CE 100 Index Loses 4.1%, Led by Snap’s Post-Earnings Plummet

Earnings drove the CE 100 Index lower this past week — and almost all segments were under water, so to speak, as markets swooned amid the specter of a slowing economy.

Eat Segment’s the Lone Positive Performer

Only one pillar of the CE 100 Index posted a positive return, as the Eat segment gathered 6.3%. Within that group, DoorDash shares gained 11.9%.

As reported at the end of the week,  in the latest quarter, total orders rose 19% year over year and revenue was up 23%.

“We’re seeing really strong demand on the consumer side,” CEO Tony Xu told analysts on a conference call. “So, we’re not actually seeing some of the challenges that you may be hearing about or reading about in other headlines… We’re still in the early innings of the move towards digital and the overall omnichannel experiences that every restaurant and retailer is participating in.”  The company’s earnings release showed that marketplace total dollar value of orders (GOV) gained 20% to $19.7 billion.

Also, within the Eats segment, Olo shares surged 9.3%. The company reported second-quarter earnings that indicated total revenue increased 28% year-over-year to $70.5 million, and total platform revenue increased 27% year-over-year to $69.6 million.

The company’s supplemental materials showed that active locations grew 7% year over year to 82,000. Average revenue per unit was up 19% year over year to $852.

PayPal shares gathered 6.3% in the Pay and Be Paid segment of the CE 100 Index, where the overall group slipped 2.7%. In PYMNTS’ coverage of the latest quarter’s results,  we noted that the firm reported a total transaction volume of $403.9 billion in Q2 2024, marking an 11% year-over-year increase. PayPal’s overall net revenues rose by 8% to $7.9 billion. Venmo processed over $73 billion in total payment volume, up 8% from the previous year, with monthly active users growing by 5% to nearly 62 million.

Meta’s stock was 4.8% higher.  During the company’s latest earnings,  the tech giant’s Family of Apps revenue, which includes revenue from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, came in at $38.72 billion, higher than estimates of $37.7 billion, surging from the  $31.7 billion in Q2 2023.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed AI with a nod to a “single unified recommendation system” powering all content across Meta’s services. On the advertising front, Zuckerberg predicted that AI would eventually generate personalized ad creative, allowing advertisers to simply specify business objectives and budgets, with Meta’s AI handling the rest.

Communications Pillar Plunges on Snap Revenue Miss

But Snap shares plunged 29.8%, leading the communications segment of the CE 100 Index down an eye-popping 11.4%. The company posted results on Thursday that noted 850 million monthly active users in Q2, while daily active users (DAUs) rose 10% during the quarter to 432 million. New features like editable chats, Map emoji reactions, and My AI reminders were introduced to enhance user communication. Content engagement surged, marked by a 12% increase in global viewers and a 25% rise in time spent watching.

Revenue climbed 16% year-over-year to $1.2 billion, driven by a 16% increase in Direct Response advertising revenue, with the total active advertisers more than doubling year-over-year. Brand advertising revenue, however, slipped 1% due to reduced demand in some sectors. But the top line missed analysts’ estimates, and the shares plunged after the latest report.

The Shop pillar of the CE 100 Index lost 7.9%, as Pinterest shares skidded 22.5%.  This past week, the company reported that it rose 21% year over year, reaching $854 million.

“We’re driving further actionability across Pinterest by launching features that allow users to move further along in their shopping journeys and take action on what they see,” CEO Bill Ready told analysts on a call. “In doing so, we more than doubled the number of outbound clicks we sent to advertisers year over year for the third quarter in a row.”

Amazon shares lost 8%. As reported here, net sales climbed 10% year over year to $148 billion, bolstered by a 19% surge in AWS sales to $26.3 billion.   “While consumers are being careful on price, our North American unit growth is meaningfully outpacing our sales growth as our continued work on selection, low prices and delivery has resonated so far this year,” CEO Andy Jassy told the company’s Q2 earnings call.  Revenue growth, according to projections, is set to slow in the current quarter to about 8% to 10%, as management noted on the call.