Snap’s Earnings Had a Filter—But the Market Saw Through It
Snap’s decision to withhold Q2 guidance sends shockwaves through Wall Street, highlighting growing fears over digital ad spending and economic uncertainty.

Snap Inc. just gave Wall Street a wake-up call. On Wednesday, shares of the social media company cratered more than 15%, rattling investors and sending ripples across the tech sector. The trigger? A bold move to withhold second-quarter guidance—an omission that spoke louder than numbers. Snap’s leadership pointed to macroeconomic uncertainty and looming headwinds in the advertising market as the reason for holding back. The message was clear: turbulence is coming, and they’re not ready to map out the storm.
This isn’t the first time Snap has faced skepticism from the market, but this particular decline wasn’t about failure to perform—it was about fear of what’s next. Even though Snap reported a 14% jump in revenue year-over-year, reaching $1.36 billion, and cut its quarterly loss nearly in half, investors couldn’t ignore the silence on future expectations. Growth, it seems, is no longer enough. What Wall Street wants now is visibility, and Snap’s silence was deafening.
CEO Evan Spiegel and CFO Derek Andersen were on the defensive during the earnings call, signaling that a complex web of macro pressures—namely, weakening advertiser sentiment and the end of the de minimis exemption—are already starting to bite. That exemption, which expires this week, previously allowed goods under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free, a loophole that many e-commerce brands exploited to avoid tariffs. Now, with tariffs tightening and Trump’s trade rhetoric turning up the heat again, digital advertisers—particularly from overseas—may pull back on spending. Snap is feeling that pressure first.
Ad revenue still managed to grow by 9% year-over-year, hitting $1.21 billion in the quarter. That’s no small feat in a fragile economy where companies are tightening marketing budgets and watching every dollar. But the tone from Snap was cautious, almost defensive. “We believe it is prudent to continue to balance our level of investment with realized revenue growth,” the company said in its shareholder letter—a statement that reads like a preemptive excuse for slowing down.
