- Pre-market trading suggests Meta could lose $190 billion in market value when Wall Street opens Thursday.
- The company posted disastrous fourth-quarter earnings after markets closed on Wednesday.
- A drop in market cap of $190 billion in a day would be the largest in US corporate history.
Meta could be facing the largest one-day wipeout in US corporate history on Thursday after posting a shock earnings report Wednesday.
Its valuation could slump by more than $190 billion when Wall Street opens Thursday, if pre-market losses carry over into regular trading.
After markets closed on Wednesday, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said in its fourth quarter earnings report that Facebook's daily active user base shrank for the first time in its history. Meta also reported $10 billion in operating losses from its nascent metaverse business.
By 6.58 a.m. ET on Thursday, Meta's stock was down by 21.59% in pre-market trading, suggesting that the company could be valued at $704.5 billion when markets open. This would be down from its $898.5 billion market capitalization when markets closed Wednesday.
Out-of-hours trading in a stock isn't the same as regular trading. Pre-market and after-hours trading indicate how a comparably small number of investors value a company when stock markets are closed, and may not reflect the valuation given when markets open. As such, Meta's official valuation may be larger or smaller when the New York Stock Exchange opens at 9.30 a.m. ET.
Facebook already holds the record for the largest one-day loss in value in US corporate history. In July 2018, the company shed $119 billion in market cap in a single day after reporting slowing growth in its second quarter earnings.