Facebook fall is biggest in US history

Facebook’s dark day will go down as not only its worst since going public six years ago, but the darkest in U.S. stock market history.

A record $100 billion of the social media stock’s market value was wiped out Thursday in a record-breaking losing day that eclipsed the prior singlesession record loss of $91 billion suffered by computer chip maker Intel during the tech-stock meltdown in 2000, according to Bloomberg.

The closest parallel to Facebook’s meltdown, sparked by the company telling analysts on an earnings conference call after Wednesday’s close that it would make less money than forecast in the final half of 2018, was a nearly $60 billion one-day drop suffered by Apple in January 2013. The iPhone maker shocked Wall Street with unexpectedly downbeat earnings news, reporting its slowest profit growth in 10 years.

Facebook’s fall was due in part to its rapid rise and big following among investors on Wall Street and Main Street.

With expectations so high, the misstep gave investors reason to flee.

“Because of the stock’s success, it has become overloved and overowned,” says Gary Kaltbaum, president of Kaltbaum Capital Management, commenting on how Facebook shares were vulnerable to such a steep decline after disappointing investors.

Normally, huge washouts occur at perilous times for the economy and markets, such as the 2000 tech wreck and the 2008 financial crisis, times when the economy and markets are in a more fragile state and bad news can spook investors into selling.