Markets
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Nia Warfield

Spotify tanks after posting surprise Q2 loss, weaker-than-expected Q3 outlook

Spotify shares fell over 7% in premarket trading Tuesday after the audio streamer swung to a loss for the second quarter and gave a lighter-than-expected Q3 outlook.

The company reported a loss of 0.42 euros (~$0.49) per share, while Wall Street had expected profit of 1.97 euros (~$2.27) per share. Revenue came in at 4.19 billion euros ($4.8 billion), missing analysts’ estimates of around 4.27 billion euros ($4.9 billion). 

Monthly active users climbed 11% to 696 million, the second-highest Q2 MAU count in the company’s history and beating expectations. Premium subscribers also grew 12% to 276 million, topping Wall Street’s expected 273.4 million and prior company guidance of 273 million. The combination of higher-than-expected users and lower-than-expected sales pushed average revenue per user among premium subscribers lower for the second straight quarter.

That trend seems poised to continue: for Q3, Spotify expects total MAUs to hit 710 million, ahead of the 707 million analysts anticipated. But it’s guiding for revenue of 4.2 billion euros, coming in short of the 4.48 billion euros expected by the Street. Foreign exchange fluctuations — notably, the strength of the euro versus the US dollar to date in 2025, even after yesterday’s massive bout of weakness following the US-EU trade deal — are a big factor behind Spotify’s lackluster revenue outlook.

Spotify has been focused on improving margins and moving toward consistent profitability, but the company took on higher payroll taxes than expected during Q2 as well as a change in its revenue mix.

Spotify shares were up 53% year to date ahead of the report.

“Currency headwinds and underwhelming 3Q gross margin guidance may be disappointing for Spotify, but we believe they are short-term noise that shouldn’t overshadow the tailwinds,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior industry analyst Geetha Ranganathan wrote.

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Tasha Matsumoto
23h
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 Kawa

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 Knoblauch

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%.

Collision 2019 - Day One

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
markets
Matt Phillips

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.

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