Wall Street drops lower as Meta Platforms falls

Wall Street ended lower on Monday, as investors digested recent quarterly results from Facebook owner Meta Platforms and other megacaps, while Peloton jumped following reports of interest from potential buyers, including Amazon.

Meta Platforms fell 5.1%, adding to losses after its bleak forecast last week caused a record plunge in the social media company’s stock market value.

Meta was among the companies that weighed on the S&P 500 more than any other stock, while Nvidia rose 1.7% and lifted the index more than any other stock.

Amazon.com Inc rose 0.2% after expanding its market capitalization by around $190 billion on Friday on the back of blowout earnings.

Peloton Interactive Inc surged almost 21% following reports that Amazon and Nike are exploring potential buyout offers for the stationary bike maker.

Reflecting investors’ recent aversion to tech and other stocks with high valuations, the S&P 500 growth index lost 0.9%, while the value index added 0.1%.

The S&P 500 remains down more than 5% so far in 2022, with investors worried that the U.S. Federal Reserve could raise interest rates faster than expected.

“Buying the dip was a foregone conclusion until 2022. There is no more guaranteed buying on the dip,” said Jake Dolllarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “We’re seeing corrections in indexes and individual securities on a daily and weekly basis.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained unchanged to end at 35,091.13 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.37% to 4,483.87.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.58% to 14,015.67.

Tyson Foods Inc surged about 17% after the meatpacker’s first-quarter profit nearly doubled and surged past estimates on the back of higher prices.

Of 278 companies in the S&P 500 that have posted earnings as of Friday, 78% reported above analysts’ expectations, according to Refinitiv data.

An unexpectedly strong jobs report last week added to investors’ concerns about potentially aggressive monetary policy tightening by the Fed. Key inflation data for January is due on Thursday.

Markets are now pricing in a one-in-three chance the Fed might hike by a full 50 basis points in March and the prospect of rates reaching 1.5% by year end.

Spirit Airlines Inc jumped 17% after it and Frontier Group Holdings unveiled plans to create the fifth-largest U.S. airline in a $2.9 billion tie-up. That lifted the S&P 1500 Airlines Index over 3%.

U.S.-listed shares of China’s Alibaba Group Holding fell about 6% after it registered an additional 1 billion American depositary shares.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.2 billion shares, compared with a 12.4 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.16-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.33-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and six new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 37 new highs and 98 new lows.

(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Marguerita Choy)