Facebook Inc. has racked up plenty of milestones in its pioneering journey. Now the social-media giant is poised to add one it would doubtless rather avoid: the biggest stock-market wipeout in American history.
That could happen Thursday if the 24% tumble in Facebook’s stock in after-hours trading is replicated in the regular New York session. Its market capitalization plummeted late Wednesday, July 25, at one point by about $151 billion, as sales and user growth disappointed investors. A move of that magnitude on Thursday would likely be the largest ever loss of value in one day for a US-traded company.
The following is a look at some of history’s other notable one-day share slams, considering American firms that were worth at least $150 billion in any year over the past decade.
Back in the depths of the tech bust, Intel Corp. lost about $91 billion on one September day in 2000. Exxon Mobil Corp., already reeling from the financial crisis and recession in October 2008, lost $53 billion one wretched Wednesday that month. And the slowest profit growth at Apple Inc. in 10 years triggered a loss of almost $60 billion on January 24, 2013.
Facebook ended the after-hours session down 20 percent at $173.50, a loss of about $126 billion in market cap, having declined as much as 24 percent earlier. — Bloomberg

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