5 billion in Q3 profit earlier this week, as the social network was hit by data breach that left 30 million users vulnerable. Facebook’s stock has decreased about 7 percent in the last month.

The list goes on: Spotify has dropped more than 20 percent in the last month, with the world’s biggest streaming giant unable to stop the decline on Thursday when it reported its first-ever quarterly profit. Snap Inc. shares jumped 8 percent on Thursday, but have still dropped 14 percent in the last month; the company reported last week it’s best quarterly revenue ever, but that was masked by millions of users leaving Snapchat for the second-straight quarter.

One exception to tech’s decline has been Twitter. The company posted a similar combination to Snap — declining users (losing 9 million monthly users during Q3) but strong revenue growth — but Wall Street responded differently, with Twitter shares moving from about $28 to $35 per share in the last month.

Tech drove the market’s flurry after President Trump’s election in 2016, but several factors have investors questioning whether the market’s bull run could be coming to a close. The Federal Reserve’s plans to raise interest rates, coupled with President Trump’s trade war with China and slowing growth in key markets like Europe and Asia have pushed stocks lower in the last month — and major tech companies haven’t been immune to the fallout.

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