3 ETFs May Bear The Brunt Of Meta's Decisions, From Layoffs To Price Cuts

Meta Platforms Inc NASDAQ:META is on a roller coaster revolving around opposition to its metaverse ambitions.

On March 2, Democratic senators urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt the release of its Horizon Worlds metaverse app to teens ages 13 to 17.

The senators highlighted a flaw in Messenger Kids that allowed users to bypass the app's age restrictions and Meta's failure to stop ads for tobacco, alcohol and eating disorders from targeting teens. The senators also emphasized data collection on face and eye movement, physiological damage and exposure to abusive behavior.

The Meta Timeline: Meta has already spent billions building out the metaverse. In 2022 alone, the company spent $15.9 billion on its Reality Labs division. 

On Monday, Meta reportedly slashed the price of Quest Pro to fend off competition from Apple Inc's NASDAQ:AAPL upcoming MR headset launch. 

The same day, it was reported that Meta iss planning to terminate thousands more employees based on financial targets. In November, the Facebook and Instagram parent let go of 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce.

Arete analyst Richard Kramer downgraded Meta Platforms to Sell from Neutral on Monday.

Meta saw some redemption Tuesday, when the company higlighted its milestone of reaching 2 billion daily active users and issued an update on its progress in AI endeavors.

The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund NYSE:XLC, Fidelity MSCI Communication Services Index ETF NYSE:FCOM, and IShares Global Comm Services ETF NYSE:IXP have an exposure of 12%-21% in the stock. The ETFs gained between 0.85% -1.74% last week.

META Price Action: Meta shares were trading down 1.61% at $181.99 Thursday afternoon.

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