Meta is clinging to its 7% gain, as the only Big Tech stock that’s up this year

Tesla and Nvidia have led Big Tech lower, but Meta is holding on to some of its 2025 gains after a remarkable 20-day green streak earlier this year.

David Crowther

3/10/25 8:08AM

Last week, the Nasdaq Composite Index finally crossed into correction territory, having dropped more than 10% from its previous peak, as the AI trade reversal, tariff turmoil, and growing concerns about an economic slowdown weighed on markets. Collectively, Big Tech stocks have shed their postelection gains, with all of the BATMMAAN stocks now in the red for 2025... except for Meta.

Though Mark Zuckerberg’s company certainly hasn’t been immune to the sell-off, it still has some precious gains to hold onto, after a 20-day green streak earlier this year.

So why has Meta outperformed?

On the surface, it’s not immediately obvious why the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp managed to outpace its rivals so strongly in the first six weeks of this year. Like its peers, Meta is shelling out insane dollar sums on AI infrastructure, with plans to spend a whopping $65 billion this year, while its VR and AR division (Reality Labs) is still burning cash like there’s no tomorrow. With all of the usual caveats — we never really know why any stock does anything — here are a few possible reasons:

TikTok sale or ban: Though it’s taken a back seat after President Trump signed a 75-day delay via executive order, the potential sale/ban of one of Meta’s chief rivals for American doomscrolling could be propping up the stock. On Sunday, Trump said the US was talking to four different groups about the potential sale of TikTok.
The fundamentals: Meta crushed its earnings, posting Q4 revenue that was up 21% and net income that had risen 49%.
Tariffs: Companies like Amazon, Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, and Broadcom all sell more physical stuff and rely on complicated global supply chains, which could be impacted by the escalating US trade wars. Meta’s core money-spinner remains digital advertising, which might be indirectly affected — advertisers from China might be less likely to buy an Instagram ad if they face tariffs on any goods they sell, for example — but would potentially avoid the direct hit of escalating tariffs.
AI monetization road map: As my colleague Jon Keegan put it, this year is all about hitting a billion Meta AI users. Next year will be all about monetizing them.
Endless efficiency era: Zuckerberg has been ruthlessly focused on keeping his workforce lean, with the company reportedly planning to fire 5% of its workforce this year. Indeed, on a “profit-per-employee” metric, Meta ranked second behind Nvidia.
Political cover: After cozying up to the new administration, investors might be expecting a more favorable regualory landscape over the coming years — with Meta successfully stopping legislation “that would have regulated social media for the first time” in December 2024, per Politico.

Tasha Matsumoto

18h

Tech drags down stocks; gold and silver plummet

Gold and silver sank amid Trump’s plans to nominate reputed inflation hawk Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair.

Public sculptures along the Clear Creek Trail in downtown Golden, Colorado.

Ben Walsh, Luke Kawa19h

Gold and silver plunge, suffering their worst losses since the 1980s

Gold and silver suffered their worst losses in decades on Friday, with the iShares Silver Trust falling more than 30% at one point during afternoon trading before recovering slightly.

After recently crossing $5,000 per ounce for the first time, gold’s dip was relatively muted compared to silver’s rout, but nevertheless eye-watering for a traditional safe haven asset. At one point, gold’s intraday dip exceeded 10%, its worst intraday drop since the 1980s and surpassing its declines seen during the 2008 financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

Silver’s drop was its worst in percentage terms since 1980.

Gold, and particularly silver, have been pushed higher recently by a storm of retail trader enthusiasm for the metals, as well as more traditional drivers of precious metals such as geopolitical risks and concerns over a fall in the dollar’s value due to trade wars and possibly waning central bank independence.

Leveraged ETFs that hold gold and silver futures have become increasingly popular trading vehicles amid the parabolic moves in precious metals prices, and likely contributed to the magnitude of the unwind today.

Case in point: look at silver futures for delivery in March. That’s the dominant contract held by the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF, which offers exposure to 2x the daily move in the shiny metal. Volumes exploded (and the contract rebounded modestly) right around 1:25 p.m. ET, which is when silver futures settled and around the time the ETF performed its daily rebalancing (which in this case, involved massive selling).

Max Knoblauch23h

Gaming stocks plunge following release of Google’s AI tool that can create playable, copyrighted worlds

Shares of major gaming companies are plunging on Friday as investors get a deeper look at the capabilities of Google’s new generative-AI prototype, Project Genie.

The tool allows users to “create and explore infinitely diverse worlds” with a text or image prompt. Users have already exposed its ability to realistically recreate knockoffs of copyrighted games from Nintendo and other gaming companies.

As users experiment with recreations of game worlds like Take-Two’s “Grand Theft Auto 6,” shares of major gaming companies are sinking. Unity Software, the maker of the popular Unity game engine, is down over 25%, while gaming platform Roblox is down about 9%.

D-Wave Quantum CEO on what’s next after the most eventful month in the company’s history

“If 2025 was the international year of quantum, 2026 is the international year of D-Wave Quantum,” said CEO Dr. Alan Baratz.

Luke Kawa1/30/26

Matt Phillips1/30/26

SoFi bests Wall Street’s Q4 expectations, shares rise

SoFi Technologies reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and earnings-per-share numbers Friday before market open, sending the shares higher in the premarket.

The online lender reported:

Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.13 vs. the $0.12 consensus estimate collected by FactSet.
Adjusted revenue of $1.01 billion in Q4 vs. the Wall Street forecast for $977.4 million.
Q1 2026 adjusted net revenue guidance of approximately $1.04 billion vs. the $1.04 billion consensus expectation, according to FactSet.

SoFi shares rallied roughly 70% last year, as the company’s growing menu of financial products — including trading, wealth management, mortgages, credit cards, and cryptocurrency trading — showed signs of gaining traction beyond its traditional base of student borrowers. But the stock has stumbled in early 2026, falling nearly 7% in January through Thursday’s close, though most of that slump seems to have been reversed this morning.