Coffee With Greta: Oh SNAP! Social Media Earnings Stink
DJIA Futures: +81 (+0.3%)
SPX Futures: -4 (-0.1%)
NASDAQ Futures: -40 (-0.3%)
Good morning friends!
Futures are mixed with tech stocks falling after disappointing Q2 earnings from two social media companies.
Let’s get right to it!
Snap Plummets on Disappointing Q2
Snap (SNAP) shares are plunging 31.8% in premarket trade after reporting disappointing Q2 results and announcing plans to slow hiring.
The social media company reported an adjusted loss of $0.02 per share on $1.11 billion in revenue.
That was worse than analysts’ expectations for an adjusted loss of $0.01 per share on $1.14 billion in revenue.
Snap had 347 million global daily active users last quarter vs. expectations for 344.2 million.
But the company declined to provide Q3 guidance saying, “forward-looking visibility remains incredibly challenging” and revenue so far this quarter is “approximately flat”.
Snap attributed the disappointing results to slowing demand for online ads.
The company said, “businesses are reassessing investment levels amid the rising cost of capital, which is further reflected in campaign budgets and the level of bids per action.”
Snap said it will “substantially slow” hiring and the rate of operating expense growth.
The CEO and Chief Technology Officer agreed to new employment contracts that keep them on board until at least January 2027.
They will each receive an annual salary of $1 and no equity compensation.
The company also announced a stock repurchasing program of up to $500 million.
Twitter Slips On Weak Q2
Twitter (TWTR) shares are down 2.1% ahead of the open after missing Q2 expectations.
The social media giant reported an adjusted loss of $0.08 per share on $1.18 billion in revenue.
That sharply missed analysts’ expectations for earnings of $0.14 per share on $1.32 billion in revenue.
Twitter said it had 237.8 million monetizable daily active users in the quarter, short of analysts’ estimates for 238.08 million.
Revenue was down 1% year-over-year, which Twitter blamed on headwinds in the ad industry and “uncertainty related to the pending acquisition of Twitter by an affiliate of Elon Musk.”
The company did not provide Q3 guidance due to that pending acquisition.
Twitter said it had $33 million in costs related to the acquisition last quarter.
Coinbase Pushes Back On SEC
Coinbase (COIN) is denying claims from the SEC that it offers unregistered securities.
A former Coinbase product manager, and two others, were charged by the regulator on Thursday with wire fraud in connection with an insider trading scheme involving cryptocurrencies.
The SEC accused them of plotting to profit from the listing of new tokens on Coinbase before they were announced publicly.
The agency also accused Coinbase of hosting unregulated securities on its platform.
In a separate complaint, the SEC claimed that nine of the 25 tokens allegedly part of the insider trading scheme were securities.
In a blog post, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer said, “Coinbase does not list securities on its platform. Period.”
He said, “Coinbase has a rigorous process to analyze and review each digital asset before making it available on our exchange — a process that the SEC itself has reviewed.”
The case opens the door to the SEC forcing Coinbase to classify some of the crypto it offers as regulated financial instruments.
Oil Prices Extend Drop
Oil prices are sliding again today amid lower demand in the U.S. during the peak summer driving season.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down 0.9% to under $96 bbl while Brent crude futures are down 0.5% to under $104 bbl.
The Energy Information Administration’s four-week average for gasoline demand was basically unchanged last week at 8.73 million barrels per day.
That’s lower than a year ago.
Excluding 2020, when the pandemic destroyed demand, it’s also lower than every year going back to 2000.
Gas Prices Extend Slide
U.S. gas prices fell for the 37th day in a row today as demand remains low.
AAA shows the national average for regular gas fell nearly 3 cents overnight to $4.413/gal.
The national average for diesel also fell more than 2 cents overnight to $5.455/gal.
In Case You Missed It
- Rivian (RIVN) shares rallied 4.3% on Thursday as Amazon (AMZN) kicked off deliveries using the company’s electric vans. The online retailer is using the vans to deliver packages in several U.S. cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Tennessee, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis. Amazon said it expects to have “thousands” in more than 100 cities by the end of this year and 100,000 electric delivery vehicles in the U.S. by 2030.