Facebook drops 2% in opening trade amid renewed selling

Facebook shares are facing fresh selling on Thursday after Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive finally spoke publicly about the Cambridge Analytica debacle that has thrust the social network into its worst crisis as a public company.

Shares in the Silicon Valley tech company fell 2 percent at the market open to $166.11. The move more than offsets a 0.74 percent rise on Wednesday that left shares at $169.39.

The fall came as investors digested comments by Zuckerberg, in which he admitted that the company made mistakes, but was seen by some as insufficiently apologetic.

Some critics saw the billionaire’s comments as insufficient to end the storm of bad press that has consumed Facebook after reports that data of 50m users were used by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy hired by the Trump presidential campaign.

Shares are down 10.4 percent on the week, including Thursday’s pre-market trade. That would represent the worst weekly drop in four years, according to FactSet data.

Before the scandal emerged, Facebook had been a Wall Street high flier. Its shares have surged 558 percent in the past five years compared with 75.4 percent for the broad S&P 500.