Meta Platforms Share Decline Following Record-Breaking Gain

The remarkable performance of Meta Platforms last week, resulting in the largest one-day gain in market value, was slightly dampened today as the company's shares saw a slight decline. Nonetheless, this minor setback did not overshadow the fervor surrounding the celebration of Facebook's 20th birthday.

During premarket trading, Meta shares experienced a 0.7% decrease, settling at $471.96. This follows a remarkable 20% surge on Friday after the company's impressive earnings report. Despite this, Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other stakeholders have every reason to be elated. Their social-media company emerged as the standout performer during Big Tech's earnings week, surpassing even industry giants Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Having evolved from a humble dorm-room project by Zuckerberg back in February 2004, Meta's current market value stands at approximately $1.22 trillion. The company initially went public under the name Facebook in 2012, with an initial share price of $38.

In light of Facebook's milestone anniversary, Zuckerberg took to social media on Sunday to post a celebratory video. Notably, the surge in Meta's valuation propelled him to fourth place on Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, overtaking Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

In other tech news, Apple's highly anticipated Vision Pro mixed-reality headset hit stores on Friday. Unsurprisingly, social media platforms were teeming with videos showcasing users wearing the device both at home and in public spaces. There was even a viral video capturing a driver wearing the headset while operating a Tesla Cybertruck. While exact sales figures for the Vision Pro have not been publicly disclosed by Apple, industry-watching site MacRumors suggests that over 200,000 units were sold prior to the store release, citing a reliable inside source.

Apple's Vision Pro Sales Strong Over the Weekend

By Adam Clark

Published on Monday, March 8th, 2021

"We believe Vision Pro sales have been very strong over the weekend and gives us further confidence in our 600,000 unit target for 2024 (up originally from our 460,000 estimate before preorders)," wrote Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives in a research note on Monday.

Ives, a noted tech bull on Wall Street, has a target price of $250 on Apple stock and an Outperform rating. Apple shares were up 0.2% at $186.15 in premarket trading. They were little changed from before the company’s earnings report. That was when the company guided for March quarter revenue to fall 5% from a year earlier to about $90 billion, with a drop of nearly 10% in iPhone sales.

Global Market Update

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.1% early on Monday, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.2%.

Samsung Chairman Acquitted of Financial Crimes

Farther afield, a South Korean court on Monday acquitted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of financial crimes involving a historic contentious merger, Lee’s lawyers said. Samsung shares closed down 1.2% in local trading.

Yandex to Sell Operations in Russia

In Europe, Yandex, the owner of Russia’s largest search engine and ride-hailing service, said it had agreed to sell its operations in the country for 475 billion rubles ($5.22 billion) to a consortium of Russian investors including oil major Lukoil.