For anyone hoping to learn from the latest earnings reports from leading tech companies, the whiplash at Snap this week has been emblematic of the wider hopes and fears that have ripped through the tech sector.
Shares in the social media platform plunged 23 per cent on Thursday as investors fretted that a weak revenue forecast from Meta, parent of Facebook, would spill over into the wider digital advertising sector. They then rebounded 60 per cent in after-hours trading when the worries turned out to be unfounded.
The end result of all the stock market drama: Snap’s shares settled back to the level they were trading at just three weeks ago.